The official mailo tenancy has burdened the Bamugereire land probe commission from the very beginning of its investigation. The mailo land tenure itself both official and private were a creation of the law over 100 years in the 1900 Buganda Agreement and the Land Law of 1908. The intention of the creation of this tenure system was not for the benefit of Ugandans but was a foreign document structured to put in place an Indirect Rule System of Colonial Administration by creating a class of local collaborators who would receive special treatment in return for helping to maintain law and order in the Uganda colony.
With this objective, the 1900 Agreement created a class of a landed gently that was to exist by the grace of the colonial masters and was to find it in its own interest to be loyal to the colonial masters. The Agreement therefore parceled out pieces of land to entire Baganda ruling structural hierarchy from the Kabaka who was not treated any different from other chiefs, to the lowest chiefs. The higher the hierarchy, the more mailo was parcelled out to that individual.
The 1908 Land Law divided the mailo tenancy into two categories. The official mailo which was under the control of the Chief controlling the area under his chieftancy and the private mailo which was personal in perpetuity. Thus all the chiefs from Kabaka down to Saza, Gombolola and other officially recognised chieftains simultaneously controlled both official and private mailo. Kabaka Daudi Chwa controlled both the official mailo of 350 sq. Miles and the personal private mailo of 101 sq. Miles. Apollo Kaggwa in addition to the official 16 sq. Miles of Katikiroship official mailo, had another 124 sq. Miles. Other chiefs similarly held both official and private mailo. According to Sir Harry Johnstone the first colonial administrator of Uganda and the architect of the 1900 Agreement, the mailo tenure system created, “a practical attempt to establish on a social basis a ruling oligarchy which under the British guidance, might do for Buganda what the landed aristocracy had done ….to give stability to the government of England.” He further observed that the Mailo Landlord structure would “cause the interests of the Baganda people to become thoroughly identified with the support of the British Protectorate.”
The Mailo landlord class had by 1908 been successfully created with land as the basis of the communality of interest between the mailo landlords and the colonial rulers in upholding colonial law and order.
Control over the land gave the mailo landlords control over the producers on the land and levied Busuulu, Nvujjo and free labour known as Luwalo. Through this system of of control over the means of production, the Baganda mailo landords rendered complete royalty to the British Control over Buganda. Thus with their deficit in manpower filled by the Baganda Mailo Landlords, with only five colonial officials, the colonialists managed to effectively control the entire Buganda Kingdom, the first province of the Uganda Protectorate.
The British Colonial Rule over Buganda having thus been secured, through these mailo landlords, the British now used this very mailo land class to act as the vanguard in consolidating the colonial control over the rest of Uganda. In return the mailo landed class received a share of the spoils. Large areas of most of Northern Bunyoro were incorporated into the Buganda Kingdom as a gift from the colonial masters for a job well done. In addition, Baganda Mailo landlord Chiefs were appointed in many of the conquered areas to establish the colonial administrative apparatus.
By 1926, the British control over the whole of Uganda Protectorate was complete. The colonialists turned to reducing the power of the mailo landlord chiefs. This was accomplished by separating the control of the official mailo from the same landlord chieftains who was controlling his own private mailo. The initial step was to cause the resignation of Apollo Kaggwa and dismissed all the landlord chiefs who since 1900 had the dual control of both the official and private mailo.
The new appointed chiefs were all put on salary and made transferable to different chieftain areas. They thus lost control over the official mailo, and thus left without any independent political base. By 1928, they were no longer a class of chieftain landlords but were reduced to an intermediary State bureaucracy – a collaborating class that was dependendant on and identified with the colonial state. It was during the same period that the power of the mailo landlords over control of the peasant bibanja holders on their land was also reduced with the introduction of the the Busuulu and Nvujjo law which gave security of tenure to the bibanja holders.
After 1928, with the chiefs now on salary and transferable, the colonial administration put in place a statutory body known as the Buganda Land Board to administer all the official mailo. This was the first official body to administer public land in Uganda, later on the Public Land Commission was established to administer land for the whole of Uganda Protectorate.
The 1962 Independence Constitution recognised Buganda Kingdom as a Federal administrative unit and left the public land in Buganda to continue to be administered under the Buganda Land Board subject to Public Accountability of the Administrator General of Uganda whose report is submitted to the Parliament of Uganda on an Annual basis thus securing Public Accountability of official mailo to the people of Uganda.
After 1967, Uganda was ruled under a Republican Constitution. Uganda became a unitary state administered under a central unitary government. Te Federal administrative unit structures of the 1962 Independence Constitution had been swept away by the 1966 successful revolution. There was therefore no Federal unit of administration to manage public land in the Central province which had previously been under the federal unit Buganda Land Board. The 1967 Constitution transferred this public land (official mailo) to the administration of the Uganda Land Commission like all public land in the country. The Constitution specifically provided for accountability of all benefits directly accruing, incidental to, or consequential upon official mailo to be publically accounted for. Parliament was enjoined to put in place an enabling Act to give effect to this public accountability. The Auditor General was in his annual report to Parliament to include a scrutiny on this issue to ensure the sanctity of accountability on public land. The people of Uganda have since 1967 applied to the Uganda Land Commission and to their sub-bodies the urban controlling authorities and obtained leasehold titles on this public land and enjoy security of tenure under the law.
The Private Mailo was preserved under the 1967 Republican Constitution. It should be noted that the 1900 Agreement which had provided for the grant of mailo titles to about 1000 chiefs, by the time the allotment was completed in 1909, over 3,700 Title holders had been registered. By 1926, these had multiplied to some 10,000 Private Mailo Land titles deeds. The Landlords who had lost their control over the official mailo were responsible for this quick multiplication because they started selling their mailo to maintain their lavish lifestyle. They became professional rentoes per excellence and created the first land market in Uganda where land could be sold freely like any other commodity. Todate, millions of Ugandans hold mailo land private mailo land titles, a few of them holding them by virtue of inheritance but the vast majority have obtained mailo land title through willing buyer, willing seller basis, paying their hard earned cash. Some of these private mailo titles are as small as a few decimals. Apollo Kaggwa with 134 sq. Miles or Sir Daudi Chwa’s personal private mailo grant of 101 sq. Miles have all disappeared through this system of willing buyer, willing seller on a public land market originally started by the original chief mailo landlords.
In 1975, the Land Reform Decree abolished the private mailo which had been preserved under the 1967 Constitution and converted it into Public Land under the administration of the Public Land Commission. Also abolished along with it, was the Busuulu and Nvujjo law which was protecting and regulating the relationship between Bibanja Holders and Private Mailo owners. There was therefore no mailo anymore and no bibanja anymore. All Ugandans would apply to the Public Land Commission and obtain leasehold from the Public land.
In 1995 a new Constitution was promulgated by the people of Uganda. It restored the private mailo or simply mailo, without restoring the Busuulu and Nvujjo law which guaranteed the security of tenure of the bibanja tenants on the private mailo. The 1995 Uganda Constitution, restored the private mailo tenure. The official Mailo was always Public Land and therefore not touched by the constitutional restoration of the private mailo. Given that the 1995 Constitution had already provided for the right of Ugandans to convert their customary holding or leasehold holding to freehold, the restoration of the Private mailo was superfluous – Freehold and Mailo are synonymous terms.
Thus the traditional rulers (Restitution of Assets and Properties) Act of 1993 was a nullity. Traditional Rulers in Buganda only held private mailo, which for most part they have sold over the years. The official mailo as defined, in the (Restitution of Assets and Properties) Act never belonged to the Traditional rulers. Official mailo as demonstrated has always been public land for the ordinary people who did not share in the private mailo land grabbing of 1900. It would be of great historical injustice of an imaginable proportions to take the little that remained as public land for the ordinary people and be given to those who had already squanded their huge estates of hundreds of sq. miles received in the 1900 private mailo bonanza.
The Bamugereire Land Probe as they write their report must be aware that for years now the Buganda Land Board Ltd a private company with one shareholder has assumed mandate over official mailo. Whereas in 1966, the Buganda Federal Administrative unit served notice to the Central government to quit the Buganda soil, currently, the Buganda Land Board Ltd is reported to be giving marching orders to the Government of Uganda installations like local government offices to quit the official mailo unless it complies with their conditions. Whereas after the 1900 Agreement Mailo Bonanza, the mailo landlord chiefs levied Busuulu, Nvujjo, Luwalo etc from the peasant/kibanja holders on the mailo, today the Buganda Land Board Ltd is collecting heavy dues in obligatory bibanja registration exercise. Huge amounts in fees in terms of extending leaseholds, granting leaseholds, validating leaseholds originally granted by the Public Land Commission, receiving claims of compensation from the government of Uganda – government paying for its own land! It is a sad day for Uganda that during this time and age, a private company with a single shareholder can hold management of a public asset and obtain a private benefit without any iota of a Public Accounting structure in place.
The situation of the Bamugemereire Land Probe Commission can be said to be similar to those of the people of Southern Italy in Europe during the time of Napoleon Bonoparte held power in Europe. The people of Southern Italy sent a message to Napoleon Bonoparte for help out of their situation. His reply was “tell the people of Southern Italy that my name is Napoleon Bonoparte and I feel the responsibility of that name. Repeat to them that my name is Napoleon Bonoparte”. Read the Bamugemereire Commission mutatis mutandis with Napoleon Bonoparte and the analogy is complete. Cognizant of its heavy responsibility, will the Commission make a finding on the spectacle of Buganda Land Board or will it, in view of the snake in a cooking pot assumed dilemma of BLB Ltd on the Uganda scene, sacrifice principle at the altar of expediency! “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” As the Bamugemereire Commission prepares to lay its heavy burden down – perhaps with relief – the country holds its breath.
Sam Mayanja
Senior Partner
Kampala Associated Advocates
Email: smayanja@kaa.co.ug
Website: www.kaa.co.ug
