Dodoma — NAMTUMBO constituency in Ruvuma Region wants the government to consider asking votes from wild animals as it seems to care for them more than its voters, their legislator, Vita Kawawa said in Parliament.
Mr Kawawa said in a supplementary question to the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism that his voters sent him to say in Parliament that they were concerned that the government seems to like the wildlife so much than the people that it gives “peanuts” to victims of wildlife attacks.
A similar concern was raised by Said Mtanda (Mchinga, CCM) who said the government seems to care for wildlife more than it does for voters as it takes longer to deal with cases of elephant invasion on farms.
The Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mahmood Mgimwa, said that it was not true that the government cares more for wildlife than its citizens.
He said the government cared for wildlife as one of the main attractions in the tourism sector, which tops as foreign exchange earner in the country.
He, however, made a pledge to visit affected areas in Namtumbo and Mchinga constituencies to assess the situation as presented by the two lawmakers.
The Deputy Minister had earlier said the government will review regulations governing compensation in Natural Resources and Tourism Ministry in the 2015/16 financial year.
He said it has taken longer to make a review on the regulations due to budgetary constraints as it requires adequate preparations.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Pauline Gekul (Special Seats, Chadema) who wanted to know why it has taken so long to review the regulations under which only peanuts are paid to victims of wildlife attacks or invasion.
The lawmaker said it seemed that the government was not serious in addressing problems faced by people who suffer from wildlife attacks and invasions.
The Deputy Minister admitted that the regulations were seen to have several problems since they began to be used in 2011, including paltry payments to victims of wildlife attacks or invasion of farms.