The Minister of State for Lands, Hon Harriet Ntabazi, has warned political leaders, civil servants and technical officers against grabbing government land, saying the government will cancel illegally acquired titles and reclaim public land.
Minister Ntabazi said the government is undertaking a comprehensive inventory, surveying and titling of its land across the country to establish its exact acreage, boundaries and ownership.
She made the remarks on Thursday while officiating at the opening of a Kigezi Sub-region stakeholders’ workshop on the development of a comprehensive government land inventory organised by the Uganda Land Commission in partnership with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development at Cephas Inn Hotel in Kabale Municipality.
Minister Ntabazi cautioned people occupying government land illegally to voluntarily vacate before enforcement action is taken. She said government land, including land occupied by health centres, police facilities, district headquarters, markets, schools, road reserves and other public institutions, must be protected from encroachment and illegal transactions.
Minister Ntabazi said the absence of proper records and titles for some government land had created opportunities for unscrupulous individuals to claim public property.
She said government would establish boundaries, obtain survey plans, determine acreages and ensure that public land is put to its intended use.
Minister Ntabazi also criticised government employees who occupy institutional land for long periods before claiming ownership, saying some had turned government premises into permanent homes.
She said the Ministry of Lands would also conduct an inventory of staff accommodation to establish how public land is being occupied.
Minister Ntabazi urged civil servants to use their earnings to acquire private land rather than relying on government land for housing.
The minister also warned land officers involved in creating fraudulent and multiple titles that government was closing in on them.
She said some officials within the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development knowingly issue multiple titles on the same piece of land despite existing records showing the rightful ownership.
She said the government was strengthening land information systems to prevent fraudulent transactions and improve the integrity of land records.
“Some MZOs are doing this while knowing that this plot of land has a title in the names of Harriet Tibabazi, but they put another person’s name on top of it,” she said.
She said the malpractice had in some cases resulted in two, three, four or more titles being issued for the same piece of land.
She warned that security personnel and investigators were being deployed to monitor land offices and apprehend officials involved in fraudulent transactions.
“We are coming. We are on our way. By the time we tell you that we are coming to your MZO, the team is already with you,” she said.
The minister added that some officers deployed to monitor suspects could operate undercover as ordinary clerks, security guards or other workers.
“We are not going to allow the Ministry of Lands, which has been named the most corrupt, to continue like that,” Ms Ntabazi said.
She said corruption in the lands sector undermines government development programmes and forces taxpayers to repeatedly pay for land that the state already owns.
She said the government land inventory should provide reliable information to guide planning, budgeting and infrastructure development rather than become another document kept on shelves.
She said government needs to know the land it owns before undertaking projects such as road expansion, upgrading health centres, establishing new administrative units, developing refugee settlements and providing land for commercial and agricultural activities.
“Land is required for development. When we lose land as government, we shall buy. But by buying, we are using taxpayers’ money,” she said.
She said government agencies, including the National Planning Authority and Uganda Land Commission, should work together to secure land in advance for planned development projects.
Minister Ntabazi said road reserves and land required for future infrastructure should be identified and protected before projects begin to avoid costly compensation disputes.
According to the minister, government owns about 23 per cent of the country’s total land, underscoring the need to protect the resource from illegal acquisition.
The inventory exercise, she said, covers land occupied by schools, hospitals, police facilities, military installations, forests, wetlands, health centres and district headquarters.
She said the exercise was launched in July and began with training national-level leaders and technical officers before being rolled out to different regions.
The minister urged district land boards, sub-county leaders and other stakeholders to provide accurate information to help establish ownership and boundaries of public land.
“This is not simply a workshop. Workshops ended long time ago,” Ms Ntabazi said, urging stakeholders to use the engagement to identify challenges and provide information that can help government protect its land.
She said the exercise is intended to achieve five key objectives: knowing the land government owns, documenting it, protecting it, planning for it effectively and responsibly managing it.
Minister Ntabazi urged political leaders and communities to work together to protect government land, warning that grabbing public land denies future generations access to essential services.
“By stealing or fuelling the thieves, by giving out land or legally occupying land, you are denying your child a chance of getting better services,” she said.
She said the government could not protect public land from Kampala alone and called on political leaders, civil servants, technical officers and communities to take responsibility for safeguarding government assets.
Minister Ntabazi also cautioned people occupying wetlands against illegal activities, saying government would enforce laws protecting environmentally sensitive areas.
She further criticised some district land boards for allegedly failing to work closely with technical teams and for approving transactions involving land that does not belong to purported owners.
“Do not think you are there in your own land and that you can do whatever you want. You are not above the law,” she warned.
The minister also urged district technical officers, town clerks, land officers, physical planners, surveyors, natural resource officers, political leaders and journalists to ensure accurate information about public land reaches relevant authorities.
She said districts should establish accurate inventories of government land instead of waiting for the Ministry of Lands or Uganda Land Commission to identify problems.
Minister Ntabazi, however, reassured lawful landowners that the government’s land-protection exercise was not intended to dispossess people who had acquired land legally and in good faith.
“Those who have your own land that you purchased in good faith, government is not interested in that. And government is not interested in customary land,” she said.
CUE IN MIN NTABAZI…ON GOV’T LAND…ENG//
