Govt redraws boundaries

chiefs, a Cabinet Minister has disclosed.
Work to complete the redrawing and gazetting the new boundaries is underway with initial forecast setting December this year as the deadline.
Speaking during a luncheon with Chief Chiweshe at his homestead last Thursday, Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, said all areas will be known by names of the presiding chiefs by December.
“By December all areas would be known by names of the chieftainships. We will have new boundaries by December,” he said.
The issue of boundaries is very emotive and has in some areas seen fierce physical fights between people from different chiefdoms. Claims are that some areas have ancestral artifacts and sacred religious sites.
Others claim that calamities such as droughts, diseases and the breakdown in the social fabric are a result of the invasion of the sacred religious sites by people of different totems. The meeting was attended by Chief Makope, Chief Negomo and Headman Nyachuru. Boundary disputes were immediately revealed in the presentations by the chiefs as they claimed huge swathes of land under their colleagues.
Minister Chombo who was accompanied by Agriculture, Mechanisation, Irrigation and Infrastructure Development Minister Joseph Made visited the tradition leadership to increase interaction between Government and the leaders.
The two ministers wanted the chiefs to present their subjects’ issues and suggest how Government can best intervene. Chief Makope said Government should increase the amount of inputs given to individual farmers.
He argued that food shortages in his area were because of unavailability of inputs. Government, he said, should support the Zunde RaMambo concept with inputs to ease the pressure on the State to feed people.
He appealed for food relief in his area. Chief Negomo echoed Chief Makope’s sentiments.
He harvested 9.5 tonnes of maize under the Zunde Ramambo programme. The food will be distributed to the needy in the community. He said he was happy with the Government initiative to redraw chiefdom boundaries.