Tanzania: Grave Concern Over Cemetery Shift to Njiro
Part of the cemetery earmarked to be moved to
Njiro, south of the city
Members of the Muslim Community in Arusha have moved in to block the planned shifting of nearly 3000 human bodies, buried within the Levolosi Cemetery here, saying the city council has no authority to do so.
Armed with official documents to substantiate the fact, the Chairman of the Muslim Burial and Cemetery Committee Mr Omar Bokolo said the entire burial grounds belonged to Islam Communities of Arusha and they even have all relevant papers to prove the fact.
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"We were surprised to learn that the City Council was thinking of exhuming buried bodies from our graveyard and shifting them elsewhere without consulting us," said Mr Bokolo and warned the city authorities not to take things for granted.
"We are going to mobilize one of the biggest protest match in the history of this country should the authorities continue to overwrite our rights," warned Mr Bokolo.
Sheikh Khamis Mollel of Sekei, said the cemetery, which features green cover of grass and indigenous trees was the green-belt area left in Arusha after the council sold off all open spaces and now they were threatening to do the same to the graveyard.
A veteran, Mzee Yussuf Mchinja, recalls that the graveyard were formerly farms belonging to the late Said Sera Larusai who donated it to the Muslim community for them to convert the area into burial grounds in 1940.
The contested graveyard lies between Wachagga Street, Makongoro Road and Colonel Middleton Road facing both the City Bus Terminal and Sheikh Amri Abeid Sports Stadium.
Last week, the Arusha City Director Alhaj Juma Idd, floated the council's decision to dig out the bodies buried in a total of 2,514 tombs in Levolosi area.
Asked whether the council had permission from members of families of the deceased, the Director claimed that the decision followed successful talks between the Municipal Council Officials, the Arusha District Commissioner Mr John Mongela and members of the Muslim Community who claim ownership of the burial grounds dating back to 1940s.
"Arusha lacks a proper bus terminal because the current station is tiny, highly congested and extremely old, we therefore decided to construct a modern one which therefore calls for more space and the graveyard came in handy on that it is situated just across the road from the station," said Alhaj Idd adding that the exhumed corpses will be taken for fresh burial in Njiro area.
The City Director said soon the city hall will issue official announcement regarding the date and the process of shifting the graveyard from Levolosi to Njiro so that the relatives of the buried persons, can turn up for the exercise.
He said special equipment will be needed and have already been ordered, while also some money is to be paid to the affected relatives as some sort of compensation for the trouble.
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