By Witness Radio team.
Two sub-regions in Uganda (Bugisu and Sebei) are hosting the 9th Annual National Land Awareness Week (LAW), a significant event that starts today, the 25th to 29th of August 2025. It is a landmark event where Uganda’s land and environmental justice struggles will once again meet the country’s policymakers and civil society actors face-to-face, underscoring the importance of communities’ participation.
The Ninth (9th) Annual National Land Awareness Week (LAW) 2025, organized by the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD) in partnership with the Local Governments forming the Bugisu and Sebei sub-regions, Land Actors, and other Non-State Actors led by Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda.
The campaign is running under the theme, “Promoting Land Rights and Sustainable Land Use for Inclusive and Sustainable Development. It’s covering nine districts, including Mbale, Sironko, Bulambuli, Namisindwa, Manafwa, Bududa, Kapchworwa, Kween, and Bukwo.
The LAW 2025 is drawing thousands of farmers, women, youth, and community leaders. The week will provide a rare public platform for citizens to challenge duty bearers, expose injustices, and demand accountability on issues of land rights and environmental conservation, climate justice, and food and nutrition, among others.
Since its inception in 2017, LAW has grown into a national voice for land justice, gaining momentum and making significant progress. From the Apaa land conflict in Acholi to mining abuses in Karamoja, illegal evictions in Central Uganda, and land dispossession of the Batwa in Kigezi, the platform has exposed violations and sparked government action, demonstrating the impact of this growing movement.
Communities now view LAW as both an accountability space and a citizen-driven memory bank, documenting stories of resilience and struggle that too often go unheard.
LAW 2025 will convene state institutions such as the National Forestry Authority (NFA), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD).
These actors will be tasked with accounting for policies, decisions, and practices that affect local communities in both sub-regions, underscoring the importance of holding them accountable.
Planned activities include: community dialogues, mobile legal aid clinics, radio and TV talk shows, and tree planting campaigns, among others.
After traversing all the different Sub Counties in the Bugisu and Sebei sub regions and generating issues from communities, the Political leaders/District Executive Council for the districts of Bugisu and Sebei sub regions, shall convene in Mbale City and hold a sub-regional Joint Council meeting on 29th August 2015 in accordance with Article 178 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and Section 8 of the Local Governments Act CAP. 243 to validate the different land-related issues and pass a joint council resolution to inform Local Government actions, and the LAW 2025 Petition to be presented to the government.
Special focus will be placed on women, youth, and persons with disabilities (PWDs) groups who continue to face disproportionate risks of land dispossession.
Witness Radio is part of the week-long event. It will provide you with updates through live coverage, radio programs, social media posts, and news articles covering a series of activities, including its launch.
