Mailo is a unique form of

land tenure In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...

in Uganda. Around 9 per cent of the country's land is held under the mailo system, which is similar to

freehold Freehold may refer to: In real estate *Freehold (law), the tenure of property in fee simple *Customary freehold, a form of feudal tenure of land in England *Parson's freehold, where a Church of England rector or vicar of holds title to benefice p ...

. It was set up by the 1900 Buganda Agreement.

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

then made all land publicly owned, and the 1995

Constitution of Uganda The Constitution of Uganda is the supreme law of Uganda. The fourth and current constitution was promulgated on 8 October 1995. It sanctions a republican form of government with a powerful President. First constitution (1962–1966) The first co ...

reintroduced mailo.

History

In the 1900 Buganda Agreement, the

Uganda Protectorate The Protectorate of Uganda was a protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1893 the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights of territory consisting mainly of the Kingdom of Buganda to the Brit ...

(part of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

) granted the

Buganda Kingdom Buganda is a Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala. The 14 m ...

land because it had helped the colonisers conquer the country. The Bugandan aristocratic class was awarded land parcels broken up into plots of square miles, hence the name "mailo". These parcels came with farmers in situ, therefore the mailo system produced private owners for

customary land Customary land is land which is owned by indigenous communities and administered in accordance with their customs, as opposed to statutory tenure usually introduced during the colonial periods. Common ownership is one form of customary land ownersh ...

, whilst the tenants continued to work the land. In 1928, amendments were made to give the tenants more rights. After the

1971 Ugandan coup d'état The 1971 Ugandan coup d'état was a military coup d'état executed by the Ugandan military, led by general Idi Amin, against the government of President Milton Obote on 25 January 1971. The seizure of power took place while Obote was abroad attend ...

, all land was made publicly owned following

's 1975 Land Reform Decree. In theory this destroyed the mailo system, although little was done in practice. Under the 1995

, mailo was reintroduced and land can have four forms of ownership: mailo (official or private),

customary Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to: Traditions, laws, and religion * Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom * Norm (social), a r ...

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

. Tenant rights were then boosted by the 1998 Land Act and its 2010 amendment. Mailo ownership of registered land means holding title to it in perpetuity and thus it is similar to freehold. Mailo exists in western and central Uganda, with an estimated 9 per cent of the land mass being owned in this way. The mailo system is unique to Uganda. The Kabaka Mailo was land given to the king which is now owned by the Buganda Land Board. Official Mailo was land given to certain officials and it is now also owned by the Buganda Land Board. Private Mailo was land given to around 1,300 people and institutions such as churches between 1900 and 1908. This land is still owned privately, complete with longstanding tenants, and confusion over the differences between owner and tenant rights has led to conflicts.

Bukerere Bukeerere, sometimes wrongly spelled as Bukerere, is a township in the Central Region of Uganda. The correct phonetic spelling is with two 'e's after the 'k'. Location Bukeerere is in Mukono District, , by road, northwest of Mukono, the headquar ...

is one place where land is still owned by mailo.

References

{{Reflist Land tenure