John W. Bruce, Mark S. Freudenberger and Tidiane Ngaido (1995):
Old Wine in New Bottles:

5.3 Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Land Matters

The National Land Policy recommended by the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters is "centrally based on the direct participation of land users and the community as a whole in the management and administration of land" (Tanzania 1992, p. 146). The National Land Commission, under the Board of Land Commissioners, administers national lands. This administration of the land matters is to be independent of the executive branch of the government. The process of planning, allocation, and disposition of national lands would be under the purview of elected wards and district committees. Village assemblies are to have exclusive jurisdiction over land in villages. Moreover, the policy must provide built-in checks in matters of land administration, so as to prevent the development of monopolies and abuses of power.

Land is to be a constitutional category, and so it is imperative that people are consulted whenever changes in the tenure system are being contemplated. All lands within the country are to be declared either national lands or village lands. Village lands are defined as those falling within the boundaries of villages. National lands are all lands that are not village lands (Tanzania 1992, p. 151).

National lands would be vested in the Board of Land Commissioners, to be held in the trust and benefit of the people of mainland Tanzania. Village lands would be under the control and management of their respective Village Assemblies. These Village Assemblies would be established by the Constitution. Both the Village Assemblies and the Board of Land Commissioners would be given corporate status by the Constitution (Tanzania 1992, pp. 151–52). The report recognizes that its recommendations pose some problems; often, it is the village elites who control the Village Assembly. Also, there is likely to be a gender bias in Local Assemblies. This, the report argues, is far better than centralizing power, since the decentralization "shifts the struggles of power from the secretive corridors of authority of the Village and District Councils to the open-air meetings of the Assembly" (Tanzania 1992, p. 153). This at least makes visible the process of land administration at the local level and, in a sense, empowers even the poorer people of the village to a greater extent than in the earlier system.

The Village Assembly is to elect five elders from among its members to constitute the Council of Elders or the Baraza la Wazee. No member of the Baraza should be a member of the village council at the same time, so as to ensure the separation of power between the executive branch (that is, Council) and the quasi-judicial body (the Baraza). Members on the Baraza hold office for three years. There is also a rotating chair, which is changed annually.

The Commission grapples with gender issues and in the end proposes two concrete measures: (1) that all certificates of village lands record the spouse’s name and require her signature for any transfer of the land, and (2) that where the wife but not the husband is resident in the village, the certificate of village lands be in the name of the wife, with the husband noted.