DON TELLS CLERGY TO HELP RESOLVE LAND CONFLICTS

Increasing cases of land conflicts in Arusha region and across the country need urgent intervention of the clergy, a respected lawyer has argued.

Dr. Eliamani Laltaika, a law lecturer with the Nelson Mandela University (NM-AIST) has said heads of religious organizations must be well versed with the land legislation to be in a better position to understand the gravity of the situation.

He made the plea during a recent workshop organized by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) on how to resolve worsening conflicts over land and its resources in various parts of the country.

Dr. Eliamani Laltaika of NM-AIST

The workshop attracted over 100 participants many of them bishops and pastors and heads of institutions of the Lutheran Church from different dioceses and synods. 

Dr.Eliamani, who is also an advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, said land conflicts were more pronounced in northern Tanzania because of the rising value of land in the zone which has seen increasing investments.

He noted that religious organizations have not been spared by the conflicts and that there were numerous cases where land belonging to church organizations have been invaded by land greedy individuals.

"It has not been easy to resolve these cases because many of the church leaders are not conversant with legislations on land", he pointed out, adding that many cases have remained unresolved for years.
The outspoken lecturer emphasized in his presentation that it was high time for church officials to be versed with land rights so that their land is secure from being taken over by other people.
"The churches must also sensitize and assist the neighbouring communities on their land rights and support them on how to protect their property or recover it once taken over illegally", the academician explained.

Dr. Laltaika also cautioned church leaders to ensure that they have all the necessary documents on the land and plots they possessed, including title deeds.

An Arusha-based advocate William Kivuyo said there were many laws on land in Tanzania and how to resolve land conflicts. These included the Land Tribunals at the district, regional and national levels.

One of the districts in the northern zone region most affected by land conflict is Kiteto in Manyara region where a long term solution to the crisis and consequent clashes between farmers and livestock keepers will now have to be found through the on-going demarcation of land for proper use.

The exercise, being undertaken by experts from the ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development and other ministries, has already covered 23 registered villages out of 58 villages in the vast district.

"This is an enormous task which the government has decided to undertake in order to address the endless crisis and loss of lives over land", asserted a senior district official in Arusha recently.

She said although some of the villages have not been registered, the survey and demarcation of villages for the desired proper land use will cover the entire district.

Teams of surveyors who have been posted to the area since September this year had already finished the job around the disputed Emborney Murtangos, a 135,000 hectare conservation reserve which has been a centre of conflict.

Besides the Lands ministry, the teams are drawn from the Prime Minister's Office (Tamisemi), the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, the President's Office as well as other ministries and government institutions.

"We want to do away with conflicts over land by zoning the entire district according to the desired land use", she said, noting that the exercise would separate farming and grazing areas to avert conflicts.

She said proper land use would discourage the influx of people who have settled illegally in Kiteto from neighbouring districts, triggering repeated clashes over farming and grazing land for the last 12 years.

Kiteto district, the  16,000 square kilometre traditional homeland of nomadic pastoralists, has witnessed unprecedented clashes over land and other resources from around 2003 in what the locals attribute to the influx of farmers from neighbouring regions, specifically Dodoma, Tanga and Morogoro.