DO WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS TO INHERIT CUSTOMARY LAND ?

Florence Lalam, a 34-year-old widow in Arut village was one of the 469 women who attended the Legal Empowerment of Women Using Technology and Innovation (LEWUTI) sensitization at Adonai Primary School, Paicho Subcounty in Gulu district. Arut is 353 kilometers (a 6-hour drive) from the capital city of Uganda, Kampala.

“I was happy with the sensitization you held in July. It tackled an issue that directly affected me- land. In the early years, our kwari (clan heads) gave my family land to live and farm on but when many of them died in the war,” Lalam narrated. 

CUSTOMARY RULES AND THE PROPERTY RIGHTS

Customary rules when it comes to land governance play a major role in determining women’s land and property rights.

The law (Constitution and Land Act) emphasizes that both women and men are equal before the law and so decisions that even concern land that are made should be done with utmost fairness, relevance and equality. 

WOMEN

The 2004 and 2010 amendments to the Land Act provide further protection for spouses by giving them the right to security of occupancy on family land. Security of occupancy means a right to have access to and live on family land and give or withhold his or her consent to any transaction, which may affect his or her rights.

CHILDREN

When it comes to children, the law emphasizes that the need to ensure that there are special protections for orphans and other vulnerable children like children who are dependents. This means that children cannot be chased from the house they resided in and where they get food from such as a farm. 

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