Property no one wants to lay claim to
Built by no man on no man’s land? The abandoned Dodoma town going to waste. PHOTO | VALENTINE OFORO
What you need to know:
- Controversy surrounds the ownership of an abandoned prime structure in Dodoma town with no records available, and all government offices denying having knowledge about it
Dodoma. For over two decades, it has been lying there -- unfinished yet majestic. But why does no one wants to come out and say they are the owners of this expensive building?
Mystery has for a long time now surrounded this unfinished building on a prime location in Dodoma town. I recently attempted to hunt down the owner but my efforts left me with one feeling -- that I was chasing a ghost.
Some say it belongs to the State. I thought this could be a workable starting point. Curiously, I got the same confusing response from every government office I visited in the city -- we don’t know anything about that building. From the District Commissioner’s office to the Capital Development Authority (CDA), all the officers seemed to be in the dark.
Situated between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Post Office at Uzunguni, Dodoma Urban, the tall block stands imposing its incompleteness. Why would the government not have any interest in it?
For three months now, everyone I approached from the lowest to the highest office denied any knowledge of the owners of the building. Interestingly, when I approached the new Regional Commissioner, Ms Chiku Galawa, she also didn’t know anything about it. “To be honest, I don’t have any reliable information, let me connect you to the regional secretariat engineer. He might have something worth to tell you,” she said.
When I spoke to the engineer, Mr Mohamed Mkwata, he simply said: “I know the block you are inquiring about but I do not know who the proprietor is,” he said after I called him.
More curious and eager to find the owner, I went to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) headquarters, where, strangely, the officials had no documentation whatsoever of the structure, no official records of the plot number.
Together with top officials at CDA, I tried tracking down the plot number. It turned out to be another futile exercise, as the physical address was not indicated on any of the available maps.
But impeccable sources in the regional commissioner and the Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) offices revealed that the block was built as far back as 1990 by the then, Tanzania Postal and Telecommunication Company (TPTC), and was later sold to the Ministry of Water.
Due to financial constraints the Water ministry failed to develop it further before it was sold off to the Tanzania Building Agency (TBA), the supposed current owner.
Sources claim the agency did not add any value to the building. “TBA has reliable information on the site. I know the agency doesn’t have sufficient funds to complete the building,” said one source who preferred to remain anonymous.
I visited the Dodoma regional TBA office where the regional assistant manager said: “I don’t know anything.” The TBA managing director did not pick my calls. A senior government official who asked for anonymity, confided that: “Construction of the building is below standard. It should be razed.”
