Registration of tour guides

I grew up in one of the villages on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. From time immemorial, our family has been earning its living from tour guiding activities. We have, for all this time, not been interrupted by anybody, and this experience has been passed amongst us for many generations. Recently, my older brother was apprehended for operating as a tour guide without being registered. We got him released, but only because of the connections we had with a certain man.
I wonder what law forces us to register. We have been doing this for years now, and most of us have no qualifications to do other jobs. Was the reason for the arrest of my brother fair? Please advise.
31 December 2012

At the outset, we wish to point out that every tour guide is required to be registered pursuant to the directives under the Tourism Act (TA) No. 29 of 2008. A person who contravenes this commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine of not less than TZS 1M, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both. The TA has further put conditions for one to be registered as a tour guide. These conditions include: being a Tanzanian of 21-years-old, to have at least completed O-level education, to hold a valid first aid certificate, to have adequate knowledge of the area, and knowledge of the position applied for, and to have any other qualifications as the Minister for tourism may, by order in the Gazette, specify.
Since your brother operated as a tour guide, he was contravening the law. As such, his arrest was justifiable. The fact that your connections got him released might not save you the next time, should you persist in continuing to operate as tour guides without being registered.

Lastly, no matter how much we may sympathise with you to the effect that the law has not considered your time immemorial experience over the issue (tour guiding operations by your family) we still suggest you need to feel the breeze introduced by the TA. This Act is the law which we must all abide by. If you wish to solicit a changes in the law, in order to take account of your needs, we suggest you write to the Minister of Tourism.