Drileba’s killing over land was senseless
Highlights
- The Arua District Health Officer, Paul Bishop Drileba was killed over land wrangle in Ajia Sub-county in Arua district by mob
- He had gone with a team of Surveyors and Lawyers to demarcate the farmland he purchased in September in Ajia. Issue of land ownership was at play
- The mob pounced on him with pangas, spears and arrows, killing him in the bush
By Atiku Bernard
When you have the majority of your population living in abject poverty and most of them illiterate and young, these are the situations we are faced with.
Time is coming when these young, poor and illiterate people will start mobbing leaders and taking away anything from them including their lives.
The high school dropout rates in Primary Schools is something we collectively must get concerned about.
When these children drop out of school, the next thing they do is procreation that adds to the population of the poor, malnourished and illiterate people who grow up with little or no parental care.
They are littered all over trading centers, roadsides, in towns and here in Arua City. It’s no longer a time bomb; the bomb is already hissing and in the process of exploding.
Drileba’s case is just one of the many early signs of the gravity of the problem in the West Nile. These guys always want quick money, they don’t care how they get it
Killed: The late District Health Officer, Paul Bishop Drileba who killed by the mob on November 23.
Recently, an MP paid some youths 30,000 to kill us as we went about to try to sensitize the communities about matters such as land and how to use it sustainably.
They acted without a second thought, but they found us better prepared, and we were able to handle them and arrested three of them including their ringleader who was used by the MP.
This is the state of our society, they no longer have time to listen to the voice of reason but only what addresses their immediate short-term challenge of the day’s meal and drinks.
The moment they get one of their likes with the qualifications for an elective position trust me they will overwhelmingly vote their own, we have seen it in the recent past not only limited in politics but across any setting.
The murder of Dr Paul Bishop Drileba in cold blood over land must set us thinking of finding lasting solutions.
Also Read: Lower Vurra: From food basket to food casket – West Nile Press
The land question
Our challenge as a country is having good ideas on paper rather than in action, our Constitution in Article 237 is clear by stating that Land belongs to the people.
It went ahead to direct Parliament to establish an Act of Law to operationalize this particular Article but what has the government done, nothing!
One would expect that the Land Act would be used to ensure that Ugandans are empowered to legally own their pieces of land according to the Constitutional provision and the Land Act but alas.
The loophole that landed our good servant into the unfortunate situation is the failure to implement the provisions in the Land Act. As Arua City Land Board we receive Land Registration Application Forms, and I am amazed with what I see on the application forms.
There are about 4 or 5 different types of application forms.
- Application forms for conversion of customary land into freehold.
- Application forms for conversion of leasehold to freehold.
- Application forms for lease extension.
- Application forms for demarcation and subdivision.
- Application forms for Customary, (very rare and yet should be the most popular) etc.
When you look at these forms of applications it clearly shows that before anyone engages in land transactions there must be proof of ownership. First, as the Customary Owner and this means you need to have a Customary Registration Certificate.
The features on a Customary Registration Certificate indicate that the land is either owned by the community or clan or family not an individual and also shows the size in hectares.
So, in this case when someone is selling to you any land of whatever size you must inquire how he or she acquired that land if there is no legal sign of ownership there’s potential for a problem
According to the Constitution of 1995 Article 237 and the Land Act Cap. 227, one is supposed to first obtain a Certificate of Customary Ownership and then convert the same to Freehold or Demarcate and Subdivide to ascertain the exact size of land for each individual, family or clan having a share in the Customary Land.
But what we are seeing is people agreeing to transact in land that is not yet registered as stipulated in the laws of the country hence these irregularities leading to these barbaric criminal actions.
My opinion is that let the government roll out mass Customary Land Registration and later the individual families, clans or communities can then go ahead and formalize the individual ownership of Leasehold and Freehold where they can engage in land transactions with limited or no problems of ownership and size or boundaries.
We are in a state of Quagmire! Rest in Peace Paul Bishop Drileba.
The writer, Atiku Bernard is former MP Ayivu Constituency and current Chairman Arua City Land Board.
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