Jakaya Kikwete:
Stop selling land to
foreigners
President Jakaya Kikwete has called upon the general public to put a stop to the habit of selling land to foreigners.
The President made the call when inaugurating the new Mbwemkuru-Mingoyo tarmac road in Lindi Region on Wednesday.
“Avoid selling land portions to foreigners anyhow,” he warned.
Kikwete said regardless of the fact that the new 95-kilometre road opens doors for economic development opportunities, the opportunities should not be used for selling land to foreigners.
“There are areas in this country where local people have sold their land and later found themselves becoming agents of the same people they sold land to, assisting them (new owners of land) to sell the same land to other people,” he said.
Kikwete was addressing a public rally at Mkwajuni in Lindi District where the launching ceremony was held.
The president said the completion of the tarmac road has brought to an end the long history on complaints by Lindi and Mtwara residents that they have been forgotten.
“Now the story that Tanzanians living south of Rufiji River were still living in Tanganyika, and those in the North of the River were living in Tanzania is now history,” said Kikwete.
The 95-kilometre tarmac road is one of the roads funded directly by Tanzanian taxpayers without any assistance from the donor community.
The road whose construction contract was signed in 2003 and the completion of its construction was done last year, has cost the government 113.7bn/-.
The funds include 2bn/- as compensation for the people whose houses were demolished to give way for the construction of the road.
Since the government started to use its own source of funds in 2001 to build roads and other infrastructure, about 500 kilometers have been constructed including large bridges at Ruvu and Mpiji rivers in the Coast Region.
Speaking at the function, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Engineer Omar Chambo said three other construction projects which are funded by the government were being implemented.
He named the projects as the 50-kilometre Geita-Sengerema road, the 40-kilometre Sengerema-Usagara and the Umoja bridge which links Tanzania and Mozambique.
Chambo however admitted that the construction of Mbwemkuru-Mingoyo road was difficult due to the difficult terrain in which the road passes.
He said they were forced to build 27 bridges for the project.
The completion of the project means that the road from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam through Mingoyo-Lindi-Mbwemkuru-Nangurukuru-Somanga was now tarmacked.
The only portion which has no tarmac is that between Somanga and Ndundu in the Coast region, whose construction was due to start after the president laid a foundation stone for the work.
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