Prayer houses lined up for demolition in road project

Dar es Salaam. At least 24 houses of prayers are expected to be demolished today by the Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads) to pave the way for expansion of the Kimara-Kiluvya section of Morogoro Road.

The demolitions are a continuation of the removal of about 1,300 buildings, which had been built within the road reserve, measuring 121.5 metres from the centre of the key infrastructure.

So far, over 1,000 houses have been demolished, a situation that has forced some residents to spend the night in the cold.

Confirming the demolition to The Citizen, the man in charge of supervising the Tanroads exercise, Mr Jonson Rutechula, said: “We have notified leaders of the affected mosques and churches to remove their valuables from the buildings by tomorrow (today) as we are coming to tear them down. We are set to demolish 14 churches and 10 mosques in the stretch that covers Kimara to Kiluvya. We will start demolishing them in the morning,” said Mr Rutechula.

He added that the demolition of biulding marked with an ‘X’ had by a big percentage been completed, leaving only houses of prayer.

“As you can see the demolition exercise for residential houses is complete. Only houses of prayer are yet to be removed,” he said.

At St Maria Church, Kimara Parish, this writer found some believers removing properties from the house of worship but the leaders of the church declined to comment when asked about the exercise.

“We are not spokespersons. So, if you want to gather news, please come tomorrow with your camera to cover the event. You also need to find the Father of the Parish as he will be in a good position to tell you what is going on,” said one of the faithful.