For generations, families in the Lango and Karamoja sub-regions have lived and farmed on land passed down through ancestors, land marked not by deeds or titles, but by memory, tradition and trust.
But today, these lands are the epicenter of a quiet but deeply destructive crisis. Between 2022 and 2025, more than 1,000 land-related grievances were reported in northern and eastern Uganda, according to a new report by the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU).
Working in partnership with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and with support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the organization has documented a troubling surge in land conflicts, especially around areas targeted for investment in forestry, green energy and mining.
“Customary land rights holders are the most vulnerable,” said Dr Theresa Auma, executive director of LEMU, at a press briefing in Kampala over the weekend.
“Because their land isn’t formally documented, they’re often coerced or tricked into selling it cheaply, leaving entire families dispossessed.”
LEMU’s investigation spans across Lango, Teso, Acholi and Karamoja, sub-regions historically reliant on customary land systems. Using tools such as early warning hotlines, conflict hotspot mapping, and investor compliance trackers, the study reveals a troubling disconnect between promises made and realities delivered.
The report’s central theme is “Preventive Legal Empowerment,” a proactive approach that encourages communities to assert their land rights before conflict takes root. “We want communities to engage with investors and local authorities from a place of knowledge and legal empowerment,” Auma explained.
“Too often, legal support only comes after damage has already been done.”
INVESTMENTS OR INVASIONS?
According to the report, land-based investments in Uganda are often touted as engines of economic growth. But for many rural communities, they have become a source of trauma and exploitation.
The study focuses on three major types of investment: Forest-based projects in Dokolo (Lango) and Serere (Teso); Green energy initiatives in Nwoya (Acholi); and Mining ventures in Moroto and Amudat (Karamoja), and Pallisa (Teso).
What these projects share is a disturbing pattern: land is acquired without fair compensation, environmental degradation is rampant, and local labor—often including children—is exploited.
“Community members are asked to grow cassava for factories that never materialize,” said Dr. Doreen Kobusingye, a legal researcher involved in the project.
“We’ve documented multiple cases where farmers were promised payment or market access, and then abandoned.”
In some cases, workers suffered disabling injuries or fatalities on sites with no safety protocols. Many never received compensation. Others were simply dismissed when they raised concerns.
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN
The research team deployed compliance tools to track whether investors lived up to their obligations—both oral and contractual. The findings were grim.
“Most promises made by investors were not fulfilled,” said Kobusingye.
“And because there’s little to no follow-up from government authorities, communities are left with little recourse.”
In the absence of state accountability, LEMU’s community-based approach has stepped into the vacuum. Their model arms citizens with legal tools and awareness, transforming potential victims into proactive defenders of their rights.
REAL PEOPLE, REAL LOSS
In Amudat, a group of pastoralists reported losing grazing land after it was leased to a mining company without their consent. In Teso, dozens of women were displaced when their farmland was quietly sold to a green energy investor.
In Lango, entire families now depend on charcoal burning after their fields were bulldozed for reforestation schemes they weren’t consulted about. The emotional toll is heavy. The economic fallout is worse.
“These are not abstract policy failures,” Auma said. “These are lives uprooted. Children withdrawn from school. Families torn apart. Elders dying without ever understanding how the land they once owned became someone else’s property.”
The article has not captured the
disputes and land grabbing situation in Kotido where the Jie tribe is based.
There is need for documenting the state of communal lands due to government land acquisitions, forced migrations, mining and wildlife, grazing and water rights and civic boarders/statutory maps to be relied upon.