Community Leaders and Land Conflicts in Uganda. Case Study of Nadunget Sub-County Moroto District.

ABSTRACT. The study aimed at examining the role of community leaders in land conflicts in Nadunget sub county Moroto District, Uganda. Specific objectives were, to determine the nature of land disputes in Nadunget sub-county Moroto District, to identify the roles of key actors in land disputes and to establish the underlying factors for the increase in land disputes in Nadunget sub-county Moroto District a study population of 60 respondents was considered and a sample of 52 respondents were interviewed. From the findings Summery of findings, the people herein have continuously been exposed to suffrage from rampant land disputes. Secondly, this study was prompted by the increasing gap in information asymmetry between registered (30%) and unregistered (70%) land in developing countries. The study depicts weaknesses and loopholes in the legal regime, especially due to the fact that customary tenure among other informal tenures is considered a lesser interest. This manifests inconsistence in application of the law and discriminatory practices to the women who are the most users/dependents on customary tenure. It was concluded that land professionals have been instrumental in formulating technical solutions to improve land administration and management systems in every country. With the modernization ofthe information and communications technologies, such solutions become more; powerful, faster, efficient and relatively cheaper. Nowadays, organized poor communities and their networks are already using advanced technologies and systems with little support from land professionals and they find them to be a vital tool. The study recommends urgent need by government, civil society organization and legal entities to come up with programs that will train these institutions like LCCs, ALCs, and DLB, to enable them be fit for purpose and pave way for smooth operation in land matters. Government needs to roll out further training and empowerment of technical personnel like; surveyors, physical planners, land officers especially in the department of land registration. These can be trained on the benefits, use and application of STDM mechanism as a pre-emptive dispute resolution. It is essential to particularly train surveyors on SIDM technical applications in data coverage, capture and interpretation, for instance use of satellite, GPS among others.