Residents call for reduced costs of land surveying

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They made the request in a meeting that took place in the street under the Kibaha Town Council Commissioner, Ms Assumpter Mshama, who was there to listen to various challenges facing the residents. The DC was accompanied by members of the district’s defence and security committee and experts on land issues from the office of the director of Kibaha Town Council.

Kibaha. Residents of Lumumba Street in Pangani Ward have asked Kibaha District Council in Coast Region to find out whether the land surveying charges they pay could be reduced from Sh.4, 500 for one square metre to Sh2, 500 that they would manage to pay.

They made the request in a meeting that took place in the street under the Kibaha Town Council Commissioner, Ms Assumpter Mshama, who was there to listen to various challenges facing the residents. The DC was accompanied by members of the district’s defence and security committee and experts on land issues from the office of the director of Kibaha Town Council.

"We are asking the council to see the possibility of reducing the costs for us from Sh.4,500 for one square mere to Sh.2500 that we can afford to pay so that we can be allocated plots to establish our settlement here since most of us are poor," said Elizabeth Alphons.

Another resident of the street, Mr Omary Sela, said they were not opposed to the council over their land being surveyed, but they could not afford to meet the cost of the exercise. He called upon both sides to reach an agreement that could make the exercise successful.

However, the DC said records showed that the settling of residents within the area was due to the Kibaha Town Council.

For his part, the council’s land surveyor, Mr Aron Shushu, said the major challenge had been some people who invaded chunks of land that some decided to allocate for sale, something that added to the difficulty of the land surveying exercise.