Act decisively to stem land invasions in Tanzanian towns

Needless to say, Tanzania’s commercial capital and largest city, Dar es Salaam, has not been spared.

It has been the norm for several years now for unscrupulous Dar es Salaam residents to allocate themselves plots on land that is seemingly ownerless, but which, in fact, has its rightful owners, who, in most cases, emerge and produce the relevant documents as proof of ownership.

This has especially been taking place on the city’s outskirts, where land is still readily available.

It has been claimed that most of the land that has essentially been grabbed in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere in recent years was idle, and that this justifies its takeover by fraudsters and con artistes pretending to be poor, landless people.

Some of the land in question has been reclaimed by their rightful owners, but others have found themselves embroiled in protracted legal battles.

Since no decisive action has been taken to stem these unlawful acts, this will only serve to breed a culture of impunity whereby people have little or no respect for the rule of law.

While it is true that there are questions hanging over the dubious allocation of huge swathes of land to investors and other individuals in various parts of the country, allowing people to take over private or public land and carve it up among themselves sets a dangerous precedent.

In almost all cases, people who are the first to allocate themselves plots quickly sell them to others, mostly unsuspecting or ignorant buyers.

This is testimony to the fact that this is a fraud where swindlers have seen an opportunity to pull a fast one and make a quick buck.

It is time the relevant agencies stepped in and ended this madness, lest they are seen to be abetting criminal conspiracy and blatant disregard for the law.

Stop these fabricated stories

Reports of Tanzanians seeking asylum in Western countries are not entirely surprising. What is surprising is the extent to which some of them go to persuade the authorities in those countries to grant them asylum.

One was quoted by Australian media saying he feared he would be killed if he returned to Tanzania, where he had received death threats for his work with people living with HIV and albino children.

Whichever way one looks at this explanation, the inevitable conclusion is that it is a tall story that should be taken with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, many economic migrants from Tanzania and other parts of Africa resort to scarcely believable horror tales when seeking asylum and a supposedly better life in the West.

There are reports of young Tanzanian women having been given asylum in Western countries after claiming to have escaped female genital mutilation back home. While Tanzania may not be the richest country in the world, it is far from being a hellhole as some asylum seekers would like the world to believe.