By Brima Sannoh in Pujehun
A consortium of non-governmental organizations known as Land for Life, has conducted a knowledge sharing session with stakeholders in Malen Chiefdom with the objective of resolving lingering land disputes.
The meeting, which was held on Thursday, October 24th, was meant to educate community leaders and land owners on the Customary Land Rights Act 2022 which was meant to address decades of land rights issues.
Pujehun District in the southern region of Sierra Leone is one major hotpots for such disputes. It’s either between land owners and foreign investors, or between communities.
Land for Life has been involved in efforts to resolve such issues in especially Malen, Sorogbeima, Makpele, and Kpanga chiefdoms in the district, where at least four people have lost their lives between 2019 and 2022 in land related protests.
A persistent source of land problems in Pujehun points to acquisition of land by foreign companies for agricultural purposes, particularly the Socfin Agricultural Company in Malen.
Maxwell Kemokai, Director of Programmes at Land for Life, said the Customary Land Rights Act passed in 2022 provides that everyone should be treated equally when it comes to acquisition of land, noting that nobody has the right to discriminate against anyone in terms of land ownership on the basis of either ethnicity, race, gender or religious background.
Kemokai presided over Thursday’s meeting which brought together chiefs, women and youth leaders, as well as ordinary land owners.
Successive administrations have made numerous efforts to seek solution to perennial problems emanating from land ownership and usage. Women in particular have been disadvantaged by the status quo.
As part of efforts to put an end to this trend, the government in 2022 established the Land Commission, which is tasked with managing land through registration, mapping and surveying. The Commission maintains an inventory of all public, private and community lands. It also established land redress committees to look into and settle disputes.
Last years, the Commission collaborated with Socfin to conduct an extensive mapping exercise of land in Malen. The objective was to ascertain the exact size of land in the chiefdom and identify the legitimate owners. The exercise also aimed to prevent future land conflicts and facilitate provision of benefits to land owing families.
A total of 55 of the 63 communities earmarked were covered in the exercise that lasted for nearly a year. The eight communities that were left out are not part of Socfin’s concession area. And their exclusion was met with mixed reactions within the chiefdom. This was a major topic of discussion at last week’s meeting.
Momoh George Kemoh, Chairman of the Local Courts in Malen, warned that leaving those communities out posed threat to the peace of the chiefdom.
“The government and Socfin should consider those communities as part of Malen Chiefdom, despite the fact that they are not within the company’s operational zone,” he said.
Mrs Haja Adama Sengeh, the Women’s Leader for Malen, was more concerned about the level of disrespect young people are now exhibiting towards the authorities on social media, in the name of land, which she believes could lead to a bigger problem for the chiefdom if action is not taken.
“The government, chiefdom authorities of Malen, family members and all the ruling houses need to condemn any act of incitement and disrespect which has the tendency to bring further unrest to this community,” she said.
“Everyone should distance themselves from such a negative behavior of those people that are trying to disturb the hard earned peace of our chiefdom. I am sad and disappointed as a woman and a mother to hear derogatory remarks made against leaders of this community by some young people simply because of land. It must stop,” she lamented.
Mr. Kemokai, the Right to Land representative, observed that Part Three of the Customary Land Rights Act provides that both men and women have equal rights to own properties in the country and that it calls for at least 30 percent representation of women in the chiefdom land committee, stressing that every decision made on land issues must be in consultation with women.
Other significant provisions include the protection of the interest of unmarried couple. According to this provision, all properties acquired by a couple that cohabit belong to both the man and the woman.
“If a man builds a house before marrying a woman, the new law says that the house belongs to the man. That is the same case for the woman who had a house before she got wedded,” said Kemokai.
“This is the message we as a consortium wants the authorities especially chiefs to be aware of and to also include in their local court hearings, so that they can dispense justice accordingly,” he stressed.
Alex Bockarie Lamin, Regent Chief of Malen, was impressed by the provisions of the law, and he expressed hope that with it there would be light at the end of the tunnel.
“This particular law will now help us as local authorities on how to settle land disputes among families and other people, which I think will promote peace and tranquility in communities,” said Mr Lamin.
He also pleaded with Land for Right and the government to help prevail on Socfin in order to complete the mapping exercise by covering the remaining eight communities.
