There has been much debate in recent years about land tenure reform in Africa. However, this debate has largely failed to acknowledge the role ethnicity can play in the success or failure of reform. The case of Buganda in central Uganda, where land has long been strongly associated with ethnic identity, provides a counterexample which underlines the importance of ethnicity. The paper demonstrates how attempts by the current Ugandan government to implement badly needed land tenure reform have been undermined by its reluctance to acknowledge this ethnic attachment as well as its failure to address perceptions of ethnic bias towards western Ugandans.