Land ownership in Uganda has to-date remained a contentious issue, affecting mainly women and children in the rural villages. Although Article 31 (1) of the 1995 constitution provides for land equity for all persons, women have remained the most deprived, discriminated and have been denied rights to own land both ancestral, before marriage, in marriage and out of marriage.
The 1995 constitution, provides two land administration systems namely, the traditional system, which is governed by customs and norms of given communities, and two, the centralized statutory system governed by written laws.
But unfortunately, all these have not supported women to own land traditionally and yet over 70% of women in Uganda are engaged in Agriculture, mainly food production which is the backbone of the country’s economy and less than 20% of them have control over their agricultural output; whereas nationally, only about 17% of the women own land in their own right through purchase.
This means that a majority of women, especially in the rural areas have continued to painfully suffer discrimination and poverty, both in marriage and in their ancestral homes. And this is due to cultural norms and lack of effective laws that deny women to own land.
Given this background, the Women, through their Platform of Women’s land rights movement (WLRM) organized a three day National conference to discuss, share ideas and find solutions to challenges that have continued to block and deny women from owning land as an acceptable right. The WLRM was born in 2010 with the aim of enhancing the quality of life of women in Uganda through tenure security.
The National Conference, a second of its kind, was held under the theme, “attaining 30% of registration of land rights for women by 2025, it brought together government ministries, civil society organizations and the academia that have a component of land in their work and those whose core mandate is on land.
The conference also reflected on the previous minimum demands, allow rural women to interact and share experiences with the elite and urban women to allow them have a common voice on the land rights issues and as well rejuvenate women’s movement on land nationally.
At the conference, speaker after speaker all shared experiences and statements that call for the need for women and the girl child to equally own land like any other persons. The Ministry of lands together with the Ministry of Gender labor and social development recognize the importance of Women issues, including the rights and rights to own land and inherit property.
The Ministry of lands revealed that a national gender strategy on land has been developed to address women land issues, especially owning land in and out of marriage.
The conference enabled women to share experiences on how they are deprived of their rights to own land including inheriting property. These now say it is high time the law is revised, including cultural laws, especially customary norms and practices scrapped to allow them inherit and own land as an overall right.
Customary laws, especially cultural norms have for a long time deprived women from exercising their rights to own land, which leaves them, discriminated and treated as possessions especially in marriage where they are only discarded after use. Women are now tired of these backward discriminatory laws, which must be scrapped to allow women exercise their rights and own land freely.
