How Land Grabbing Is Driving Poverty and Gender-Based Violence Against Widows in Uganda

By Phiphi Birungi, WHRD Ugandan Community Journalist

In many rural and peri-urban parts of Uganda, land is more than property—it is identity, livelihood, and legacy. Yet for thousands of women, especially widows, that land has become the frontline of violence, dispossession, and systemic failure. What was once viewed as isolated abuse has evolved into a widespread, calculated pattern of exploitation driven by entrenched patriarchy, corruption, political influence, and weak law enforcement. For many widows, the death of a husband marks the beginning of a coordinated attempt to erase their rights.

A Predictable Pattern of Theft

Dispossession often begins immediately after burial. Relatives or powerful outsiders appear with hastily prepared, fraudulent claims.

• Land documents are forged.
• Boundaries are shifted in the night.
• Local leaders accept bribes to certify illegal transfers.

Within days or weeks, a woman who once cultivated, harvested, and provided for her family from that land is reduced to a squatter—or violently forced out altogether. Evictions frequently involve intimidation, the destruction of homes, police complicity, and mob attacks disguised as “family disputes.” What the law frames as a civil disagreement is, in reality, organized theft executed under the cover of silence and impunity.

When the Courts Fail Widows

While Uganda’s laws theoretically protect women’s property rights, access to justice is painfully slow, costly, and biased in favor of those with wealth or political ties. Widows routinely report:

• Endless case delays
• Missing or tampered court files
• Perpetrators walking free
• Sudden, unexplained case transfers

A single court appearance can mean forfeiting a day of work, food, or school fees. Many women abandon their cases not for lack of evidence, but because the justice system is designed to drain them into surrender.

Land Grabbing as Gender-Based Violence

Land grabbing is not only an economic crime—it is a dangerous form of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Widows who resist eviction face:

• Physical and sexual assault
• Public humiliation
• Death threats
• Violence against their children

Once displaced, many widows end up in slums or informal settlements where exploitation thrives. What begins as property theft quickly becomes a cycle of poverty, trauma, and heightened vulnerability to further abuse.

Political Complicity and Silence

The theft of land from widows is often linked to political and commercial interests. Disputed land almost inevitably resurfaces as private estates, commercial projects, or political assets. This alignment with power explains why:

• Law enforcement remains silent
• Court orders are ignored
• Whistleblowers face threats

Uganda does not lack laws—it lacks political will. Land grabbing survives because power shields perpetrators.

Weak Protection Systems

Despite Uganda’s legal commitments to women’s rights, real protection for widows remains minimal. Shelter services are scarce, legal aid is overstretched, and psychosocial support is almost nonexistent. Women are routinely advised to “solve it at home,” even when home is the epicenter of violence and danger.

Why Community Documentation Is Crucial

In a climate where institutions look away, grassroots documentation has become a lifeline. Collecting testimonies, mapping land, tracking court cases, and recording evidence creates a historical record in a system that relies on forgetting. But documentation is dangerous—because it confronts economic and political interests directly tied to power.

No widow should have to choose between survival and justice. Land must never become a tool of gendered punishment. The death of a husband must not condemn a woman and her children to homelessness.

Justice for widows demands:

• Independent land investigations free from political interference
• Strong protection mechanisms for women facing retaliatory eviction
• Free, fast-track legal aid
• Accountability for officials who enable or profit from land grabbing
• Recognition of land grabbing as a form of Gender-Based Violence

Until these protections are enforced, widows will continue to vanish from their homes and communities, quietly pushed into poverty and invisibility. Land grabbing is not just theft—it is a profound crime of gendered power, violence, and inequality.