Lands minister blasts government officials over fake land title racket

What the report says

State minister for lands Harriet Ntabazi has renewed her criticism of officials she says are involved in fraudulent land titling and encroachment on public property, using a regional workshop in Mbale to warn that action will be taken against those grabbing government land. According to Watchdog Uganda, she made the remarks at a stakeholders’ meeting at Mbale Resort Hotel tied to a national effort to create a comprehensive inventory of state-owned land.

The workshop brought together leaders and officials from the Bugisu, Teso and Bukedi sub-regions, along with representatives from the Uganda Land Commission and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. The programme, launched in July, aims to identify, survey and digitally register public land across the country. Ntabazi urged officials to stop treating public land as private property and said land should instead be acquired through lawful channels.

Watchdog Uganda reported that Ntabazi linked the problem to wider weaknesses in land administration, including scattered records and a system that can be exploited for fake or multiple titles. She has raised similar concerns before, including at a workshop in Kigezi where she accused some lands officers of issuing competing titles over the same property.

Local leaders at the Mbale meeting also raised land disputes in their districts, including a road issue near Bulucheke Health Centre IV in Bududa and broader land-management challenges in Namisindwa. Ntabazi said she would follow up on the health centre dispute, underscoring the continuing tensions around public land, land administration and service delivery in eastern Uganda.