Assessing the impact of issuance and use of certificates of customary ownership in mitigating land conflicts in Katine subcounty Soroti District

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of issuance and use of cetificates of customay owneship in mitigating land conflicts in Katine subcounty, Soroti District. The CCO is intended to formalise customary land tenure through documentation, and its issuance and regulation is mandated to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD). The issuance of CCO, which started after the enactment of the National Land Policy in 2013, has been supported through pilot projects undertaken mainly by the Civil Society Organisations working in collaboration with local governments and the MLHUD. The report provides an analysis of the procedures and capacities of institutions issuing Certificate of Customary Ownership of land, how CCO has impacted security of land tenure by reducing land conflicts in relation to the bundles of land rights, including rights of use, access, ownership, sale, decision making on the land and rights of transferring and inheriting land. The objectives of the study were; to determine the causes of land conflicts in Katine sub county, investigating the different resolution mechanisms available to the people for resolving conflicts and determining the magnitude of resolved conflicts using certificates of customary ownership.A cross-sectional design was used. A cross-sectional survey which was useful in obtaining quantitative information and the method was suitable for descriptive study as well as for determining relationships between and among variables. Since this was an impact study, with and without were used. An accessible population of 180 participants was identified from which a sample of 60 participants was selected and used. A response rate of 74% was obtained from which the key finding was a positive significance of people who knew about the certificates of customary ownership and those that had applied for them and the conflicts that had been resolved using the CCOs. Based on the key findings, the following are concluded:certficates of Customary ownership have helped in reducing the occurrence of land conflicts in Katine sub county and have also secured peoples rights on land and have also made known the different rights that people have on their land,land ownership permits the primary owners all use rights, consensual decisions are based on family or clan ties with fewer female members (widows) legally recogni. Formal agreements on customary land should be encouraged by the Lands department at the District. Further studies on Presidential directives, population pressure and land value appreciation and land conflicts should be undertaken.