POLICE in Dar es Salaam are holding several people for allegedly blocking Kawawa Road at Mkwajuni area in the city, making the highway impassable for some hours yesterday.
“These people will be questioned for their role in the disturbance, which has disrupted transport along the road,” Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander Simon Sirro said.
Part of the busy Kawawa Road at Mkwajuni area was impassable after a group of people blocked the highway with burning tyres, protesting the move by the government to mark down their makeshift shelters for demolition.
The makeshift shelters are those erected in the same spots where houses in the flood prone areas were recently demolished by the National Environment Management Council (NEMC).
NEMC officials returned to the area yesterday and put ‘X’ marks on the shelters as notice to the people occupying the structures in the prohibited area to relocate.
However, this did not go well with the residents, hence the disorder. However, the police and fire brigade arrived at the scene and managed to quell the disobedience and put off the fire.
Traffic was heavily disrupted as vehicles could not go through the passage, leading to heavy congestion for vehicles heading to Kinondoni from Magomeni and vice-versa.
The Director General of NEMC, Engineer Bonaventura Baya, told reporters after the fracas that the residents had been informed of the impending demolition since the area in question is unsafe for human settlement.
He thus went there yesterday morning to monitor the marking of the temporary shelters, only a find a group of youth pelting stones, blocking the road by setting tyres on fire and placing pieces of wood on the busy road.
“We had informed occupants of the shelters that we will clear off the area by removing all structures erected by residents whose houses were demolished in the recent exercise.
“The disturbance has inconvenienced road users since the highway was impassable as a result of the burning tyres,” Eng Baya explained. He thanked the police for arriving at the scene to quell the situation, stating that NEMC will continue marking down the structures for a ‘clean up’ exercise.
Eng Baya was seemingly irked by the disobedience since the government has already declared the area as unsafe for human settlement. “Those with grievances should go to appropriate government offices otherwise we cannot deal with the people causing chaos on the road,” he stated.
For his part, a member of local government in Hananasif, Mr Deogratius Magera, blamed the NEMC officials for marking down the shelters without cooperating with leaders in the grassroots.
“The officials gave three days to the occupants to relocate from the area but they did not involve leaders in the local government. NEMC should have come to us first since we know our people better,” Mr Magera said.
He went on to state that before the general election last year, there were 375 houses marked for demolition in Hananasif and Kawawa Road areas but only 25 house owners were provided with plots in Mabwepande on the outskirts of the city.
/Daily News.
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