Over 500 households close to Chileka International Airport in Blantyre are tussling with government over its intention to forcefully acquire their land for a multibillion hospital project.

The people say although they are delighted with the proposed development in their area, they have “serious reservations” with the manner government is undertaking the process which they allege contravenes the Land Acquisition Act as well as the country’s Constitution.

Some of the community members in Chileka

Government plans to acquire the land for Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Kuhes) to construct a  university teaching hospital plus ancillary infrastructure at Chilangoma in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kuntaja.

The compulsory acquisition process begun in June this year when valuers accompanied by officers from Ministry of Lands and Blantyre district commissioner’s office embarked on an assessment exercise to collect data for compensations.

However, the people claim government officers violated their constitutional right during the exercise and have since formed a task force against the acquisition and engaged lawyer Kuleza Phokoso to represent them as “we stand up for fairness in the dealings.”

Chairperson of the task force Ricky Kamtema confirmed the development in an interview saying government wants to grab almost 387 hectares of land “and almost 500 households are affected and will be resettled.”

“We are not against the project but the manner in which officers from the Ministry of Lands, district commissioner’s officer and T/A Kuntaja have undertaken the process all the way from the consultations,” he stated.

Kamtema also said the families have engaged an independent valuer to conduct a separate valuation exercise and produce a report by the end of September.

Kuleza confirmed on Thursday being given instructions to represent the people on the matter saying they are seeking transparency and accountability from government.

 “About 500 ordinary villagers and families that have lived in the area for years and call it home will have to leave their land, their graveyards where their ancestors are buried and relocate to be strangers elsewhere and start from scratch.

Said said Phokoso in an interview: “Land is not easy to find and relocation is not easy to do. We are there to make sure the rule of law is respected; their constitutional right to property and not to be arbitrarily deprived of the same is respected as well as the dictates of the Land Acquisition Act are respected.”

The land targeted by government will affect 12 chiefs which include group village head Kammata, chiefs Denga, Mbedza, Kumanda, Tamvekenji, Dzineso, Lemu, Gomeza, Lipugama, Temani, Magombo and Chuma.

The concerns from the people are also contained in a letter dated August 12 2022 which Phokoso wrote to Commissioner of Lands at Ministry of Lands Kwame Ngwira who is currently the ministry’s acting principal secretary (PS).

In his six-page letter, titled “Compulsory Land Acquisition in Chilangoma Area of T/A Kuntaja-Chileka-Blantyre for Hospital City Project by Kamuzu University of Health Sciences”, Phokoso claims the officers tasked with the assessments and data collection “flagrantly disregarded the law eroding the trust of the land owners in the acquisition process.”

Reads the letter: “The officers did not assess correctly loss of occupational rights, loss of land, loss of business, relocation costs, loss of goodwill, cost of professional advice, nuisance, injurious affection, loss of business, loss of reduction of tenure and disturbance in line with Section 10 of the Land Acquisition Act 2022.

 “In addition, our clients report incidents of severe intimidation and bullying and threats of expropriation without compensation and the non-inclusion of crucial data regarding their land, property and fixtures thereon.

In an interview yesterday, Nkasala evaded the allegations but confirmed the complaints from the people which he said have affected the mega health project.

 “Engagement meetings with the local leadership and community were held and the general consensus was that they welcomed the project. On the basis of this consensus, processes of property assessment for compensation purposes kick started.

“But before a report for the compensations was released by the Ministry of Lands, recently there have been complaints from some sectors of the community who would want the whole exercise of acquiring the land and compensations to stop.”

However, the DC said relevant higher authorities were looking into the matter for an appropriate action and way forward.

But in a separate interview, T/A Kuntaja laughed off the claims of intimidation and challenged the distressed people to officially complain to him and not through the media.

He said: ”Nobody has come to me or the DC’s office to complain. We have had over 20 meetings on the issue so far and everything is in order.”

The acting PS did not pick our calls after several attempts nor did not respond to our sent to him.

However, in his letter to Phokoso dated September 12 2022, Ngwira said information his office received through the Regional Commissioner for Lands (South) was that the assessment of the properties for compensation purposes had not been finalized meaning the project affected persons (PAPs) were not told the values of their pieces of land and/or improvements thereon.

“It is, therefore, surprising to note that the PAPs are intending to engage or have engaged an independent valuer to undertake an assessment of the properties of the PAPs for compensation purposes and to produce an independent valuation report when, in fact, the government valuers have not yet produced their valuation report.

“What are these PAPs dissatisfied with when the values of their pieces of land and/or improvements thereon have not yet been finalized and/or disclosed to them?” he wondered.

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