Villagers demand part of Mzuni land

Scores of villagers facing eviction from a 6,000 hectare land, where the Mzuzu University new campus will be built, have asked government to spare them and instead let them settle on part of that land.

Government intends to relocate the villagers numbering 7,000 to Mabangwe Estate about 100 Kilometres from Mzuzu.

"We have kept the land for more than 100 years and the same land is betraying us. Compensation is nothing to us. We welcome the University but we feel the land is just too much for them," Grivins Msiska, a spokesperson for the villagers.

Government acquired the land, which is at Choma, on the outskirts of Mzuzu some years ago.

Aerial view of City of Mzuzu

But the villagers in a signed petition to Chief Mtwalo dated 5th, September 2011 and sourced by Nyasa Times, argued that they have kept the flora and fauna intact of the area since 1913 when the first family of Kalani Msiska first settled in the area.

"We have many families with Dairy cows which they obtained on loans and we understand where they want to put us is an area that is not fit for Dairy cows. This is tantamount to killing us," Msiska claimed.

But Chief Mtwalo said he will forward the concerns to appropriate authorities saying the land was not under his jurisdiction now.

In 2008, villagers around Choma attacked and wounded Lands officials over the land designated for  Mzuzu University main campus.  The villagers claimed they own the land and could not move away.

Nyasa Times 09 Sep, 2011

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Source: http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/villagers-demand-part-of-mzuni-land/
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