Arusha, K’njaro border dispute unresolved
“It would be wise to get a third party to resolve it,” Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo told reporters on Monday.
What you need to know:
- “It would be wise to get a third party to resolve it,” Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo told reporters on Monday.
- He said although the matter had been discussed on countless occasions by survey experts from the Lands ministry and other officials, the confusion continued and he felt it was high time a lasting solution was sought.
Arusha. The controversy over the boundaries that separate Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions deepened on Monday after leaders from both sides failed to resolve the issue, referring the matter to higher authorities.
“It would be wise to get a third party to resolve it,” Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo told reporters on Monday.
He said although the matter had been discussed on countless occasions by survey experts from the Lands ministry and other officials, the confusion continued and he felt it was high time a lasting solution was sought.
Mr Gambo was not explicit on the cause of the misunderstanding that pits Arumeru and Longido districts in Arusha Region, on one side, and Siha and Kilombero districts in Kilimanjaro Region on the other.
The RC said the ministry responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government (Tamisemi) has been notified.
Impeccable sources told The Citizen that during the meeting held at the Arumeru District headquarters at Usa River on Monday, politicians and technocrats failed to agree on the actual status of the villages located along the disputed border demarcations.
Meanwhile his Kilimanjaro counterpart Saidi Meck Sadiki stressed during a media briefing on Monday that the solution to the crisis lay in revisiting the boundary lines drawn when the two regions were created in 1963 under the Government Notice which demarcated the boundaries of Moshi and Arusha districts that were created in 1954.
The present day Arusha Region and part of Kilimanjaro Region formed the Northern Province with headquarters in Arusha from colonial times right up to 1963 when provinces across the country were disbanded to pave the way for the post-independence administrative units better known as regions.
He said: “We should refer to those maps to solve the stand off once and for all,” stressed the Kilimanjaro RC, saying that other options may not give a clearer picture on where the boundaries were drawn during the splitting of the province.
Mr Sadiki said the matter has dragged on for more than 50 years and should end for the socioeconomic benefit of residents of the two regions.
However, a report issued by a team of experts from the two regions recommended that new borderlines should be drawn up in the disputed areas.
