KEEN PLANNING NEEDED TO RESOLVE LAND CONFLICTS
What you need to know:
- Land Conflicts occur when there are conflicting views on land-use policies and/or regulatory frameworks – such as when an increasing population creates competitive demands for the use of one and the same land.
One of the news reports in our edition last Friday (February 4, 2022, page 3) was on a Primary School teacher in Kilimanjaro Region, Mr Evarist Mushi, 59, who was abruptly rendered homeless as a result of “a protracted land dispute.”
Titled ‘Land dispute leaves Moshi teacher homeless,’ our report revealed that – although the teacher has apparently owned the house and home in which he had lived for the last 24 years – a court order that was issued under somewhat unclear circumstances resulted in demolition of the house, thus rendering the teacher virtually homeless.
On the very same page 3 of the same edition, we also reported that Tanga District Commissioner Hashim Mgandila has directed the Tanga Municipal Council “to make an inventory of open spaces that are or were owned by the council. This is to ensure that they (the open spaces) are returned to the council for use according to their set purposes”…
The ‘open spaces’ referred to here include the ‘Mzalendo Grounds’ which were formerly part and parcel of the Mwanzange Primary School, and were used as public sports playgrounds not too long in the past.
Clearly, this is another example of a land dispute – this time between the Tanga Municipal Council and the Ibathi Muslim Sect whose members have fenced off the area, and converted part of it into a cemetery.
Basically, a ‘land dispute’ involves conflicting claims to rights in land by two or more parties, focused on a particular piece of land.
Land disputes vis-à-vis land conflicts
More often than not, this “occurs when two separate entities feel like they both have a legal claim to a piece of land as property. This may be a disagreement about a property’s boundary lines, a bank foreclosure – or even a clerical error that created two rightful owners”...
On the other hand, a land conflict – also known as ‘land use conflict – is usually the result of interaction between groups of people with different interests in how land is/should be used.
Land Conflicts occur when there are conflicting views on land-use policies and/or regulatory frameworks – such as when an increasing population creates competitive demands for the use of one and the same land.
Readily coming to mind here are land conflicts between crop farmers on the one hand, and livestock herders on the other – as well as prospective investors and statutory land holders/owners.
In Tanzania, land matters are regulated under both the Land Act 1999 (CAP13), and the Village Land Act 1999 (CAP 114) as amended from time to time.
But these have never eliminated land disputes or land conflicts, which continue to plague the country to one adverse degree or another.
For example, while land disputes can involve almost every one against everyone else – be they individuals or institutions – land conflicts more often than not involve groups with similar interests against their adversaries.
These include – but are by no means limited to – crop farmers versus livestock herders; prospective investors and public infrastructural projects versus statutory holders of land, etc…
We, therefore, urge greater, functional efforts on countrywide education on land planning, management and allied services, as well as disputes/conflict resolutions.
