Civil Works worth Shs. 24 Billion Commissioned

The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Judith Nabakooba has commissioned civil works projects in Kamwenge District worth 24 billion shillings.

The projects, funded by the World Bank are for the refugee community in the area.

Among them includes a sports facility, resource centers, upgraded roads, all that are expected to support the refugees and the host communities to live peacefully with a better quality of life.

Close to 700 freehold titles have also been distributed to households’ courtesy of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) program funding to urban centres.

“As we commission completed civil works projects, they stand as a testament to our commitment to fostering social cohesion between our communities and the refugees we host as Kamwenge district,” says Nabakooba.

The program has also extended support to 10 others because of hosting large numbers of refugees in order to improve physical planning, get land tenure security, and also enjoy using some static infrastructure investments like playfields, resource centers, markets, market sheds and roads.

A special component of the USMID Project considers the strengthening of Security of Tenure on account of the fact that due to ignorance of Land Tenure Systems.

It is known that the communities that directly border refugee settlements and those that host the refugees were ignorantly and increasingly losing out security on their own land, where many residents were selling their land out rightly to refugees, and subsequently getting poorer and poorer and even getting displaced on their own land.

It is with this background that the USMID Project, under the Security of Tenure Component brought up the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAAC), so that the communities are provided with freehold certificates of titles to ensure that the land laws are followed, but above all that the land owners have their rights secured.

Apart from transacting with foreign third parties, the freehold certificates of titles offer possibilities to the holders to access credit from various Financial Institutions and thereby empowering them financially.

The distribution brings to total 797 titles distributed to the owners in Kamwenge after 23 were issued in 2021.

Relatedly, initially 1,208 parcels were mapped to receive the titles, however, a number of files are still undergoing remedial actions because some of them were duplicated applications, others had more than one applicant, but some joint applicants had not signed the forms. Others belong to institutions that have not yet provided certificates of Incorporation, and a few had no National Identity Cards.

“I wish here to urge my Ministry team to expedite the process of these remedial actions and have the certificates that can be processes accomplished as soon as possible”, remarks Nabakooba.