By Karim Were
The Government has unveiled a nationwide initiative to establish a Comprehensive Government Land Inventory (GLI), a major reform aimed at safeguarding public land, strengthening land governance, and improving the management of state-owned assets.
Speaking at the Uganda Media Centre, the Minister of State for Lands, Hon. Harriet Ntabazi, said the programme, spearheaded by the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the Uganda Land Commission, will create a single, verified record of all government land across the country.
The initiative seeks to identify, survey, document, and legally secure land occupied by public institutions, including schools, hospitals, security installations, administrative offices, road reserves, forests, wetlands, and other strategic infrastructure.
According to the Minister, the inventory is designed to address longstanding challenges arising from incomplete land records, fragmented documentation, and the absence of formal land titles for many public facilities. These gaps have exposed government land to encroachment, fraudulent titling, ownership disputes, costly litigation, and compensation claims that have delayed public projects.
The Uganda Land Commission estimates that government land accounts for approximately 23 percent of Uganda’s total land area. However, only about 26.16 percent of this land has been formally titled, leaving a significant portion vulnerable to illegal occupation and competing ownership claims.
Hon. Ntabazi said the programme marks a shift from reacting to land conflicts after they occur to preventing them through proactive planning, comprehensive documentation, and effective land management.
Beyond protecting public assets, the Government expects the inventory to improve planning for infrastructure development, enhance transparency in land administration, strengthen coordination among government institutions, and reduce expenditure associated with land-related disputes.
The inventory will also consolidate land records currently scattered across ministries, departments, agencies, local governments, and the Uganda Land Commission into a unified national database, providing government with a reliable reference for managing public land.
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Government says the Comprehensive Government Land Inventory forms part of broader efforts to strengthen accountability in public asset management and ensure that land reserved for public services is preserved to support Uganda’s long-term socio-economic transformation.
