The Government of Uganda (GoU) has been actively advocating land reform and
modernization, as demonstrated in the National Development Plan 2010-2015 and
other official documents. With the adoption of these policies, there has been a rise
in contentious relations between different actors within society, and while
widespread violence has been kept in check, reports of small-scale violence over
land continues, and dissatisfaction with government land policy exacerbates land
tensions and the potential for larger-scale violence remains a serious potential
threat. The research questions explored in this article are: in what ways and through
which strategies does the GoU attempt agenda setting on land policy and economic
modernization, and what are the limitations of this approach? The basic thesis of
this article is that underlying the GoU’s efforts at land reform and modernization
of the agriculture sector is a belief that state-led policy implementation can drive
the changes in culture and lifestyle amongst the rural peasantry that will catapult
Uganda into a “modern” society within a generation. Yet, because of the very
nature of the government as a quasi-democratic state with extensive presidential
authority and inconsistently applied rule of law, its primary imperative is
maintaining power. The rule of law and implementation of land policy remain
secondary to the perceived needs of political expediency. Hence, the GoU’s
policies of modernization as well as its inability to relieve societal and political
tensions related to land are undercut by its own political ambitions.