Section 41: Non-Citizen Land Lease Rules in Uganda
41.Acquisition of land by non-citizen
(1)Subject to Article 237(2)(c) of the Constitution, a non-citizen may acquire a lease in land in accordance with this section.
(2)A lease of five years or more acquired by a non-citizen shall be registered in accordance with the Registration of Titles Act.
(3)A non-citizen shall not be granted a lease exceeding ninety-nine years.
(4)Subject to the other provisions of this section, a non-citizen shall not acquire or hold mailo or freehold land.
(5)For the avoidance of doubt, any non-citizen who immediately before the coming into force of the Constitution held land as lessee on conversion within the meaning of the Land Reform Decree, 1975 shall be deemed to have continued to hold a lease for ninety-nine years from the first day of June, 1975.
(6)A citizen who holds land under freehold or mailo tenure and who ceases to be a citizen of Uganda, shall by virtue of ceasing to be a citizen, cease to hold land under freehold or mailo tenure and any such tenure shall automatically and without any other legal requirement than this subsection, be converted into a lease for a period of ninety-nine years from the date of that person ceasing to be a citizen of Uganda.
(7)For the purposes of this section, "non-citizen" means—
(a)a person who is not a citizen of Uganda as defined by the Constitution and the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Act;
(b)in the case of a corporate body, a corporate body in which the controlling interest lies with non-citizens;
(c)in the case of bodies where shares are not applicable, where the body's decision making lies with non-citizens;
(d)a company in which the shares are held in trust for non-citizens;
(e)a company incorporated in Uganda whose articles of association do not contain a provision restricting transfer or issue of shares to non-citizens.
(8)For the purposes of subsection (7), "controlling interest" means—
(a)in the case of companies with shares, the majority shares are held by persons who are not citizens; and
(b)in the case of companies without shares, a company in which decisions are arrived at by the majority of members who are not citizens.
Plain English Summary
If you are not a Ugandan citizen, you cannot own freehold or mailo land in Uganda. You can only lease land, but the lease cannot be longer than 99 yea...
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