Minister: Land tenure uplift project ‘unique’

Jerry Silaa, the Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development minister, made this remark yesterday when handing over 16 vehicles priced at 2bn/- intended to reduce car rental costs in supervising implementation of the project.

The project is expected to be a lasting solution to the country’s land sector bottlenecks, by mapping out and planning the best use of land in cities and rural areas, while providing title deeds to land occupants, he said.

It is aimed at strengthening the national land administration system and improve tenure security especially for women landholders, he stated, noting that the five year project will cost $150m (346bn/-) extended by the World Bank.

Handing over the vehicles to the project coordinators here yesterday, the minister said the 16 vehicles will facilitate speeding up implementation of the project, focused on improving land holding in urban and rural areas, instructing the project coordinator to properly utilise the vehicles to achieve intended goals.

Anthony Sanga, the permanent secretary, said the 16 vehicles are part of a 59 vehicles consignment expected soon, placing the price of each vehicle at 129.9m/-. The vehicles will be dispatched to various supervising areas, he said

LTIP project manager Joseph Shewio said that delivery of the vehicles will be a big relief in implementing the project, cutting down on car rental challenges.

He went over the project components as planning the use of land in each district, setting up 25 office buildings, straightening village boundaries, identifying cemetery areas and set out locations for other infrastructure.

“Through this project, everyone will have their own customary title deeds and it is given free of charge,” he said, affirming that by this year's end 700 villages will have been covered, while so far 540 villages have been reached.

There are also 660 parts of villages or settlements in 36 urban and rural district councils, with the project hiring 700 people from various regions so far, he said.

Officials say that historically the country has grappled with issues such as unclear land boundaries, lack of formal land titles and disputes over land occupancy entitlement.

These challenges are exacerbated in rural areas where customary land rights prevail, often without formal recognition, leaving communities vulnerable to land grabs and conflicts, they say.

Moreover, rapid urbanisation has put additional pressure on land resources, leading to increased land conflicts, insecure land tenure for urban poor and challenges in urban planning, officials assert.