Report: 50 people ‘own entire district’

Dar es Salaam. A new report on land ownership in the country has detailed shocking details of land gabbing, with at least half of one district reportedly being owned by only 50 individuals.

The report by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) says that more than 64.7 per cent of Tanzanians own land without formal documentation, with most of the land falling in the hands of people described as “grabbers”.

The land held by such people, according to the report, is often owned in the name of public interests, especially investment concessions. Speaking during the launch of the report yesterday in Dar es Salaam, LHRC Head of Corporate and Government Watch Flaviana Charles said that land grabbing was increasingly becoming widespread in the country.

“We looked at areas with big investments and noted a corresponding increase in cases of human rights violations,’’ said Ms Charles as she pinpointed Kilosa District in Morogoro Region where she revealed that about half of the land was in the hands of not more than 50 individuals. (SOURCE: THE CITIZEN)

Kilosa District covers an area of 14,918 square kilometres, is inhabited by 26,060 people, according to the 2002 national census.

“Rich people own the land and this has brought conflicts due to shortage of farming and grazing land for the common citizens,’’ said Ms Charles as she alluded to the report indicating that commercial pressure and poor land governance acquisitions were among the factors fuelling conflicts.

The report indicates that obtaining land titles deeds has remained a huge challenge for most Tanzanians whereby lack information on how land is acquired and insecurity in villages has almost become the norm.

The report, titled ‘Human Rights and Business’, is a compilation of data obtained in the regions that have been named by the LHRC as hotspot areas for human rights violation in the country. According to the report, at least 17 million Tanzanians still lack certificates for either customary or government rights of occupancy in about 15 regions which were earmarked for research by the LHRC.

Most of the country’s arable land, about 75 per cent, was found to have been occupied by either local residents, investment companies or other institutions including government agencies, the report further revealed.

It warned that the expansion of national parks was becoming rapid and creating land pressure, whereby at independence, the country was only occupied by the Serengeti National Park while now, the number of parks and other protected areas has expanded to more than 16.

In his remarks, the Director of Research and Record-keeping at the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance, Mr Godlisten Nyange, said issues to do with how business affects human rights is of great concern to victims especially when they are not addressed.

He noted that land issues had implications to the right to personal integrity, the right to a healthy, sustainable way of life and standard of living. He then urged the relevant authorities and business entities to take the matter seriously. “It is high time businesses moved from philanthropic corporate social responsibility to accountable business practices which respect human rights,” he said.

In light of this report, Mr Nyange said that the report called for more to be done in the protection of human rights by various investors as a way of paying back from the profits made in the course of business.