Fresh hope as protracted KIA land dispute drags on
What you need to know:
- Although disputed land will remain in the hands of the government, the alleged encroachers will receive a token so that they move out
Arusha. It is not yet over, but the dispute between the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) and the adjacent communities has taken a reconciliatory tone.
Although disputed land will remain in the hands of the government, the alleged encroachers will receive a token so that they move out.
“The airport land will remain in the hands of the government,” President Samia Suluhu Hassan affirmed when she addressed hundreds of people at the end of her five day official visit here.
The Head of State said some Sh11 billion has been set aside as compensation for the villagers who will be forced out of the airport land.
She said the compensation was a gesture of the government bearing in mind that some of them had constructed permanent structures.
"Although they had invaded the airport land, they will be compensated so that they vacate the area," she said during her stop over at Usa River township.
Land dispute between the second leading airport in the country with the surrounding communities was one of the concerns raised to the President.
Local leaders said it was a drawback for the villagers who are not sure of their continued stay there and for the KIA management as well.
But the Head of State alluded that there should not be any discussion on the issue because those who invaded the land will be compensated in order to vacate.
The row, pitting residents of seven villages surrounding the airport has persisted for many years, with the villagers claiming it was their ancestral land.
The government had for so long wanted the villagers - many of them pastoralists - to move out to pave the way for the expansion of the airport or construction of airport-related facilities.
At some point, the livestock keepers claimed they were not ready "to move out, nor for any compensation."
Three of the villages whose portions or whole areas are to be annexed by the airport are in Hai district, Kilimanjaro region while three are in Arumeru in Arusha.
Those in Hai are Tindigani, Mtakuja, Chemka and Sanya Station with Majengo, Malula and Samaria in neighbouring Arumeru district.
Although the row has remained unresolved for years, this time around the villagers were responding to frequent remarks in the Parliament by the government.
The total area occupied by the airport for the 50 year old airport was 11,085 hectares, having been reserved for the purpose since 1969 when the construction of the facility started
However, this was disputed by the villagers who said the area was surveyed in 1986 with the land registration certificate No.23164 issued in 1989.
KIA, currently under the management of the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO), sits on a fenced 460 ha, formerly a livestock grazing land.
“There are over 5,000 families occupying more than 3,000 ha of farming and grazing land who will be affected,” said a village leader during a recent visit to the area by journalists.
During a crisis meeting in 2012, KADCO claimed the villagers had trespassed the airport land and had to vacate to pave the way for the expansion projects.
Villagers say they are often saddened by reports of eviction, noting that most of them were not even interested in compensation.
He added that at one time the villages in question were registered under the Ujamaa Village Act. No.21 of 1975, only to learn later that the registration had been revoked.
Other villagers interviewed said they were not against the airport expansion but were ready to reach a consensus once the authorities listened to their demands.
