"Uganda's presidential hopefuls campaign on promises of better land rights"

As candidates canvass for votes in Uganda's Feb. 18 presidential election, contenders are promising sweeping reforms to resolve land conflicts, one of the country's hottest political issues. Elton Joseph Mabirizi, an independent candidate hoping to unseat President Yoweri Museveni, says he would set up a tribunal to settle land conflicts, particularly in the north of the country, where millions have been displaced by an insurgency, and in western oil frontier districts...

Many people returning to their land in northern Uganda, after an insurgency by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army drove them into camps, are still struggling to secure rights to their land. Last year, angry women stripped naked before government officials to protest against plans to demarcate new border boundaries on their land. They said it was a plan to give part of the land to an investor, a claim the government denied...

The discovery of mineral resources in these areas has contributed to a rise in land values, attracting speculators and investors seeking to acquire huge chunks of land with small offers of compensation to the owners. "It's about the will to implement laws that make it difficult for the rich and powerful to acquire land from the poor without compensating them," said [Edmond Owor, who heads the Uganda Land Alliance]. "That is what the political powers are not addressing."