Women's Land Rights And Security Of Tenurein Uganda: A Case Study Of Eastern Uganda Mbale District

ABSTRACT

The study was to examine the women's land 1ights and tenure secmity in Uganda case study of Eastem Uganda Mbale distJict. The study objectives included to examine legal

frame work of women's land rights and tenure secmity in Uganda, the challenges faced while enforcing women's rights and tenure security in Uganda in Mbale district and the

mechanisms for the protection of women's rights and land tenure security in Uganda in Mbale district. The study was an entirely book review research that involved an

assessment of the already existing legal framework.

The study findings were that women's access to land largely depends on marriage while in the case of children; it can be on attainment of age of majority. The study also

observed that most of the women's rights and land tenure security reside in rural areas where discriminatory women's rights and land tenure security practices on land

ownership are observed in total disregard of more protective statutory land laws.- This discrepancy in the de jure and de facto protection of women's rights and land tenure

security to access land renders them vulnerable and subject to abuse of their rights through implementation of these cultural practices. The vulnerability women's right s

and land tenure secmity in East em Uganda to having their right to access land abused is heightened in the course of their attempts to retum home. This is because the conflict

resulted in more women based and child-headed households, who, under Mbale district women's rights and land tenure security land practices, do not ordinarily hold land as

culturally, heads of households are male existing legal and institutional mechanisms that ought to have helped these women's rights. Women's rights and land tenure security to the people through decentralization 111 Uganda only serves to reinforce the patriarchal notion that land belongs to men than

empowering women to enjoy their rights and control the use of land. Women are willing to forego their rights to land if only the mode of ownership can secure their children's future. It also implies that this kind of access and control over land will only work if the woman had children within this relationship which obviously doesn't direct translate into the woman's land. It remains a challenge to contemporary scholarship to

find out whether the absence of the wide spread demand for land by women indicates absence of their need for land. The study recommend for the effective implementation of the legal framework in order to improve the state of the women land rights

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION ............................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL ........................................................................................................ ii

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. iii

ACKNOWLGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATION ............................................................. v

TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................. vi

ABSTRACT .................................................................................. ix

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... l

1.0 Introduction ....................... : .......................................... I

1.1 Background of the study ............................................................................................. I

1.1.1 Rationale of the study .............................................................................................. 3

1.2 Statement of the problem ............................................................................................ 4

1.3 General Objective ....................................................................................................... 5

1.3.1 Specific objectives of the study ............................................................................... 5

1.3 .2 Research question .................................................................................................... 5

1.4 Research Methodology ............................................................................................... 5

1.5 Scope of the study ....................................................................................................... 6

1.5.1 Content scope .......................................................................................................... 6

1.5.2 Geographical scope .................................................................................................. 6

1.5.3 Time scope ............................................................................................................... 6

1.6 Significance of the study ............................................................................................ 6

CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................ 8

LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................................. 8

2.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8

2.1 The Legal frame work establishing the women's land rights and tenure security in

Uganda .......................................................................................................... 8

2.1.1 Constitution ofUganda ............................................................................................ 8

2.2 Uganda National Land Policy ..................................................................................... 8

2.3 The 1998 Land Act ..................................................................................................... 9

2.4 The Legal Framework for Women's Land Rights .................................................... IO

2.5 The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 91995 as amended in 2004) ............... 10

2.6 Women's rights in the Land Act, 1998 (Cap 227) ................................................... 13

2.7 Women in Land Administration in the Land Act, 1998 (Cap 227) .......................... 15

2.8 Marriage laws and women's land rights ................................................................... l8

2.9 Succession Laws and Women's Land Rights ........................................................... 20

2.10 Land tenure fi·amework .......................................................................................... 22

2.1 0.1 Classification of land tenure regimes .................................................................. 22

2.1 0.2 Policy Statement (a) Land will be categorized as private ................................... 23

2.1 0.3 Women's rights and land tenure security tenure ................................................. 23

2.1 0.4 Mailo tenure and native freehold tenure .............................................................. 25

2.1 0.5 Freehold tenure .................................................................................................... 27

2.1 0.6 Leasehold tenure .................................................................................................. 27

2.11 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 29

CHAPTER THREE ........ : ............................................................................ : ................ 30

MECHANISMS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND LAND

TENURE SECURITY IN DGANDA IN MBALE DISTRICT ................................ 30

3.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 30

3.1 The mechanisms for the protection of women's rights and land tenure security in

Uganda in Mbale District ............................................................................................... 30

The legal regime ............................................................................................................. 30

3.2African Regional Legal Regime ................................................................................ 33

3.3 Domestic Legal Regime ........................................................................................... 35

3.4 The Land Act Cap 227 as amended by the Land (amendment act 2004 .................. 36

3.5 Doctrine of Family Land .......................................................................................... 37

3.6 Purchaser of Family Land ......................................................................................... 38

3.7 Mortgages on Family Land ....................................................................................... 38

3.8 Succession Laws ....................................................................................................... 40

3.9 Local Council Courts ................................................................................................ 41

3.10 Traditional Structures ............................................................................................. 42

3.11 Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) and its efficacy in ensuring access

to land ......................................................................................................... 43

3.12 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 44

CHAPTER FOUR: ....................................................................................................... 45

DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION ............................................................. 45

4.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 45

4.1 The challenges faced while enforcing women's rights and tenure security in Uganda

in Mbale district. ............................................................................................................. 45

4.2 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 50

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 52

5.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 52

5.1. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ................................................................................... 52

5.2 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 53

5.3. Recommendations ................................................................................................... 54

5.4. Areas ofFmiher Research ....................................................................................... 58

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 59