Dar es Salaam – ACT Wazalendo has warned that Temeke residents could be displaced for inland container depots (ICDs) activity after the district commissioner, Sixtus Mapunda, said the municipality had prepared ten wards to follow Kurasini’s example.
In a September 3 statement, the party said it would oppose any plan to move residents or remove wards for dry ports. It did not state how many people could be affected.
Mapunda made the remarks during an August 27 inspection of Kilimanjaro ICD at Kurasini with Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Albert Chalamila. In the publicly available video, he linked long lorry queues to ICDs he said no longer meet current requirements.
He said Kurasini had been changed from residential use to a port extension, and that Temeke had prepared ten wards to follow its example. Mapunda said officials would work with investors, adding: “The port is a friend. The port does not move, but we human beings can move.’
Mapunda did not name or map the ten wards, give an implementation date, identify investors or announce a formal acquisition process. He also did not state how many households might be affected, or set out compensation and relocation arrangements.
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His words refer broadly to port-related development, while ACT frames them as a plan to clear residents for dry-port activity. Neither side has provided a formal planning document defining the proposal’s scope.
ACT’s regional secretary, Felix Kamugisha, called on Mapunda to halt any relocation or ward-removal plan. The party said it would mobilise peaceful protest if authorities proceeded and backed a proposal by its shadow transport minister, Abdallah Mtutura, to stop new city ICD permits and direct cargo towards Kwala and other rail-connected sites.
A freight system under pressure
The dispute comes amid a broader argument over how to move a rapidly growing volume of cargo through the country’s principal maritime gateway without transferring the costs to residential neighbourhoods.
At a recent transport stakeholders’ meeting in Temeke, the municipal director, Jamaary Satura, said about 70 per cent of Dar es Salaam’s 114 ICDs were in the municipality. As reported by the government-owned Daily News newspaper, participants proposed a logistics hub in Pwani Region, while officials discussed regulatory action against ICDs that fail to meet requirements.
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Residents and transport operators have cited lorry queues, road damage, safety risks near schools and restricted local access as consequences of ICD activity in built-up districts.
In August, Chalamila ordered action against trucks parked in road reserves, while truck owners said enforcement required designated alternatives and consultation; a standoff highlighted a shortage of lawful truck-staging space.
Kwala Inland Container Depot in Pwani was developed as part of the off-city freight system and is connected to the Standard Gauge Railway. The Tanzania Ports Authority says Kwala’s first phase remains ongoing and describes future expansion as a means of decongesting Dar es Salaam; it also lists Kurasini among planned dry-port locations.
Displacement concerns
ACT’s warning also enters a period of intense scrutiny of land redevelopment in Dar es Salaam. At various times, residents and business owners from different parts of the city have found themselves being asked to leave their premises to facilitate redevelopment by unnamed investors
These disputes do not establish that a Temeke ICD displacement programme has been approved, but show why residents and informal workers seek clarity on consultation, compensation and land use.
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At Kinondoni’s Biafra Grounds, for example, residents and informal workers told The Chanzo in June that fencing for commercial development was reducing a long-used sports and work space.
The ruling CCM said it owns the land and may develop it, while the municipal mayor acknowledged questions about how conditions attached to the earlier allocation had been fulfilled.
In March, the government halted proposed evictions of hundreds of Coco Beach traders after public objections, with Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba saying the site was not being sold to a private developer. The planned improvements remain under discussion.
In a separate Temeke case in 2025, dozens of Mbagala Rangi Tatu families faced demolition notices connected to a proposed bus terminal. The council said the land was public property and the residents were unlawful occupants, a position challenged by the residents in a dispute that had reached court.
In his statement, Mapunda did not say which sites are under consideration, whether any residents would be affected, and what statutory process, consultation and compensation provisions would apply.
