III. The impact of the Land(Amendment) Bill, its shortcomings and alternative suggestions As I will show below, much of this current critique is correct, whereas other parts are ill­founded since they are ignorant of the present legal situation. This part of the paper is divided into two sections, one concerning bona fide and lawful occupants and the other concerning the provisions on customary land. In each section, I will give an overview of the current provisions, analyse the problems of current law, and the impact of the amendment and finally make some alternative policy suggestions as to how to improve tenure security and foster development in Uganda. 1. The Land(Amendment) Bill and the problem of bona fide and lawful occupants a) Legal situation of bona fide and lawful occupants in history, under current law and under the proposed amendment The major legislations governing the land tenure system today are the 1995 Constitution and the 1998 Land Act(Cap. 227). Further, the Registration of Titles Act(Cap. 205) is pertinent in many cases. The Constitution and the Land Act recognise four systems of tenure, namely customary, mailo, freehold and leasehold. Further they both guarantee security of occupancy of so-called bona fide and lawful tenants living on registered mailo, freehold or leasehold land(Article 237(8) and(9) Constitution and Section 31(1) Land Act). Most lawful and bona fide occupants are occupants of so called mailo land situated in Buganda. Before colonisation, most of this land was controlled by the Kabaka who assigned it to his bakungu and batongole chiefs 23 . It was occupied under a semi-feudal system by peasants who had to pay tribute to the chief or work for him 24 . In the 1900 Agreement Buganda land was distributed between the British Protectorate Government and the Kabaka, the royal familiy and some thousand chiefs and notables. The Government’s land was called Crown land and the other part became known as mailo land. The local peasants or cultivators ( bibanja holders) who had previously settled on mailo land became tenants who had to pay ground rent(busuulu) and tribute on produce(envujjo) for the crops like cotton or coffee they grew 25 . Over the years, land lords increased their busuulu and envujjo which led to riots and the 23 The rest was owned by heads of clans and sub-clans( bataka) under customary law and by some individuals, cf. Justice Odoki, The Report of the Uganda Constitutional Commission(1992). 24 Ibid. 25 Rugadya, Land Reform: The Ugandan Experience(1999), p. 4. 8