STATE GIVES 2000 ARUMERU RESIDENTS FREE LAND

More than 2000 poor people in Arumeru District that did not have any plots of their own, will soon be proud owners of 7411 acres of land that the government has taken from private large estates for the purpose of allocating them to peasants.

The Minister for Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development, William Lukuvi, revealed last week in Arusha that the farms were taken from the Tanzania Plantation Limited, a privately owned entity that had 6486 acres including the other 1090 acres that were previously sold by TPL but the state has just revoked their title deeds.

“President Jakaya Kikwete has directed that all land problems in Arumeru District, the precinct which has been notorious for such conflicts, be solved before his tenure ends and I am happy to announce that,  people who did not have any land of their own in both Arusha-Rural, Arusha-Urban and Meru District Councils will be allocated plots for farming and residential purposes,” said Mr Lukuvi.

The distribution will see Arusha-Rural District Council getting 6176.5 acres of land, while Meru Council stands to get 925 acres that is depending on how the TPL estate farms were located. The Minister said priority will be given to those who did not have any land, before distributing the rest to other people.

Local residents, who will benefit from the government’s land handout, include those from Msitu-wa-Mbogo, Shambarai, Burka and Kikuletwa villaged in Meru District Council as well as Bwawani and Themi-ya-Simba villages in Arusha-Rural Council.

However, those in Meru DC who may want to get more land from the other side of the precinct; that is in Arusha-Rural, will be allowed to move from one council to another.

Experts from the Ministry of Land will be camping in the Arumeru District to measure and demarcate newly acquired land appropriately to cover areas set aside for infrastructural development, farming, residential use and industrial development.

In another development, the state has also taken back the 2296 acres of land previously owned by Noors Estate with a lease of 34 years but apparently the Danish owner had neglected it for over 12 years until local residents of Laroi and Kisima-cha-Mungu invaded  the land.

Now the state has decided to let local villagers continue to own the land but under new arrangement in which plots of land from the 2296 acres of the former settler’s farm, will be divided among them and each will be given a title deed