The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has successfully completed a major clean-up of the land register in Mukono Municipality, restoring order and safety in land transactions. This exercise, which focused on Blocks 190, 193, and 530 in Kyaggwe County, aimed to remove overlapping and fraudulent land titles that had been a long-standing issue in the area.
Hon. Judith Nabakooba, the Minister of Lands, confirmed in a press release that the clean-up was part of the Ministry’s wider mission to ensure proper land management, sustainable land use, and safe housing development across the country. She noted that for many years, the Ministry operated using a manual registration system, which had many weaknesses. One of the biggest problems was overlapping land titles, especially in areas that had grown into urban centres, such as Mukono.
The problem in Mukono started during colonial times when new town blocks were created on top of original mailo land blocks, without considering the existing land titles. This resulted in double allocations and confusion, which criminals later took advantage of to defraud the public and even financial institutions.
To fix this, the Ministry selected Mukono Municipality as a pilot area for the clean-up project. All transactions on Blocks 190, 193, and 530 were stopped while the Ministry carried out investigations and public consultations. Public notices were published in newspapers, and hearings were held with landowners and their representatives. After months of hard work, the Ministry identified a total of 1,237 titles that were overlapping or fraudulently issued. These titles have now been cancelled.
Minister Nabakooba happily announced that the land register for these three blocks is now clean and accurate, and transactions on them can now safely continue. She assured the public that this clean-up shows the Ministry’s commitment to building a trustworthy and well-organized National Land Register.
She also thanked the public for their patience during the exercise and praised the Ministry staff, especially the team in Mukono’s Ministry Zonal Office (MZO), for their dedication. She also appreciated the top management of the Ministry for providing guidance and support throughout the process.
The clean-up is a big step forward in fighting land fraud and building trust in Uganda’s land system. With this success in Mukono, the Ministry is expected to expand similar efforts to other urban areas facing the same problems.
