How Tarime council prepares to avoid the looming land crisis in the district

As the issue of land crisis is becoming a hardcore problem in some parts in the country, the newly established Tarime Town Council (TTC) is set to prepare a master plan with a view to identify main administrative boundaries in mostly troubled areas of clans of the traditional Kurya tribes in the district, a senior district official has said. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Tarime District Executive Director (DED) Venance Mwamengo said when visited in his office recently that, the indented plans will wipe off or minimize the existing disparities of the land crisis in the district. The call by DED has come amid reports that, there is a looming land crisis in the district in some of the Kurya clans, the majority ethnic group covering 98 percent of the population in the district as most members do not know exactly their administrative boundaries and landmarks. “The move is to end up frequent land crisis in various parts within the district which in previous years were ravaged and became war torn tribal conflict zones as the indigenous were fighting for the arable land for settlements which have irregularities on their boundaries”, he said. According to him, the exercise to be done by help of a highly technologically made tool of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS), will take place in five wards which of recent had been declared to be within the jurisdiction of the newly formed management of the town council.  These are Turwa, Nyandoto Nyamisangura, Sabasaba and Bomani wards. In these wards he noted that, two of them namely Nyandoto and Turwa will be a pilot project on which the exercise will first take place in earnest and later on others will follow. He noted that, the two wards are occupied mostly by Wasweta and Wahumyaga furious clans who used to fight over the land as residents living in villages within these wards do not either recognize their boundaries or are aware but tend to ignore for personal interests. He clarified that, already his office has held a meeting with all district councilors and leaders of the two wards and have jointly agreed to put demarcation marks on mostly troubled areas which have problems on boundaries to clear worries of land users. Meanwhile, the Chairman of Nyasebe hamlet in Gamasara village of Nyandoto ward, Deus Ngera told this paper that, already there are some people who have invaded and annexed a portion of land in his area from the neighboring Turugeti village which belongs to another clan. According to him, invaders have extended the administrative boundary in approximately 100 meters away ignoring the demarcation marks in it and instead have declared for themselves a community boundary which they say is what they recognize. However, in view of this situation he said and warned that, if the district government will not take an appropriate action to stop them by now, the move is likely to escalate cause troubles in near future.   

 Reports shows that, tribal conflicts among clans in Ta\rime district, Mara region are occasionally happening with the main cause of all these problems being misunderstanding of the available administrative land marks on various boundaries between one clan with the other. Other causes leads to rampant cattle theft and rustling which is growing at an alarming rate as it is being perpetrated by few individuals living in different traditional Kurya clans in the district. One traditional elder of Turwa ward who happened to meet the writer of this news, Samwel Magaigwa has appealed to the government to amend the current land Act in the country and if possible endorse it in the constitution whose second draft is out for discussion next month. According to him, he has suggested that there should be an aspect of land ownership within the Act that would enable owners to possess national land title deeds as these documents certifies a planned area that guaranties immediate compensation whenever land is given to investors for development.  Unlike at the moment whereby the majority uses village land permits which are unsurveyed.“Village land titles do not give full mandate in terms of ownership”, a situation which he has described as easily paves the way for land grabbers like investors who takes an advantage to acquire plots easily, thus resulting into endless land chaos in the country. Elaborating on the existing problem taking Tarime district as a case study, a traditional leader has noted that, there has been certain minor problems which arises on land issues occasionally caused by district land officers.  He claims that, most traditional leaders in the district do not know clear demarcations of their land boundaries which was issued by the colonialists to their Chiefs way back in 1947 when Tarime was first declared to be a district known by then as ‘North Mara district’.  The name continued during post independence time up to 1972 when it was renamed Tarime district, and which half of its land has been partitioned by the government to form another district known as Rorya in 2009.  Clarifying the matter, a senior district land officer Ruzama Misango said in an interview that, despite of being given a status of a town council, they are waiting for a certificate of approval from the government to start land surveying in appropriate areas to be designated later in a master plan to be issued soon. Tarime district was recently promoted into a status of being a town council following the partitioning of its division with Rorya district immediately when the fourth phase government of Jakaya Kikwete came into being in 2005. The partitioning of the district was done so as to quicken the provision of both social and economic services for the development of the entire people. In 2009, the government decided to transform Tarime/Rorya districts into special police zone in efforts to stop the clashes and rampant cross border cattle rustling in the area.