Accident victims were new govt employees

Morogoro. It was the first and last job to most of them because they died in the process of undertaking one of their first key assignments.

Kilombero residents paid their last respects to the eight Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development employees, who died in a car crash on Saturday, amid a somber mood at the loss of youthful public servants.

The eight, plus a Plan International official, Msafiri Kisumo, 46, died when their vehicle plunged into Kikowila River in Kilombero District at around 5.30pm when the officials were returning from a land surveying exercise in the district, according to the Kilombero District Commissioner James Ihunyo.The eight, whose ages range between 23 and 34, were employed on August 15, 2018, suggesting that they had been on the job for only six months before they were killed while undertaking one of their key assignments.

They were employed purposely to spearhead implementation of the Tanzania Land Tenure Support Programme (LTSP).

Launched in January 2015, the LTSP seeks to hasten the pace of land surveying in a bid to help people access title deeds and proper management of their land. Supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to the tune of Sh3.3 billion, the three-year LTSP was earlier meant to end this year in Morogoro after covering Ulanga, Malinyi and Kilombero districts.

“We have lost our youthful manpower. It will take us years to fill their gap,” said the LTSP coordinator, Mr Godfrey Machabe.

According to the Deputy Minister for Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Angela Mabula, the deceased were employed as part of the government’s wider effort to end conflicts between pastoral and agricultural societies.

“It is the government’s belief that land surveying is the remedy to land conflicts in Malinyi, Ulanga and Kilombero and that was why the programme is important….These youthful employees were returning from a land survey mission and they were meant to proceed to other areas upon completion,” she said, noting that the ministry was touched by the untimely demise of the officials.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Dorothy Mwanyika, said the departed youths were hard workers and that they were purposely employed to fast-track implementation of the LTSP.

“We have lost experts who would teach others on how to implement a similar project when it (the project) is rolled out to other regions,” she said.

According to Ms Mabula, the government has so far spent Sh96 million in coordinating the funerals of the departed employees.

Morogoro Regional Commissioner Stephen Kebwe asked Morogoro residents to remain calm as the government investigates the real cause of the fatal accident, insisting that the departed officials played pivotal roles in the effort to stem land conflicts in Morogoro.

“From the available information, Morogoro Region leads in the number of cases of conflicts involving pastoral and agricultural societies…These youths had contributed immensely in the issuance of about 280,000 title deeds in Morogoro out of a total of 300,000 deeds that are to be issued out to residents,” he said.