When a person passes away, it is considered prudent and humane to speak about him nicely; to highlight the good actions that that he did when still on this earth.
The bads are usually buried with him. Indeed, some cultures and religions forbid speaking anything unbecoming about a deceased person. The obituaries are usually nicely cut so that society retains a positive image of that person.
Some obituaries are not all that friendly; and there have been exceptional personalities who have had a rare chance of reading their own obituaries. Among the most famous ones, is Swedish Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), a chemist, engineer, inventor and businessman.
In 1888, following the death of his brother Ludvig, French newspapers mistakenly published a premature obituary for Alfred Nobel titled “The merchant of death is dead”.
The article condemned Nobel for inventing dynamite and profiting from explosives, stating he “became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before”.
Appalled by this legacy, Nobel decided to leave the majority of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize to honor contributions to humanity
A good part of his inventions and businesses was used in warfare, making him a huge fortune. When he was presumed dead, when it is his brother who had indeed died Alfred was stunned when obituary writers referred to him as “a merchant of death”.
As he had loathed war all his life, he vowed that he would not be remembered as such! So, he decided to leave his immense fortune to foster science, literature and peace. The Nobel Prizes were born!
The late Lukuvi should be remembered for the good deeds he did (which are many) and those he wished to achieve but did not do so.
Two, among the latter immediately come to mind. Mr Lukuvi wished the country had a National Housing Policy, a “final draft” of which was completed and signed by him in 2018.
I recall attending a meeting of the Management of the Ministry of Lands in Dar es Salaam, when Minister Lukuvi, holding a Draft of that policy, required his staff to make sure the Policy was discussed by key stakeholders.
The Policy went forward, but has never been approved, a major problem being the argument that there is a National Human Settlements Development Policy, a jinx purveyed by town planners in whose hands the development of the National Housing Policy has fallen since the birth of the Human Settlements movements in 1972. “Human Settlements” has been equated to urban development and housing, much as housing has its own specialties.
The late Lukuvi may not have known that the National Human settlements Development Policy is a giant policy covering many things including land tenure, environment, employment, the informal sector, transport, energy, water supply, waste management, demography, small towns, beaches, border towns, land use planning, unplanned settlements, regularization, waste water, urban agriculture, health, and so on.
Many of these areas need or have their own policies and legislation. So housing, given its complexities, cannot be hidden under this giganteum of a human settlement policy.
Hopefully, there will be people who understand this, so that one day, we have a National Housing Policy, where we can talk of national housing standards, affordability, housing finance, housing production, housing renewal, and so on.
The second area which was at the heart of the late Lukuvi, was tenants. He thought these were being exploited by landlords as well as by brokers (madalali).
He believed that if there was a Real Estate Regulatory authority (RERA), this would not only register and license professionals of real estate, it would also spawn legislation akin to rent control which would regulate house rents, tenants’ security of tenure, key money, deposits, advance payment, evictions, rental housing production and maintenance.
While steps have been taken to have in place an authority called RERA, creating this organization has remained a promise. One reason which may be in the way for getting a RERA in the country may the fear of having too many regulatory authorities in the Ministry of Lands (regulating town planners, surveyors/geomatician, valuers).
A way out of this which needs to be considered seriously would be to expand the duties of the current Valuation Registration Board, to include real estate managers and land administrators.
In training, these people get education which is similar, and in many countries, they operate under one regulatory authority.
This would need to review the Valuation and Valuers’ (Registration) Act to bring in these other professions. It is a cheaper option to establish and to run.
