Tanzania: Mengi Destroys Silverdale Farm. Part 1

In 2004, Benjamin Mengi sold (through Fiona Tanzania Ltd) the lease to Silverdale & Mbono Farms in the Hai District of the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, to British investor Stewart Middleton Silverdale Tanzania Ltd.

A year later Mengi tried to sell the lease again to British Investor Konrad Legg and demanded the lease back stating he had not been paid in full.

When the investors refused, Mengi stated in front of RCO Kighondo, that he would drive the investor and his wife out of Tanzania cut up into pieces if necessary. The investors were then harassed, imprisoned, and intimidated by a four year campaign of violence and destruction of their investment.

Using armed bandits, Mengi destroyed the infrastructure on the farm, night after night they came onto the farms and destroyed everything they could touch. In the day, Mengi came with and directed the police to harass and terrify the investors.

The Tanzanian government facilitated the abuse. It failed to protect the investors and their property and uphold the laws of Tanzania.

This was just one portion of the farm destroyed by the violence and criminality.

The present Minister of Investment Dr. Mary Nagu (at the time of the destruction Minister of Justice) stated she wanted to resolve the case in a manner that protected the Mengi name.

She did that. Mengi has not been asked to account for his criminality and his savagery allowed to continue.

Nagu thus protected the rights of a criminal in abuse of law and destroyed the rights of Tanzanians, Investors and her actions are an indictment on civil society!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Benjamin Mengi
• Mary Nagu
• Tanzania
• Corruption
• Minister of Justice Tanzania
• Kikwete
• Fiona Tanzania
• Africa