Museveni Minister: Here’s what’s wrong with Buganda’s Mailo Land

Junior minister in charge of lands, Sam Mayanja, has explained what government thinks is wrong with the mailo land system and why it must be reformed.

Speaking to reporters at the National Land Information Center in Kampala on September 02, Minister Mayanja delved into issues of possession and ownership.

He also dismissed reports that government had already taken a decision to abolish mailo land.

“It is coming from an uninformed point of view. Government hasn’t published the actual proposals yet. The President only gave his view on Heroes Day and expressed his dissatisfaction with the mailo system,” said Mayanja.

“Amending a law takes a system, from the Department concerned, to the Cabinet Memorandum, to the party caucus, to the first reading in Parliament, second reading third reading.”

Here is what Minister Mayanja thinks is wrong with mailo land:

The only problem with mailo is that you have two owners: you have a kibanja holder in possession, you have a mailo owner who is a legal owner. One has a legal owning, the other is in possession.

The law has given this man with the title the absolute ownership because holding the land title is the final authority of ownership but then in most cases he is not in possession, that is the problem with the mailo and that is the problem which we want to solve.

You have some of these people who are bibanja holders but are in actual possession and because the other one has the legal possession they are subject to eviction.

The laws are there protecting them but we always go around them and people get orders of eviction.

And I have always said that the rent which is a kibanja holder is supposed to pay shouldn’t be taken to be synonymous with the rent of a muzigo, apartment or a house because the two are completely different.