Special Seats legislator, Rose Kamili (Chadema)

Special Seats legislator Rose Kamili (Chadema) has accused some district commissioners of interfering with district directors' authority by giving orders to village and street executives who legally are under council directors.

Kamili told the House that there were some DCs and RCs who go beyond their areas of jurisdiction by ordering the transfer of villagers from their lands and detention of village executives.

The lawmaker cited Maswa district where the DC allegedly ordered the arrest and seven-day detention of an executive ostensibly for failure to collect nine goats for the Prime Minister’s token.

Responding, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Aggrey Mwanri said the powers of the central and local governments were defined in the Local Government Act and Regional Administration Act No. 19 of 1997.

He said according to the law, RCs and DCs are allowed to intervene where local authorities have failed to implement their responsibilities or violated a policy or laws.

Mwanri added that the law does not allow RCs and DCs to interfere with the powers of local governments if they abide by the law and guidelines set by the central government.

Mwanri said that according to the Regional Administration Act No. 19 of 1997 an RC has the responsibility of supervising all government activities in the region, including empowering the local government authorities to fulfill their duties efficiently but according to the laws, rules and regulations passed by Parliament.

He however said that the law outlined the responsibilities of district commissioners, including being in charge of all government activities in their respective districts.

Mwanri said for executives who are under the district council director their main responsibilities were to implement government activities according to the laws, rules and regulations.

However, following the allegations raised by the MP Mwanri challenged the MP to submit evidence for further action.

"These are serious allegations because the government has no such system and we have never directed any authority to detain executives for failure to collect (nine) goats for the Prime Minister. We would like to be provided with evidence to prove the allegation,” Mwanri stressed.