Investor, Arusha residents in row over plantation farm ownership

By The guardian reporter

Arumeru West MP, Goodluck Ole Medeye

The government has been told to find a lasting solution to land-related disputes among Msitu wa Mbogo residents and an investor in the Tanzania Plantation Farm located on the slopes of Mount Meru, Arusha Region.

 

The call came at the time when there are reports showing the ongoing row between Msitu wa Mbogo villagers and an investor, Predeep Lodhia,

 

Arumeru West MP, Goodluck Ole Medeye said over the weekend here proposing the need for the government to ensure the conflict in Msitu wa Mbogo comes to an end.

 

The MP said the land dispute has lasted several years even when he was a deputy minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development.

He wondered as why the regional authority hasn’t resolved the problem, despite the fact that the investor has all the documents on the ownership of the farm.

 

Speaking on the conflict, Lodhia revealed that for the past three years as investor he is not doing his farming activities in the farm as villagers invade investor’s farm, destroying crops and properties worth millions of shillings.

 

“I tried to report the matter to the regional authorities but nothing is done on the ground, what they did was to stop me from doing farming activities, the move that made him to incur his big loss,” he said.

 

Before the conflict, Lodhia used to grow assorted crops such as sugarcane, fruits, horticulture, maize and sorghum, said the situation in the area continues to deteriorate on a daily basis as attackers continue to raid his farm.

Tanzania Plantation was offered the land in 1967, and the offer is of 99 years, whose date of expire is 2066.