At the beginning of November 2022 residents of eight villages surrounding Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) held a public gathering to voice their opposition to moves by local authorities to evict them from their customary land. “We have been living on this land long before Tanganyika’s independence and years before the airport was constructed,” they explained. A village representative pointed out that all the villages have title deeds and officially recognised schools, places of worship and businesses, saying, “We are prepared to travel all the way to Dar-es-Salaam and lodge our grievances and complaints to President Samia Sululu Hassan.” Affected villages include Sanya Station, Mtakuja, Tindigani, Chemka, Majengo, Malula and Samaria. Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner, Nurdin Babu, had recently visited the area and declared that the government planned to survey the area and plots of land surrounding the airport. He said the exercise would culminate with erecting beacons to demarcate parts of land belonging to the people from land within the airport authority area. Residents feared a move to remove their homes and argued that they had lived in the precinct since before construction of KIA, which was inaugurated in December 1971. Residents also claimed that their fathers and grandfathers had donated land for the airport [1].

By 4th December 2022 concrete beacons were being erected along the perimeter of KIA, appearing to annex a large portion of land previously settled by villagers. Hundreds of villagers’ homes had been marked for demolition with numbers painted in red. Residents of marked houses were also instructed to fill in special forms. A resident of Masama Rundugai Ward said they were living in fear with police and police trucks patrolling the entire area. Another resident said they had been informed that police were present in order to safeguard the ongoing exercise of evaluating properties for compensation, asking, “How are they evaluating houses, commercial buildings, schools, dispensaries, churches and mosques as well as farms, not to mention our parents, grandparents and ancestors’ graves, livestock and other properties without involving their owners?” Some impacted villagers said their homes were located more than 10 kilometres from KIA and wondered why such a large area of land was required, as the airport expansion and rehabilitation project had already been completed. Regional Commissioner, Nurdin Babu, said the land demarcation and property evaluation exercise is a new development, stating, “The villagers should understand that the land belonging to Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company must be vacated and the affected residents will be compensated.” [2]

For several months residents of the eight villages had been up in arms against what they described as a local authority proposal for them to be evicted from their customary land, expressing their views during a series of public gatherings [2].

Addressing hundreds of people during a stopover at Usa River township in the Arumeru District at the end of a five-day official visit President Samia Suluhu Hassan said, “The airport land will remain in the hands of the government.” She said that Sh11 billion (USD4.7 million) had been set aside as compensation for villagers whowould be forced out of the land, describing it as a gesture made with consideration that some affected people had built permanent structures. Local leaders said this announcement was a setback for villagers who were unsure of continuance of their presence on the land. Villagers were responding to many recent remarks made in Parliament regarding the land dispute between KIA and surrounding communities that had remained unresolved for many years [3].

Citizens of seven villages around KIA had asked President Samia to intervene in the land dispute in March 2021 and claimed that answers given in parliament by Deputy Minister of Construction and Transport, Mwita Waitara, about the crisis -saying that KIA was allocated an area of 11,080 hectares in 1969 and that government noted the presence of people in the villages in 2001 - had caused anxiety due to being inaccurate. A joint declaration by citizens stated that KIA took 460 hectares of land in 1969 (which have not been developed) and that their ancestors had been in the area for many centuries. Examples of evidence of Maasai in the disputed area included banknotes from 1960 and the early 1970s depicting Maasai in the area and registration of five of the villages in 1975, during the socialist era. A representative of Kia ward Chama Cha Mapinduzi, Tanzania’s dominant ruling party, said that the Ministry of Land set aside 110 square kilometres for development without involving people living in the areas, claiming this contravened Land Acquisition Act No. 47 of 1967. A Kia ward councillor said the Deputy Minister’s statements had caused shock as the decision would mean loss of land with housing, large agricultural fields and livestock pastures from people in the seven villages [3].

The councillor asked the President to send an independent commission and stated that the number of households affected was more than 5,000, far higher than 200 as had been claimed [4]. People of five villages repeated the request to the Government not to remove them from the area at a public meeting in Kia ward in August 2022, reiterating the claim that about 5,000 households would be adversely impacted [5].

A serious case of infrastructure induced dispossession

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) notes that the conflict between seven predominantly Maasai pastoralist villages and KIA is one of the most serious cases of infrastructure induced dispossession of lands of indigenous people in Tanzania [6]. An article summarising the situation for indigenous people in 2019, by Edward Porokwa, lawyer and advocate at the High Court of Tanzania and Executive Director of Pastoralists Indigenous Non Governmental Organization's Forum (PINGO's Forum), described the disagreement between seven villages mainly inhabited by Maasai pastoralists and KIA as a ‘serious land-induced conflict’: “The Maasai have been in the area since before recorded memory. The government neither sought nor received the free, prior and informed consent of the Maasai pastoralists to construct the airport on their ancestral land in the 1970s. The Maasai resisted the land grab – and managed to limit the fenced-off area allocated for the airport to 460 hectares. However, in the mid-1980s, the Ministry of Land Affairs arbitrarily set aside 110 sq. km. surrounding the airport in the name of development. This has been the source of many conflicts ever since.” [7]

Porokwa explains that in 2018, about 20 herdsmen were arrested for grazing livestock in a forest planted by the community on its ancestral land and that intimidating patrols by KIA staff were witnessed in the area. The General Secretary of Livestock Affairs visited the area and said he wanted to hear from pastoralists about the land conflict so the government could take action [7].

Documentation of the KIA land conflict 2007-2014

In February 2007 Arusha Times reported that ‘residents around the airport are locked in a crisis over an order slapped on them to stop all development activities in the area’. Issued by the Arumeru District Executive the order was thought to be a preamble to a stricter order requiring residents to vacate the area. The order stated that the land around the airport belongs to the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) in an agreement with Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO), operator of KIA, to manage the airport and surrounding areas. Villagers of Malula disagreed with the order saying the land was allocated to them by Arumeru District Council in 1959. About 360 families were affected by the order. A villager asked “Now they are telling us to vacate the area and surrender our farms, where do we go? How do we support our families?” KADCO declined to comment on the order [8].

In August 2012 nearly 1,000 families living around KIA opposed an eviction order, pleading to the highest authorities for assistance. KADCO said the villagers had trespassed on airport land and must vacate. Mtakuja and Sanya Station villagers said they were genuine residents having been relocated during the 1970s villagisation programme. Their neighbours at Tindigani village said they had lived there since 1999 and could not see any justification for evicting them from lowlands supplying them with water. In a meeting with Hai District leader villagers, most of them livestock keepers, claimed the order would lead to eviction of 907 families comprising 6,349 people, who would be forced to abandon 1,700 hectares of farmland. Hai district commissioner Novatus Makunga said the issue was ‘sensitive’ due to villages in dispute with TAA had land titles for their respective areas. He asked villagers to be patient while a six-person team formed by district authorities investigated the crisis. Since taking over management of KIA in 1998 KADCO had repeatedly warned against what it claimed to be trespassing on the land as it would stifle expansion plans including leasing part of it to investors [9].

The following month KADCO claimed that nearly 40 per cent of what it referred to as the KIA ‘estate’ had been invaded by people establishing settlements. Officials said nearly 3,642 hectares of the total 9,307 hectare area designated for the airport expansion had been intruded upon. Acting KADCO Managing Director, Bakari Murusuri, said about 2,000 local residents had settled illegally on ‘the airport estate’, establishing the villages of Malula, Majengo, Sanya Station, Tindigani and Mtakuja. He said the ‘invasion’ would be a setback for KADCO’s master plan that could see development of the KIA area into a tourist and commercial city and also posed a security threat. In 2002 KADCO had estimated more than USD3 million would be required to compensate the ‘squatters’ but in the interim this amount may have doubled. Transport Minister, Dr Harrison Mwayembe, said he had already ordered eviction of all squatters who had trespassed into KIA before the end of 2012 [10].

A December 2014 PINGO’s Forum report on the predicament of Maasai pastoralists surrounding KIA traces the history of the land conflict from construction of the airport, beginning in May 1969, to repeated attempts to grab land in the name of expansion in the preceding few years. Maasai presence in the area dates back further than recorded history and KIA expansion proponents’ descriptions of them as ‘squatters’ is erroneous. The Maasai resisted construction of KIA on their ancestral land but after President Julius Nyerere appealed to a highly respected healer they vacated a 460 hectare area to make way for the airport. The 16 families displaced for KIA are listed. The Land Acquisition Act No. 47 of 1967 stipulates payment of compensation and allocation of alternative land of the same size and value. But no compensation was paid to the Maasai and no land was given to them [10].

Impacts of aircraft noise pollution

When KIA became operational aircraft noise caused more displacement; additional families moved further away and livestock fled the disturbance. Wild animals were frightened by noise from planes and also left the airport area as the number of flights increased, including many of the lions, leopards, giraffes, cheetahs, ostriches, zebras, buffalos, antelopes, elephants and black rhinoceroses which were in the area as recently as the 1980s [11].

An article in the Tanzania Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences (TAJNAS) reported results of a study to assess aircraft noise levels within and around KIA, using data collected during take-offs and landings in February and March 2013. Perceptions of and attitudes towards aircraft noise among passengers in the waiting lounge, residents living around the airport, patients at a nearby dispensary and pupils at a Kia primary school were analysed. Measured noise levels at all these sites exceeded WHO recommended limits. Approximately 59% of respondents had negative perceptions and attitudes toward aircraft noise at KIA [12].

10,000 villagers protest relocation plans

Resistance against relocation for KIA expansion reached a high point on 25th March 2014. Over 10,000 villagers marched against KIA plans for expansion and to relocate them. Carrying placards, they called on the government to cancel the plans. Large stones were used to block the main airport access road but this roadblock was later removed. Novatus Makunga, Hai district commissioner, dismissed villagers’ concerns they would be relocated as “mere rumours” saying the government had no such plans. Noting that people had lived in the areas since the 1970s he said, “KIA expansion plan started in 1980s, so I don’t see the reason for people to worry about. They are living there legally.”[13] In April Makunga again attempted to allay Maasai community fears of being dispelled from the land and said a solution would be decided by the Regional Defence and Security Committee which would be arrived at by engaging with locals. To that end he had met with traditional leaders of the villages. Makunga also said a task force was in place including experts on map and land issues [14]. A Kia ward leader said approximately 10,000 residents in Tindigani, Mtakuja, Sanya Station and Majengo villages would be affected if the eviction to pave the way for airport renovation went ahead [15].

In October 2014 Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development, Professor Anna Tibaijuka, ruled against the people living on the disputed land, saying all the land apportioned to KIA remained under its ownership. Touring the disputed area and dismissing the villages as mere administrative boundaries she said KIA is very important, boundary recovery would be conducted and that the Ministry of Transport should secure the borders. Kilimanjaro Regional Urban Planning Officer, Godbless Kimaro, said villagers residing in the contested area claimed to be rightful owners of the land [16]. Following a meeting between Ministry of Transport representatives, Hai municipal council and Arumeru villagers, local government officials and clan elders urged a 15-person team formed by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to find a solution to the KIA land conflict. A Maasai traditional leader said they were not informed about a delegate sent to resolve the conflict. The KIA manager stated that the airport has a title deed for the area and planned to formalise the border with survey stones. Village leaders did not accept this explanation and left the meeting [17].

Research and advocacy supporting affected communities

PINGO's Forum’s 2015 Annual Report outlines Maasai pastoralists’ struggle against eviction during 2014. Residents of affected villages selected a 41-person taskforce and mobilised many potential victims, more than 10,000, for the aforementioned protest on 25th March. Following the eviction threats a fact-finding and media mission was undertaken to trace the history of the airport and the perspectives of authorities including KADCO, regional and district authorities and central government. Research to ascertain the number of potential victims of the ‘land grab drive’ confirmed that more than 20,000 people, mainly Maasai pastoralists, were threatened with eviction. Other teams confirmed the land area threatened by KIA expansion and collected evidence including maps, footage and documents such as letters, minutes and declarations. In addition, motives for expanding KIA and financing of the project were investigated. PINGO’s Forum’s findings on the conflict were publicised through various media outlets. Meeting with affected communities helped establish the legal and historical basis of their claim to the land and shape advocacy strategies to defend it [18].

PINGO’s Forum work to support impacted communities continued in 2016. In response to a visit by the Kilimanjaro Regional Security Committee to KIA and the contested area that did not include a single village representative, a community representative sent a protest letter. PINGO’s Forum meetings brought together several civil society organisations. A letter from the Hai District Commissioner warned residents of all villages bordering KIA to cease human activities in the area stating that stern measures would be taken against defaulters. People from all affected villages gathered, the press were invited and it was thought that journalists did attend, but no news items were published. In October 2016 the government began mapping the contested area using drones fitted with cameras and warned the community against protesting.

Later that month a protest committee meeting was well represented with at least 10 civil society organisations and the Office of the Member of Parliament for Arumeru Mashariki also represented. Tourism Advocacy and Action Forum (TAAF) and Equations (Equitable Tourism Options) offered to support raising public awareness about the conflict [19]. PINGO’s Forum’s July 2016-June 2018 Biennial Report confirmed that seven villages – Sanya Station, Tindigani, Chemka, Samaria, Mtakuja, Majengo and Malula – were impacted by KIA expansion plans for 11,085 hectares of land. Residents of Rundugai village were also affected, not directly but because of their almost entire dependence upon land in Tindigani for farming [11].

Finance minister Saada Mkuya Salum signed an agreement with Dutch minister for Foreign Trade and Development Corporation Lilianne Ploumen granting €15 million from the Dutch government funded facility for infrastructure (ORIO) for rehabilitation and expansion of KIA in February 2014. This amount was 42.25% of the project cost and the Tanzanian government committed to contributing the remaining €20.5 million. The project entailed rehabilitation of aprons, taxiways and the terminal building to accommodate an expected increase in passenger numbers [21]. In August 2015 it was announced that the KIA rehabilitation and expansion project was expected to be completed by early 2017. Dutch firm BAM International was awarded the €37 million contract and the project was to be overseen by South African engineering consultant Royal HaskoningDHV (RHVDV), subsidiary of the international firm headquartered in the Netherlands. ORIO was to fund €15 million with the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance contributing €22 million [22]. In November 2015 the project engineer said that the KIA upgrade would double the passenger capacity to 1.2 million per annum [23].

Returning from a visit to Oman in June 2022, President Samia Suluhu Hassan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between government-owned Oman Airports and KADCO for development of KIA. According to the provisions of this agreement Oman Airports will undertake development of the terminal for very important persons (VIPs) and a hangar facility at KIA, a five-star hotel for passengers plus a business and shopping mall at the airport. A press release stated that the MoU "has scope for development of other facilities that may be agreed upon mutually by the parties", adding, "This partnership will serve in developing the facilities referred to in the text of the MoU to ensure the provision of high-standard services as part of efforts to raise revenues for both the Tanzanian government that owns the airport and Oman Airports" [24].

An inquiry by the 2020/21 report of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) led to the Public Accounts Parliamentary Committee (PAC) raising concerns over the ownership of KADCO. The 25-year concession agreement, signed in 1998 and due to expire in 2023, gave KADCO the right to develop KIA. But in 2006 the government found that stakeholders had failed to invest in developing the airport and hence was not benefitting as KADCO was not paying concession fees. Thus in 2009 the government bought all KADCO shares becoming the full owner. Therefore, the PAC inquired regarding the reasons for the continued existence of the concession agreement. The committee also sought an explanation as to why KADCO was not run by the TAA [25]. In November 2022 Parliament directed that KIA be under the TAA instead of KADCO and ordered the CAG to conduct a comprehensive audit on KADCO’s accounts dating back to 2010 [26].