Monday, 20 August 2012 22:41
By Zephania Ubwani,
The Citizen Bureau Chief Arusha.
Nearly 1,000 families of villagers living around the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) have opposed an eviction order and pleaded to the higher government authorities to assist them.The Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (Kadco) says the villagers had trespassed on the land belonging to the airport and have to vacate.
But Mtakuja and Sanya Stesheni villagers in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region claim that they are genuine residents of the area and were relocated there during the villagisation programme in the 1970s.
Their colleagues at Tindigani Village said they had been there since 1999 and could not see any justification for eviction from the lowland, which assures them of water supply. The other affected village is Chemka but there were no details.
During their recent meeting with Hai District leaders, the villagers, majority of them being livestock keepers, threatened to seek audience with the higher government authorities in Dodoma or Dar es Salaam over the dispute. They claimed that implementing the order would see 907 families comprising 6,349 people evicted. The move means they would also be forced to abandon 4,200 acres of farmland.
When contacted on the matter, the Hai District commissioner Novatus Makunga, said that the issue was ‘sensitive’ because the villages in dispute with the airport authority have land titles for their respective areas.
He pleaded to the villagers to be patient and not to send a delegation to Dodoma to see the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda until a team formed by the district authorities to investigate the crisis completes its job.
The Hai District administrative officer, Mr Venance Mpotwa, heads a six-person team comprising at least two land officers and the district planning officer and it has been told to speed up the probe.
But Mtakuja and Sanya Stesheni villagers in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region claim that they are genuine residents of the area and were relocated there during the villagisation programme in the 1970s.
Their colleagues at Tindigani Village said they had been there since 1999 and could not see any justification for eviction from the lowland, which assures them of water supply. The other affected village is Chemka but there were no details.
During their recent meeting with Hai District leaders, the villagers, majority of them being livestock keepers, threatened to seek audience with the higher government authorities in Dodoma or Dar es Salaam over the dispute. They claimed that implementing the order would see 907 families comprising 6,349 people evicted. The move means they would also be forced to abandon 4,200 acres of farmland.
When contacted on the matter, the Hai District commissioner Novatus Makunga, said that the issue was ‘sensitive’ because the villages in dispute with the airport authority have land titles for their respective areas.
He pleaded to the villagers to be patient and not to send a delegation to Dodoma to see the Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda until a team formed by the district authorities to investigate the crisis completes its job.
The Hai District administrative officer, Mr Venance Mpotwa, heads a six-person team comprising at least two land officers and the district planning officer and it has been told to speed up the probe.
However, the DC insisted that “The solution to the crisis would have to involve Kadco, a private firm that manages the airport, village officials and the traditional leaders, commonly known as Lwaigwanan,” said Mr Makunga.
He implored on the villagers to respect the boundaries of the airport, which is gearing up for construction of additional structures or further expansion.
The villagers claimed in the message to the Hai leaders that some of their relatives vacated the area voluntarily when construction of the airport began in 1969.It is estimated that the livestock keepers who will be affected by the eviction have a total of 42,763 head of cattle, 33,840 goats, 38,412 sheep and 14,414 donkeys.
The land dispute between KIA management and the adjacent villages first surfaced in 1989, prompting the government to order the two sides observe boundaries.
KADCO, which took over the management of the airport in 1998, has repeatedly warned against trespassing of their land because it would stifle expansion plans, including leasing part of it to potential investors.
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