Assessing the impact of issuance and use of certificates of customary ownership in mitigating land conflicts in Katine subcounty Soroti District
Abstract
The study investigated the impact of issuance and use of cetificates of customay owneship in
mitigating land conflicts in Katine subcounty, Soroti District. The CCO is intended to
formalise customary land tenure through documentation, and its issuance and regulation is
mandated to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD). The issuance
of CCO, which started after the enactment of the National Land Policy in 2013, has been
supported through pilot projects undertaken mainly by the Civil Society Organisations
working in collaboration with local governments and the MLHUD. The report provides an
analysis of the procedures and capacities of institutions issuing Certificate of Customary
Ownership of land, how CCO has impacted security of land tenure by reducing land conflicts
in relation to the bundles of land rights, including rights of use, access, ownership, sale,
decision making on the land and rights of transferring and inheriting land. The objectives of
the study were; to determine the causes of land conflicts in Katine sub county, investigating
the different resolution mechanisms available to the people for resolving conflicts and
determining the magnitude of resolved conflicts using certificates of customary ownership.A
cross-sectional design was used. A cross-sectional survey which was useful in obtaining
quantitative information and the method was suitable for descriptive study as well as for
determining relationships between and among variables. Since this was an impact study, with
and without were used.
An accessible population of 180 participants was identified from which a sample of 60
participants was selected and used. A response rate of 74% was obtained from which the key
finding was a positive significance of people who knew about the certificates of customary
ownership and those that had applied for them and the conflicts that had been resolved using
the CCOs. Based on the key findings, the following are concluded:certficates of Customary
ownership have helped in reducing the occurrence of land conflicts in Katine sub county and
have also secured peoples rights on land and have also made known the different rights that
people have on their land,land ownership permits the primary owners all use rights, consensual
decisions are based on family or clan ties with fewer female members (widows) legally
recogni. Formal agreements on customary land should be encouraged by the Lands department
at the District. Further studies on Presidential directives, population pressure and land value
appreciation and land conflicts should be undertaken.