BY OUR REPORTER
KATAKWI — In Okore Sub-county, the question is simple and unresolved: How did nearly 5,000 hectares of land held by clans for generations end up titled to one individual?
The figure in dispute is 4,987.5530 hectares, cutting across more than 25 villages. What began as a local contest over boundaries has become a test case for how Uganda’s land system handles customary rights when insecurity, surveys, and leases intersect.
For residents, the land is farms, homesteads, and polling grounds where local council elections have been held for decades.
“We want to know how communal clan land became private property,” residents said. “Who authorised the process, and how did such a huge piece of land end up in the name of one individual?”
Clan elder Choki David Engoorit said “This land belongs to our clans. It is not for one person. We are demanding the recovery of this land to the communities that have occupied it for generations. Our people were displaced by war, but that does not erase our ownership.”
Eighty-four-year-old Aboket Michael traces the fracture to the years of the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] insurgency and Karamojong cattle raids. Families fled. When they returned to Oseep and Aedepus villages, new claims were waiting.
Okore LCII Chairperson Emmanuel Akorimo alleges that in 2012, Uganda Wildlife Authority [UWA] officials, together with John Akubal and Grace Imede, surveyed the area without informing residents. He says that exercise became the basis for a lease processed on Feb. 7, 2019.
LCI Chairperson Aukin Benasio maintains the land belongs to surrounding communities, citing village stamps and electoral records.
Some stakeholders argue the 2012 survey was only to mark boundaries near UWA-protected areas. Residents are not persuaded. To them, the sequence — survey, lease, title — converted communal land into private ownership without consent.
Katakwi LCV Chairperson Geoffrey Omolo says most of the sale and titling processes were completed before his administration took office in 2021.
“I cannot exactly say when the problems surrounding the Okore land started. What I know is that when we assumed office in 2021, the processes concerning the sale and titling of the land had already been undertaken,” Omolo said.
He also questions the mechanics: “It would have been difficult for one individual to complete the transaction without the involvement of other actors.” Omolo has declined to comment further, citing the matter is in court.
“The matter is in court, and I do not want to use my position as District Chairperson to interfere with the judicial process. We must allow the courts to determine the issues before them,” he said. He has appealed for calm.
The dispute has stalled farming and settlement. Residents fear displacement if ownership is not resolved.
The unanswered question:
For Engoorit and others, the issue is institutional, not just personal: How did clan-owned, communally occupied land move through survey and lease to an individual’s name?
“The central question remains unanswered,” residents said. As the case proceeds, they are pressing land agencies for a public account of the process, arguing that transparency is the only way to restore confidence in customary tenure.
Okore residents in Katakwi are asking how 4,987 hectares of clan land was titled to an individual after a 2012 UWA survey and a Feb. 7, 2019 lease. Elders say war displacement did not end ownership. LCV Chairperson Geoffrey Omolo says processes predated 2021.
About the Author
