186 YOUTH TO JOIN SECURITY TRAINING PLAN IN HAI

Monday, 21 January 2013 09:12

By The Citizen Reporter,Bomang'ombe At least 186 young people in Machame East Ward, Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region, have volunteered to undergo paramilitary training offered by the People’s Militia to enhance security in the area, it was announced at the weekend. Upon graduation, 85 of them would be hired to increase security on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro and check illegal loggers and invaders of water sources.  Others would be deployed to check illegal brewing and sale of liquor, bush fires and indiscriminate felling of trees, according to district commissioner Novatus Makunga.  Speaking during the closing of another training programme at Mroma Village, he said a special training programme for 186 candidates, who had registered for the People’s Militia programme would start soon.  The DC urged Hai residents to disregard the propaganda spread by some people, who were opposed to People’s Militia concept, some associating it with the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and others saying undergoing such a training programme was a wastage of time and resources.  He told them that the People’s Militia unit was part of a reserve army because it complemented security and defence organs in fighting against crime, especially in rural areas and densely populated suburbs. Mr Makunga, who is the chairman of the defence and security committee in the district, said the Police Force could not manage to provide security by 100 per cent in all districts and regions and, therefore, the People’s Militia had to help in that regard.  The People’s Militia programme, he explained, was pioneered by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Nyerere, who declared in the 1960s that the defence and security of Tanzania lied solely in the hands of Tanzanians themselves. The People’s Militia was created by the Reserve Forces Act, 1965 to serve as a national reserve and ensure that the TPDF had the monopoly of military power in the country.  Mr Makunga ordered that private security firms should give priority in recruitment and hiring to security guards who had gone through the People’s Militia training programme because it was easy to verify their capability and past records. For his part, Hai District Council chairman Clement Kwayu told residents not to ignore the People’s Militia programme,saying it was part of the country’s public order organs. SOURCE: http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/28279-186-youth-to-join-security-training-plan.html