Arusha. The High Court in Manyara Sub-Registry has dismissed a land dispute filed by Narosoito Village Council against four individuals and declared three of them the lawful owners of the contested land.
The case, numbered 5366/2025, was filed by Narosoito Village Council, Simanjiro District Council, and the Attorney General (AG) against Noah Kibunda, Yeremia Lemandi, Mathayo Palaleti, and Sokoine Kibunda.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, June 18, 2026, Justice Nenelwa Mwihambi ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that the land belonged to the village or that the defendants had occupied it unlawfully.
The dispute centred on 150 acres in Nengamai Hamlet, Narosoito Village, in Simanjiro District, Manyara Region.
According to the plaintiffs, Mr Kibunda had encroached on 75 acres of grazing land, Mr Lemandi on 50 acres of open land, Mr Palaleti on 25 acres of grazing land, and Mr Sokoine on a further 25 acres of grazing land.
They asked the court to declare the land the property of Narosoito Village, order the defendants to vacate it, pay compensation for the alleged encroachment, and cover the costs of the suit.
In their submissions, village leaders argued that the disputed land formed part of village land reserved for grazing and open spaces under the village land-use plan and a customary right of occupancy certificate issued in 2023.
The defendants denied the allegations, maintaining that they had been lawfully allocated the land between 2000 and 2001 by the leadership of the former Orkesumet Village, which was later subdivided into Lormorijoi and Narosoito villages.
The court heard witnesses from both sides and conducted a site visit before reaching its decision.
It also received testimony from former village leaders who confirmed that the defendants had been allocated the land in accordance with procedures in force at the time.
The plaintiffs relied on evidence from three witnesses led by Narosoito Village chairman Petro Alamnyaka, who maintained that the disputed parcels formed part of village land designated for grazing and open-space use.
He told the court that the village holds a registration certificate and customary title deed covering 13,793 acres of grazing land and insisted that the defendants had occupied the disputed areas without authorisation.
Simanjiro District Council town planning officer, Mr Marco Michael, testified that, under the 2020–2030 Narosoito Village Land Use Plan, areas occupied by the first and third defendants fall within village grazing land.
He said the plan had been prepared in compliance with legal requirements and approved by the relevant authorities.
The plaintiffs’ third witness, former Narosoito Village chairman, Mr Kayeni Kiroiya, supported the claim that part of the disputed land had been reserved for village use before the conflict arose.
He said several village meetings had resolved that the land should remain designated for grazing and open-space purposes.
However, the defendants called eight witnesses who testified that the land had been legally allocated to them between 2000 and 2001 by Orkesumet Village before its division into Lormorijoi and Narosoito villages.
They produced ownership documents and testimony from former village leaders confirming that proper allocation procedures had been followed and that they had occupied the land peacefully for more than two decades.
The court was also informed that the suit had initially been filed against four defendants, including Sokoine. However, he died while the matter was still before the court.
Following his death, the plaintiffs formally withdrew the case against him in accordance with Order XXIII Rule 2(b) of the Civil Procedure Rules, leaving the judgment to apply only to the remaining three defendants.
Court ruling
Justice Mwihambi held that the evidence presented by the plaintiffs, including the customary title deed and village land-use plan, failed to adequately explain whether the disputed land had already been allocated to private individuals before those documents were issued.
The court found that by the time Narosoito Village was officially registered in 2010, the defendants were already in occupation and use of the land, and had been doing so for several years.
It further noted that when the village land-use plan was prepared in 2020 and the customary title deed issued in 2023, the land was already under the defendants’ occupation.
In her judgment, Justice Mwihambi said the defendants’ evidence was more convincing and credible than that presented by the plaintiffs when measured against the standard of proof required in civil proceedings.
The court also rejected reliance on certain letters and decisions issued by the Executive Director of Simanjiro District Council, ruling that the office lacked legal authority to determine land ownership and that the documents therefore carried little evidential weight.
Consequently, the court found that Narosoito Village Council had failed to prove ownership of the disputed land or establish that the defendants had encroached on it.
The suit was dismissed with costs, and the court declared Noah, Yeremia, and Mathayo the lawful owners of the disputed land.
Justice Mwihambi concluded that the right to own property, including land, is protected under the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania and cannot be taken away except through due process of law.
