ABSTRACT
Continuing the study of reform laws from the last chapter, this chapter conducts a detailed assessment of the law of land redistribution, a concept that was central to the day’s land reform program. The agenda of redistribution chronologically came after the laws of abolition and tenancy were enacted, and hence, the script follows the same sequence for discussion. The chapter identifies three sets of provisions that were ordained with the task of redistribution – laws of land ceiling, provisions in tenancy reform laws to accord ownership rights to tenants, and laws of land assignment. While keeping the tables of land ceiling and tenancy reform at the heart of the narrative, it critically analyzes, in detail, the provisions of these three categories of provisions in order to ascertain whether their framework was suitable for an agenda of redistribution. At its core, the chapter argues that these laws were constructed in a manner in which no meaningful redistribution could ever take place – other than adding to the gross legislative product, these legislations did little to the status of land distribution.
