Role of local council courts in resolving land disputes: a case study of Mukono Municipality, Uganda
| dc.contributor.author | Gloria Teta | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-09-02T06:07:44Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-09-02T06:07:44Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026-06-05 | |
| dc.description | Undergraduate | |
| dc.description.abstract | Land conflicts are one of the perennial governance issues in peri-urban Uganda.They have been exacerbated in Mukono Municipality by a fraudulent titling process that forced the Ministry of Lands to cancel hundreds of titles, with many residents having insecure land rights and lacking effective institutional support. Local Council (LC) Courts are the most easily available governance forum for common people to resolve land disputes; however, their functions within the wider context of local governance and community empowerment have not been well researched in the Mukono setting. The study investigates the contribution of the LC Courts in resolving land disputes in Mukono Municipality from 2019 to 2026 in three aspects of governance namely; awareness of land rights to the community, community dialogue forum about the land dispute and accountability in land governance. A qualitative research design was employed and the method of research was Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA). Systematic identification, selection, appraisal and analysis of 22 documents. These included national land governance policy documents, reports from Uganda Land Alliance and LEMU, publications from the Ministry of Lands, records from Mukono District Local Government, academic research on land tenure and community governance in Uganda, and civil society assessments of the performance of LC Courts. All sources were free and accessible and evaluated based on Scott's (1990) criteria of authenticity, credibility, representativeness and meaning. Thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) was used to analyze the data with the assistance of NVivo 14, a qualitative data analysis software. Documentary evidence demonstrates the role of LC Courts as ‘meaningful but limited governance’. Their locally established processes are publicly visible and raise awareness of land rights but this awareness is less systematic and is not reaching the most vulnerable, especially women and elderly citizens. They create opportunities for community discussions that are based on local knowledge and social networks, but these are not necessarily inclusive: disadvantaged groups can be excluded by power differentials and gender norms. They claim to hold accountable members of the local government but this is in ix theory rather than in practice because of political interference and the lack of mechanisms for communities to hold members of government to account. The study finds that the community dialogue role plays the best part in land dispute resolution in the LC Courts and the least effective in cases involving strong parties in land disputes where accountability is required. The study calls for organized civic education programmes to be integrated with LC Court proceedings, gender responsive governance trainings for LC officials and introducing community accountability mechanisms to enhance accountability. Abstract: The study aims to investigate how the implementation of Local Council Courts influences land disputes in Uganda, specifically in Mukono Municipality. Research Objectives: The study aims at investigating the influence of the implementation of the Local Council Courts in the resolution of land disputes in the Municipality of Mukono, Uganda. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12311/3589 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Uganda Christian University | |
| dc.title | Role of local council courts in resolving land disputes: a case study of Mukono Municipality, Uganda | |
| dc.type | Dissertation |