Compensation claims may halt EAC road project

 

By Zephania Ubwani,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• The 2,000 property owners have threatened to take legal action which could halt implementation of the multi-million dollar project should the government remain quiet over their claims.

Arusha. Unsettled claims for compensation is causing uncertainities for hundreds of Arusha residents whose houses have been earmarked for demolition to pave the way for an East African Community road project.

The 2,000 property owners have threatened to take legal action which could halt implementation of the multi-million dollar project should the government remain quiet over their claims.

The bone of contention is on the 42km by-pass which would be constructed around Arusha as part of the massive rehabilitation of the Arusha-Holili highway under the East African road project (EARP). The road will pass through the western and southern fringes of the city and will connect the Namanga road with the highway to Moshi at Usa River. It forms a component of the $400 million Arusha-Holili-Voi road project.

But residents of the city suburbs whose houses and other properties will be demolished for the new highway say they have waited for too long for the compensation despite countless promises by government officials.

“We have not been told why our compensation has not been settled to date, four years after the evaluation,” says Mr Arthus Sixtus, the chairperson of a committee set up to follow up the claims.

He added that many of those whose properties are on the road pathway have not only stopped to develop their dwellings and plots but are now worried if they would be properly compensated.

He recalled a promise made by Tanroads chief executive Patrick Mfugale in June this year during the official launching of the trans-boundary road project to be rehabilitated with a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“Mfugale was categorical that compensation was to be effected shortly,” he says, noting that ever since they have not been updated on the matter and their efforts to get explanation from the concerned have hit a wall.

Mr Sixtus says he was among the 2,000 people on the compensation list. He settled in the up-market Njiro suburb in 2007. The new road will cut across seven wards in Arusha and Arumeru districts.