Land tenure insecurity as a systemic outcome

Uganda’s Mailo land tenure system occupies a paradoxical position within the country’s land governance framework. While constitutional and statutory instruments formally recognise and protect tenants’ occupancy rights, tenure insecurity remains persistent. Lawful and bona fide occupants continue to encounter eviction threats, rent-related coercion, restricted participation in land governance, and limited access to effective remedies. These challenges are not adequately explained by gaps in legislation alone rather, they reflect deeper political, socio-economic, and cultural dynamics. This study conceptualises tenure insecurity as a systemic outcome that emerges from interactions among institutions, power relations, and historically embedded legitimacy claims within the Mailo tenure system. Goal and Objectives: The study analysed how political, socio-economic, and cultural factors influenced tenure security for tenants under Uganda’s Mailo land system. It examined how (i) political dynamics shaped the enforcement of tenant protections; (ii) socio-economic conditions affected tenants’ ability to assert and defend land rights; and (iii) cultural norms, historical claims, and locally recognised legitimacy narratives mediated contestation over land. Methodology: The study employed qualitative methods comprising unstructured interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The analysis followed a thematic coding. Results: Findings showed that tenure insecurity emerged from interacting political, socio-economic, cultural, and historical forces rather than legal ambiguity alone. Overlapping mandates and inconsistent enforcement, Political protection of landowners and intermediaries, Socio-economic vulnerability of tenants, gendered inheritance practices and patriarchal dispute-resolution norms were the cause of insecurity.