Mailo

Last updated

Mailo is a unique form of land tenure in Uganda. Around 9 per cent of the country's land is held under the mailo system, which is similar to freehold. It was set up by the 1900 Buganda Agreement. Idi Amin then made all land publicly owned, and the 1995 Constitution of Uganda reintroduced mailo.

History

In the 1900 Buganda Agreement, the Uganda Protectorate (part of the British Empire) granted the Buganda Kingdom land because it had helped the colonisers conquer the country. [1] [2] The Bugandan aristocratic class was awarded land parcels broken up into plots of square miles, hence the name "mailo". These parcels came with farmers in situ, therefore the mailo system produced private owners for customary land, whilst the tenants continued to work the land. In 1928, amendments were made to give the tenants more rights. [2]

After the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état, all land was made publicly owned following Idi Amin's 1975 Land Reform Decree. In theory this destroyed the mailo system, although little was done in practice. [2] Under the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, mailo was reintroduced and land can have four forms of ownership: mailo (official or private), customary, freehold or leasehold. [3] Tenant rights were then boosted by the 1998 Land Act and its 2010 amendment. [2]

Mailo ownership of registered land means holding title to it in perpetuity and thus it is similar to freehold. Mailo exists in western and central Uganda, with an estimated 9 per cent of the land mass being owned in this way. [1] The mailo system is unique to Uganda. The Kabaka Mailo was land given to the king which is now owned by the Buganda Land Board. Official Mailo was land given to certain officials and it is now also owned by the Buganda Land Board. Private Mailo was land given to around 1,300 people and institutions such as churches between 1900 and 1908. This land is still owned privately, complete with longstanding tenants, and confusion over the differences between owner and tenant rights has led to conflicts. [4] Bukerere is one place where land is still owned by mailo. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uganda</span> Country in East Africa

Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region, it lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied equatorial climate. As of 2024, it had a population of around 49 million, of which 8.5 million live in the capital and largest city, Kampala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kampala</span> Capital and the largest city of Uganda

Kampala is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Rubaga Division.

The history of Uganda comprises the history of the people who inhabited the territory of present-day Uganda before the establishment of the Republic of Uganda, and the history of that country once it was established. Evidence from the Paleolithic era shows humans have inhabited Uganda for at least 50,000 years. The forests of Uganda were gradually cleared for agriculture by people who probably spoke Central Sudanic languages.......

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idi Amin</span> President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979

Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.

Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior feudal lord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Obote</span> Ugandan prime minister and president (1925–2005)

Apollo Milton Obote was a Ugandan politician who served as the second prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and the second president of Uganda from 1966 to 1971 and later from 1980 to 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protectorate of Uganda</span> British protectorate in Africa from 1894 to 1962

The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the British government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Uganda (1963–1971)</span>

The history of Uganda from 1963 through 1971 comprises the history of Uganda from Ugandan independence from the United Kingdom to the rise of the dictator Idi Amin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land tenure</span> Legal regime in which area owned by an individual is held by another person

In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individuals. It determines who can use land, for how long and under what conditions. Tenure may be based both on official laws and policies, and on informal local customs. In other words, land tenure implies a system according to which land is held by an individual or the actual tiller of the land but this person does not have legal ownership. It determines the holder's rights and responsibilities in connection with their holding. The sovereign monarch, known in England as the Crown, held land in its own right. All land holders are either its tenants or sub-tenants. Tenure signifies a legal relationship between tenant and lord, arranging the duties and rights of tenant and lord in relationship to the land. Over history, many different forms of land tenure, i.e., ways of holding land, have been established.

<i>Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976</i> Act of the Parliament of Australia

The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (ALRA) is Australian federal government legislation that provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. It was the first law by any Australian government that legally recognised the Aboriginal system of land ownership, and legislated the concept of inalienable freehold title, as such was a fundamental piece of social reform. Its long title is An Act providing for the granting of Traditional Aboriginal Land in the Northern Territory for the benefit of Aboriginals, and for other purposes.

Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important intersection of property and contract law. Encumbrance on the land rights of one, such as an easement, may constitute the land rights of another. Mineral rights and water rights are closely linked, and often interrelated concepts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Uganda</span>

Human rights in Uganda have trended for the past decades towards increasing harassment of the opposition, cracking down on NGOs which work on election and term limits, corruption, land rights, environmental issues, womens, children and gay rights. In 2012, the Relief Web sponsored Humanitarian Profile – 2012 said Uganda made considerable developments Since at least 2013 the Freedom in the World report by Freedom House has identified Uganda as a country considered to be "Not Free".There are several areas of concern when it comes to human rights in Uganda, and the "Not Free" classification is due to both low political rights and civil liberties rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amuria District</span> District in Eastern Uganda, Uganda

Amuria District is a district in the Eastern Region of Uganda. The town of Amuria serves as the district headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Uganda</span> Supreme law of Uganda

The Constitution of Uganda is the supreme law of Uganda. The fourth and current constitution was promulgated on 8 October 1995. It sanctions a republican form of government with a powerful President.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993</span> Act of Parliament in New Zealand

Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 is a statute of the Parliament of New Zealand to "reform the laws relating to Māori land in accordance with the principles set out in the Preamble". These principles "reaffirm" the Treaty of Waitangi "relationship between the Māori people and the Crown" and "recognise that land is taonga tuku iho of special significance to Māori people". To that end, the principles "promote the retention of ... land in the hands of its owners, their whanau, and their hapu, and to protect wahi tapu". Further, they "facilitate the occupation, development, and utilisation of that land for the benefit of its owners, their whanau, and their hapu".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baganda</span> Bantu native to Buganda, Uganda

The Baganda also called Waganda, are a Bantu ethnic group native to Buganda, a subnational kingdom within Uganda. Traditionally composed of 52 clans, the Baganda are the largest people of the Bantu ethnic group in Uganda, comprising 16.5 percent of the population at the time of the 2014 census.

The Abrahams Commission was a commission appointed by the Nyasaland government in 1946 to inquire into land issues in Nyasaland. This followed riots and disturbances by tenants on European-owned estates in Blantyre and Cholo districts in 1943 and 1945. The commission had only one member, Sir Sidney Abrahams, a Privy Counsellor and lawyer, the former Attorney General of the Gold Coast, Zanzibar and Uganda, and the former Chief Justice, first of Uganda and then Ceylon. There had been previous reviews to consider the uneven distribution of land between Africans and European, the shortage of land for subsistence farming and the position of tenants on private estates. These included the Jackson Land Commission in 1920, the Ormsby-Gore Commission on East Africa in 1924 and, most recently, the Bell Commission on the Financial Position and Development of Nyasaland in 1938, but none of these had provided a permanent solution. Abrahams proposed that the Nyasaland government should purchase all unused or under-utilised freehold land on European-owned estates, which would then become Crown land, available to African farmers. The Africans on estates were to be offered the choice of remaining on their current estate as paid workers or tenants, or of moving to Crown land. These proposals were not implemented in full until 1952. The report of the Abrahams Commission divided opinion. Africans were generally in favour of its proposals, as were both the governors in post from 1942 to 1947, Edmund Richards, and the incoming governor, Geoffrey Colby. Estate owners and managers were strongly against it, and many European settlers bitterly attacked it.

Jehoash Ssibakyalyawo Mayanja Nkangi or Joash Mayanja Nkangi was a Ugandan lawyer, civil servant and politician. At the time of his death, he was the immediate past chairman of the Uganda Land Commission. He previously served as a cabinet minister in several ministries in the Cabinet of Uganda.

Godfrey Serunkuma Lule is a Ugandan lawyer. He was Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda for Idi Amin and defected, becoming a prominent international critic of Amin. He went on to found the prominent Ugandan Law and Consulting firm Sebalu & Lule Advocates and Legal Consultants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squatting in Uganda</span>

Squatting in Uganda is the occupation of derelict buildings or unused land without the permission of the owner. The complicated history of land tenure has generated conflicts between squatters and owners.

References

  1. 1 2 Stickler, M. Mercedes (2012). Governance of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Uganda: The role of the Uganda Investment Authority. World Resources Institute.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ali, Daniel; Duponchel, Marguerite (2018). Shortcomings to overlapping land rights and a way forward: the case of Mailo land in Central Uganda. World Bank.
  3. ↑ What the law says on evictions. Kampala: Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. 2017.
  4. ↑ The Private Mailo Tenure System. Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). 2019.
  5. ↑ "Bukerere, the virgin area with investment potential". Daily Monitor. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.