Over 615 graves exhumed as villagers pave way for Serengeti National Park’s expansion onto Lake Victoria.

The Government has dished out over 61.89 billion/- equivalent to USD 25.9 Million, to compensate villagers who were compelled to vacate their land to pave way for wildlife corridors’ restoration.

Tabling the Ministry’s budget in Parliament, Dr Pindi Chana the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, said the money was paid to villagers who voluntarily agreed to vacate their residential areas to allow conservation efforts.

She tabled the ministry budget to the tune of 359,982,271,000/- (nearly 360 billion/-) or USD 133 billion, for the fiscal year 2025/2026.

The money was paid to 16,936 residents in Mara and Morogoro regions where 78 districts, bordering the Serengeti-Mara and Nyerere-Selous-Niassa wildlife connectivity passages are mapped.

The exercise also involved the relocation of burial grounds comprising 618 graves in the Speke Bay, a long delta which links Serengeti to the shores of Lake Victoria.

The fact that Serengeti now joins Lake Victoria at Speke Bay, boosts the size of the National Park and makes it even more attractive.

For many years there has been a long narrow strip, measuring more than three kilometers wide, which was separating Lake Victoria from the Serengeti National Park.

The Western Corridor of the Serengeti features a mushy and wildlife rich precinct stretching between the great Mbalageti and Grumeti rivers.

The two water bodies form a bayou which drains into the Speke Bay area of the massive lake, creating a delta similar to Botswana’s Okavango but which was yet to be discovered by the many tourists visiting Serengeti.

This passage linking Serengeti and Victoria was previously populated with farmers and fishermen living in Tamau, Nyatwali, Kariakoo and Serengeti villages forcing the government to dish out 45.9 billion/- equivalent to USD 18.5 million reimburse the residents who have now moved out to pave way for conservation efforts.

Contributing to the Budget Speech, the special seats Member of Parliament, Esther Bulaya, however pointed out that the compensation was meagre compared to the actual costs of moving villagers especially of Nyatwali who realized that the cost of land to the places they moved to was almost double of the government estimation.

Bulaya pointed out that, while the compensation was for paving way to park expansion, the villagers still demanded reimbursement of loss incurred from the destruction of 5338 acres of farms, allegedly by elephants and the deaths of over 800 cattle from other marauding wildlife species.

“Plus there are still 1483 villagers who are still not paid compensation,” Bulaya maintained. 

Conservators say moving about 8,000 people out of the Speke Game Controlled Area within Bunda, in Musoma, was essential to conserve the Serengeti’s ecosystem as effects of climate change continue to bite.

The Serengeti national park will now extend to include all the dry land between the lake shore and its current boundary which flanks the highway North from Mwanza, between where it crosses the Mbalageti River at its Southern end and the Grumeti River some 12 kilometers north.

Serengeti, which initially measured 14,763 square kilometers, has now become bigger with additional 54.67 square kilometers, boosting its size to 14,818 square kilometers.

However, Serengeti still remains the third largest National Park in Tanzania after Nyerere and Ruaha.