**3.2.3 Government based interventions in land use planning process**

In view of land use planning project in the neighborhood, Himo District Council as a local authority initiated this project immediately after the area had been declared to be township in 1986 and consequently extension of the boundary was compulsory. When the planning boundaries for Himo Township were established in 1986, some villages which were registered, under the Village and Ujamaa Registration Act of 1975 in Tanzania, were engulfed into the planning area. Prior to this plan these villages had administrative authorities and the land allocation and control vested with Village Authorities who were entitled to decide about land questions including subdivision and allocation. Kitotoloni village is among the ones engulfed into the planning area. During preparation of land use plan project for this area, there was no explanation on how the villagers would be incorporated into urban fabric, including compensation for their land. Most landholders resisted land use planning and have continued parceling land for selling or allocation to their families and clans. They are also erecting permanent buildings despite the instructions given by the district council to stop doing so. People used to access land in the settlement by different mean as presented in Table 3 below.


Source: Field Data (2008)

Table 3. Land Acquisition at Kitotoloni Village

Results presented in Table 2 show that 142 (88.8%) of property owners got land through inheritance, one person got land from his former employer as a gift (0.6%), and 10.6% bought parcels of land from original settlers and occupation of land by virtue of absence of landlords was not recorded in the area. This has a connotation that land occupiers at Kitotoloni village are strongly attached to customary land tenure system, which is one type of land declared as per Urban Planning Act of 2006, it has to be futile. Women (9.4%) compared to men (90.6%) are seen to be the least involved in property acquisition. This could be caused by patriarchal dominance in accessing property and ownership rights in African families including Chagga community in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania.

In view to such land use developments for the township, the villagers protested against the planning intervention. This protest manifested itself as a conflict, which led into residents appealing in the court of law, seeking help for their land that has been changed from agricultural to residential use. The court of law has issued a stop order to planning and surveying of plots until when a consensus will be reached. The conflict has become an obstacle to the council's attempts to regulate land use change in Himo Township, especially in Kitotoloni village that has been included in the township boundaries.

However, in the discussion with landholders (88% of the total respondents), they said that they are not opposing their farms to be part of urban area, however they were unhappy about the decision because of uncertainty about their lives in the changing social and economic setting in an urban environment. Government officials promised that each landholder whose land will be taken would be given first priority in allocation of new plots and be compensated in the process of land use planning and allocations. The landholders were not satisfied with this promise as they knew that once an area has been declared an urban area, the use of land will change to housing, institutions, and other uses. They also were aware that parceling the land into residential plots will cause change of traditional farm boundaries of individual land holdings. What they did not know is how they will survive in a township environment, as they already experienced that certain laws and regulations in towns prohibit activities such as free grazing, growing of crops such as maize and bananas. This restriction was perceived as a constraint in starting a cooperative that will or may help to market their products profitably and subsequently alleviate poverty. Most land occupiers depend totally on land for their sustenance. In addition, landholders know that once their land has been turned into an urban, they will not have freedom of using it as they desire. In this area, land is used by the owner and children to secure their livelihoods. This necessitated some of them joining Himo SACCOS to cope with urban life
