Major land dispute brewing in Kibaha

Kibaha District is headed for a major land dispute after the sticks used as beacons to identify plots at Disunyala area in Kibaha District, Coast Region, were eaten up by ants.

More than 150 plots surveyed at the area five kilometres off Dar es Salaam-Morogoro Road near Mlandizi, will need fresh demarcation to avoid conflicts that might arise between the new owners over borders.

“It’s like is walking over unmarked graves,” said Mohammed Musa, one of the people who went over the weekend to be shown his family’s plot.

This reporter visited the site where he witnessed the small sticks meant to be the beacons that identify the surveyed plots, some of which have been eaten by ants, while others have apparently been removed by unknown people.

Only one beacon Number ZFA 429 was seen in place in the area, leaving many of the people who went to see their allocated plots fearing that some dishonest developers might take advantage of the situation to create their own demarcations.

This could result into conflicts, as land issues become more sensitive, they pointed out.

A land officer in-charge of the Disunyala plots allocation, Lenard Mhongole acknowledged the poor demarcation of the plots in the area, attributing it to people who might have uprooted the wooden beacons for domestic use and most probably the charcoal makers.

He said because the area was yet to be developed, some of the vandals might have seized the opportunity, especially since the area was un-occupied.

Owners of the more than 150 plots were allocated their plots after paying all dues to the Kibaha District land office.

The Kibaha District Executive Director, Tatu Selemani told this paper over the telephone that the work of demarcating the plots was carried out by a Dar es Salaam-based firm called Ardhi Plan and that she thought all was going well at the site.

“What we know up to this moment is that all is well because we have not received any complaint from the firm we assigned the work,” she said while asking this reporter to contact the firm.

When contacted, one of the firm’s officials who gave one name of Liombo said he was not in a position to respond to this reporter’s questions over the phone.

A motor cyclist famous for sending potential developers to the Disunyala site from Mlandizi, Rashid Abdul, told this reporter that many of the people he had taken to the plots came back frustrated.

“Some of them even think they have been conned, after they were not shown their plots because the beacons had been up-rooted,” he told this reporter.

The problem started brewing last week when officials of the Land Division in the district opted to keep mum over persistent requests by owners seeking to be allocated their plots after paying millions of shillings for them.

Potential developers paid between 2m/- to 6m/- for the plots since October last year, but the allocation started only last week.

The Acting District Land, Natural Resources and Environment Officer, Frank Mwalembe summoned at the DED’s office admitted that there were some hitches on the whole issue of allocation of the plots, but said the issue would be solved cordially “very soon.”

A 600 square-metre plot in Disunyala costs a sum total of 3m/-, of which 1,667,012/- is deposited into one David Robert Makange’s account number 01523158487000, leading many payers to ask why a private person was being paid when Kibaha district officials were issuing the title deeds.

It was later revealed that Makange was the former owner of the area which was being demarcated into plots and that the Kibaha District was only facilitating the exercise, of course with levy remitted by the owner of the area.

Out of the 3m/- paid, 979,039/- is paid into Ardhi Plan account number 0150029829003 at the CRDB Bank. There was also an outcry on the hiring of a private surveyor while there were experts in the ministry of Lands to do the job.

Another 300,000/- was to be paid into the Kibaha District Council Account No. 2121200191 – NMB account called ‘ Own Source Collection Account’ and 49,950/- to be paid into CRDB account number 2121200195 named ‘ Miscellaneous Deposit’.

A notice signed by one H.K. Kidimani on behalf of the Kibaha District Council asked people wanting the plots to hand over the various bank paying slips to the Lands office for it to process the title deeds