In July 2021, a French court ruled against a group of Indigenous Bunong farmers from Mondulkiri in Northeastern Cambodia. Represented by French Laywer Fiodor Rilov, and with civil society support, the group accused the French Bolloré Group and their subsidiary company, Compagnie du Cambodge (controlled by Socfinasia) of illegal land seizures and the wanton destruction of Bunong sacred forests and their way of life.

Introduction

In May 2021 the Land Portal conducted its fourth Annual Visitor Survey (AVS). The AVS is an important tool to assess impact, track progress and engage with the community, measuring the level of trust across visitors and partners, assessing the alignment with the current strategy, and identifying areas of improvement. With over 380 respondents from 80 different countries, this round of the Annual Survey provided plenty of results, insights, and ideas. The main points are summarised below.

Key Results

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – A team of police detectives attached to the Land Protection Unit, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), and the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) have arrested a senior lands officer, Kiryandongo District Land Board for land fraud that caused a forced displacement of thousands of natives off their land.

THE global launch of a $104 million initiative signals an ambitious effort by a range of partners to safeguard dry lands in the context of climate change, fragile ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and deforestation in 11 African and Central Asian countries.

To most people, acquiring land in Uganda comes with a justified dread of having to navigate a rather tenuous sea of uncertainty regarding what rules they will have to play by, both during and after acquiring property.

The Agriculture Development Corporation (ADC) is involved in a scuffle with residents of Kaskini, Kilifi County.

A report by the Nation on Monday, June 14 stated that the government parastatal is claiming ownership of 900 Acres which the residents state to have been given to them by the government in 2006.

The dispute began in 2014, when ADC laid claim to the land which had been occupied by locals for decades. 

AN agribusiness company, Jatu Public Limited Company is planning to raise 7.5bn/- through an initial share offer due this year with a target to invest in irrigation farming in various crops including maize and sunflower.

Jatu Plc which will sell 15 million ordinary share when its IPO starts in mid July and ends at the
end of the same month this year, has already secured 5,000 acres of land in Kiteto district of
Manyara region where it plans to cultivate maize and sunflower.

Treasury CS Ukur Yatani has boosted President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election pledge to issue titled deeds with a Sh1.5 billion allocating for processing and registration of the documents.

Further, Mr Yatani set aside Sh600 million for digitisation of land registries, a move expected to speed up the processing and issuance of title deeds and a further Sh105 million for the construction of land registries.

Opondo Cathy, (not real name due to the sensitivity of the matter), has never owned even a small radio in her entire life. This is a clear indication that the villager may not be aware of critical developments in the country. And this does not come as a shock, since the first time she heard the news of the COVID-19 in Uganda was when she visited her neighbor who’s 500 meters away from her home, barely a month after Uganda had even registered a first case COVID-19.

Reports of a shortage of land for agriculture in some rural areas are surprising, to say the least. A few years ago it was reported that hundreds of youth in Arumeru District, Arusha Region, were relocating to Kenya because of a lack of farmland in the area.

This state of affairs is surprising because it is quite unusual for rural residents to complain about a shortage of farmland in their areas, where agriculture is supposed to be the mainstay of the local economy.

The launch of the 600 MW Karuma Hydropower Dam has been delayed again. 
The Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UEGCL)  has announced they will now commission the hydro-electric power dam in June next year.
The dam, which was built by Sino-hydro Corporation, and whose commissioning has been extended more than twice, is planned for launch on June 22,  2022.