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
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