Minister revokes titles for 85 houses at suburban Njiro Hill

From HAZLA OMAR in Arusha

SOME 85 apparently posh residential houses that have been illegally constructed on a piece of land in Njiro, south of Arusha City, an area which belongs to a government institution, are sitting on illegal plots.

The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Hamis Kigwangalla, who visited the area yesterday, affirmed that the piece of land on Njiro Hill, which changed hands dubiously belongs to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), an institution which falls under his ministry and that the individuals who bought those plots of land must have fallen victim to illegal land rackets. More than 80 of these houses now face demolition.
“We checked with the Commissioner for Lands offices in Moshi … and established that the area is allocated to the NCAA … who holds the rightful title deed,” Dr Kigwangalla said, observing that when asked where they got the authority to build their private villas on government property, the owners said they bought the plots from the Arusha City Council.
However, Dr Kigwangalla reiterated that “there’s only one authority” with the mandate to allocate land, stressing, “… and that’s the Ministry for Lands and Settlements Development … under which the Lands Commission which issued the title to NCAA operates.
“… district, municipal or city authorities have no right to interfere with the Ministry of Lands on matters related to title deeds,” the minister said, and ordered that the city council’s titles for the 85 buildings whose owners had trespassed into the land belonging to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, be revoked and if possible the gullible developers, who bought the pieces of land from the council, be compensated by the Arusha City Fathers.
According to an officer in charge of Legal Services at NCAA, Mr Egidius Muyungi, the invaded land measures over 40 acres and was bought by the NCA in 2006 at 1.8 billion/- Arusha City Director, Mr Athumani Kihamia, could not be reached for comment yesterday.