Assessing the challenges facing land ownership in Uganda a case of titled land.

Abstract

Land disputes and conflicts are part of the definition of contemporary Uganda infested with evictions on registered land, land grabs, encroachments, and disputes over rights of way. Additionally, many provisions in the Land Act and the Constitution have never been formulated. All in all there is a lot to be done to improve security of titled land. The research identifies the process through which land is owned and titled, the challenges faced in holding titled land and measures of harmonizing and mitigating these challenges in Uganda. A quantitative approach was used to measure the responses of the target population towards the challenges in ownership of titled land in Uganda and a qualitative approach was used to describe the attitude and behaviour of the respondents towards the current state of ownership of land in Uganda. The target population comprised of valuation surveyors, land surveyors and Registrars of Title. 77% of the respondents have encountered challenges dealing with titled land and 23% haven’t. Additionally, 77% of respondents said the land titling process is neither fair nor transparent. Disputes over boundaries, encroachments and land grabs are cited as the most outstanding challenges that perhaps need more attention. The challenges faced in ownership of titled land are majorly caused by; Ignorance of clients on land related services which brings about exploitation, corruption and fraud of officials in land offices in Uganda, poor supervision of land by land owners among others.