Residents’ nightmare after demolitions in city suburb

Dar es Salaam. A week after bulldozers pulled down 250 houses in a densely-populated Buguruni suburb to pave the way for the construction of a standard gauge railway line, shocked residents are still counting their losses even as the authorities are digging in on providing no compensation to those turned homeless overnight.

“We are going to seek justice in the courts of law,” Mr Juma Mhonda, one of the affected residents, tells The Citizen on Saturday.

Hundreds of them are still stuck in the area amid the heavy rains that pounded the city over the past few days.

They have been sleeping in the open, some in makeshift shelters right where the bulldozers demolished their houses on the order of the Reli Asset Holding Company (Rahco).

It’s also been a busy week for other residents who are slowly coming to terms with the fact that they have to leave. These have hade to face the nightmarish search for new houses to rent in the city.

Rahco insists that all the demolished houses had been built within the 30-metre reserve along the raliway line.

But the resident are arguing that according to a Rahco notice, and city by-laws, the reserve radius is 15 metres on either side of the rail lines, and 30 metres in villages.

“After the notice, we voluntarily demolished most of the structures within the 15-metre radius, but last Saturday they violated their own law and notice,” argues a distraught Mr Mhonda.

The authorities say all the residents had been given notice, well in advance.

As the bulldozers roared last week, Rahco public relations officer Catherine Moshi said the demotions were above board. It was a countrywide exercise to demolish all houses built within the reserve area.

“The home owners will not be compensated, and no house built in the railway reserve area will be spared,” she said.

“We gave them ample time to evacuate; we started issuing public notices to the residents since last year, and even yesterday (Friday) we passed around the areas advising them to leave the railway reserve.”

There will be compensation for those whose houses were not in the railway reserve, according to the Rahco official.

This month, the first phase of the ambitious modern railway project stretching over 300km from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro is scheduled to begin.

It is expected to ease transportation of people and cargo -- and address the traffic congestion headache in the populous city.

But at Buguruni kwa Madenge, there is no joy at the prospects of any anticipated positive change to be brought by the standard gauge railway line.

Dust and noise still cloud the area.

In the rubble, a group of young men cut iron bars, iron sheets and other metal they can lay their hands on -- for sell.

Some lucky ones come across valuables buried in the rubble.

Most landlords here decry the loss of their only source of income. They have been here for decades, they say.

Before the demolitions last week, Mr Mhonda’s had a seven-bedroom house he inherited from his parents. Today, that house has been reduced to two bedrooms where his six children are squeezed. His tenants occupy two other rooms. The family has put up ramshackle hut of iron sheets and wood recovered from the rubble.

In this hut is everything they managed to rescue from their demolished house. They lost some property in the demolitions. He wishes Rahco had given them a little more time.

“We still have so many unanswered questions. We don’t know what fate holds for us. We are here, as confused as you can see…I have now decided to take my children back to the village in Mkuranga District, as I consider how to settle down and run the family,” he says.

He recalls three weeks ago when Rahco officials visited the area and marked his house with an ‘X’. That sealed the fate of his house.

“We understand the government is doing this to develop the country, but the way Rahco conducted the demolition exercise is unfair; we have lost a number of valuables, and we have not been given alternative settlement.”

Ms Amina Tumba has a hard time facing four of her eight tenants who are demanding a refund.

“Yes, they have every right to demand their money, but where do I get money to pay them back? I’m as a destitute as they are right now; in fact I’m the one who has been dealt the heaviest blow, losing a house is not a joke,” she says.

Her rooms cost Sh30,000 each, paid six months in advance.

It’s just one in the many conflicts pitting tenants against their erstwhile landlords since the demolitions.

Tenants also reportedly lost their property, and are now spending cold, rainy nights and battling mosquitoes in the open.

Dramatic scenes

There have been dramatic scenes with tenants demanding refunds from their landlords.

Ms Tumba, and many other people here, have told The Citizen on Saturday that they are concerned about security.

That area -- Buguruni -- is infamous for many things, but one stands out: the whole place is infested with thieves (commonly known in Kiswahili as ‘mateja’), most of them drug addicts.

“It’s harvest season for the thieves who are here in big numbers. While the rest of the residents are crying over their loss, the thieves are feasting,” says Ms Tumba.

Ms Sara Msuya, 57, an affected tenant, says she had managed to save her 25 chickens and ducks last Saturday, but all were stolen three days later.

She says although her family was left with a single room, they can’t have the luxury of sleeping inside. “We’re forced to sleep outside to guard our property.”

Even so, one needs to sleep with their eyes wide open, she suggests. “I lost my mobile phone just like that, after I decided to take a nap.”

There are more concerns. “The authorities should boost police patrols in the area because a lot of women and girls are sleeping in the open and they can be an easy target for rapists.”

No toilets

The hundreds of people still stuck here now face a major health risk. Most of them have been left with no toilets.

The sanitation system is in a shambles and fears abound of a potential outbreak of cholera or any waterborne disease.

Bibi Amina Kwasa and her 11 grandchildren have been left with no choice but knock at their neighbours each time nature calls. That may not last long because the pressure is too much, and the welcome mat may wear thin fast.

“There just too many of us; we cannot all go to one neighbour and ask for the service… I have a problem with my legs, so since Sunday, I watch the amount of water I take in a day so I don’t go out often.”

In the cover of dark, residents have also resorted to use plastic bags and bottles to relieve themselves.