Too Much and Too Little to Write About Loliondo

In this blog post:

2019-2020 MNRT budget: what Kigwangalla said, and not, about Loliondo (the little I’ve heard)

PCCB are silent (and so are everyone else)

Upcoming East African Court of Justice hearing

Summary of Osero developments

It’s been over two months since I published a blog post, and that’s not acceptable. I’ve spent some time on a post putting together what everyone ought to know about the threat against the 1,500 km2 Osero, but it’s almost 70 pages and needs some trimming, even if important aspects could still be missing, and must be included ... I should also make a list of everyone I know is, or has been, involved in the “investor-friendly” corruption and terror complex in Loliondo. Those are very many people, and I fear there are just as many that I don’t know about, so suggestions are welcome.

I’m waiting for information about PM Majaliwa’s threatening decision, but it’s just as well if nothing is heard, and it keeps getting delayed.

I’m trying to get hold of the report by the team of ministers that were tasked with making amendments according to President Magufuli’s surprising statement from 15^th January, which could be the best or the worst news ever. The ministers are supposed to have handed in their report, but “nobody” has got it.

There will tomorrow and on Tuesday be a court hearing in the East African case, in which I expect the DC and four others to get nailed for their obvious perjury. I hope and expect to as soon as possible after the hearing be able to write a good blog post about it, so please share what you can find out.

PCCB have for some time been silent about the investigation of OBC’s director Isaack Mollel, and I need to know what’s happening ...

2019-2020 MNRT budget: what Kigwangalla said, and not, about Loliondo (the little I’ve heard …)

Sadly, live broadcasts from parliamentary debates are not permitted, the Hansards are not yet on the Parliament’s website, and nobody I know seems to have heard anything, but Kigwangalla’s speech presenting the 2019-2020 budget for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism can be found on the ministry’s website. Loliondo wasn’t mentioned with one word, but Kigwangalla did mention that the team of ministers, led by the Minister for Lands, tasked by President Magufuli to prepare suggestions about how to solve land use conflicts, had completed their work and handed in suggestions. This refers to the president’s statement of 15^th January in which he said that he wasn’t happy seeing pastoralists and cultivators evicted all over the country, and therefore he had ordered the immediate suspension of operations to remove villages claimed to be situated in protected areas, and set one month for the concerned ministers to make amendments to the law and establish which wildlife and forest protected areas do not have any wildlife or forests, and to divide those among pastoralists and cultivators that now have problems finding land for their livelihoods. If the president could even consider removing protected areas, the 1,500 km2 Osero that’s only under threat of being alienated for a protected area, should have been automatically left in peace – and I’ve been told that it’s also what some people on the ground believe has been done, not least after a tear-filled act of praise for the president - but this didn’t stop a long snake of fossil fuel guzzling vehicles with cabinet secretaries to come and “inspect” the Osero and I’ve been told that these weren’t at all as promising as the president’s words. I don’t know if they would have been more positive if OBC would first have been asked to finish off all wildlife, since that’s how the statement sounds … The statement of 15^th January could have meant everything, or nothing at all – but I can’t get hold of anyone who’s seen the report by the team of ministers.

Kigwangalla talked to journalists outside parliament and more or less declared that his budget had passed smoothly because everyone loves him, which I’ll refrain from analysing. Here he did mention Loliondo, claiming to have “solved the conflict” saying that it was the challenge that robbed him sleep and which he wished to resolve from the day he was appointed minister. It’s what he started with. “My first visit was Loliondo, now you can see all is calm there, NGOs, you don't see activists, campaigns or struggling, you don't see bomas being burnt, you don't see cattle being killed. I have handled that. I have a good relationship with the people of Loliondo and Ngorongoro in general.”

Though, Kigwangalla as new minister didn’t start with that … First, he wrote a notice ordering cattle and tractors from a foreign country to leave, and in social media claimed that there would be 200 tractors, which was bizarre indeed, and indicating that he was already hearing from the “investor friends”. Though upon his visit to Loliondo on 26^th – 27^th October 2017 Kigwangalla became a hero when he stopped the then ongoing illegal invasion of village land with mass arson and multiple human rights crimes, ordered by the DC, officially funded by TANAPA, and implemented by Serengeti rangers assisted by local police and other rangers (NCA, KDU, OBC). On a secret return visit on 4^th – 5^th November 2017 when Serengeti rangers were seizing cattle and driving them into the national park, Kigwangalla came very close to “solving the conflict” firing the director of wildlife, talking about the corruption syndicate at the service of OBC reaching into his own ministry, saying that he would clean up his own house, and that OBC would have left before the start of 2018 never to be given another hunting block. He even mentioned that OBC’s director Mollel had wanted to bribe him cheaply and would be investigated for corruption (which didn’t happen until over a year later). Though he still said that PM Majaliwa was to announce a decision about the land. Thereafter, Kigwangalla has been switching, sliding, and U-turning all-over.

OBC didn’t show the slightest sign of leaving, then Majaliwa made a disappointing and frightening decision, and 2018 was the worst year of terror, ever. Only in 2019 has there – maybe, we don’t know yet – been some improvement. Kigwangalla is taking credit of having silenced the NGOs (maybe meaning that they no longer have anything to complain about) when in fact they were silenced through threats and illegal arrests long before he became a minister. He has earlier (on Twitter and in an interview) mentioned a “solution” accepted by all parties, but that was also before his time when the PM tasked RC Gambo with setting up a select committee, which was met by spontaneous protests by villagers, and finally reached a sad compromise proposal, which after increased repression and fear was seen as victory. Though after that “success” – when everyone for months had been waiting for the PM’s decision - there was an unexpected illegal invasion of village land with mass arson and human rights crimes that went on for over two months, until Kigwangalla stopped it more than two weeks after having been appointed minister. As said, OBC stayed on despite of Kigwangalla’s big promises, and PM Majaliwa, besides making the decision of through a legal bill creating a special authority to manage land in Loliondo (later it was explained that this would be placed under NCA), declared that OBC would indeed stay. Eventually, in a Whatsapp group Kigwangalla was saying that OBC weren’t a problem, only the director Mollel, and that more such companies were needed with the new structure! When the Oakland report was out in May 2018 Kigwangalla had made a full U-turn and was in a rage tweeting like the worst of “investor friends” going to the insane extreme of saying that nobody had ever lived in Loliondo GCA ... It doesn’t seem that many people in Loliondo even noticed these hateful outbursts, and those who did, and were shocked, seem to have chosen to forget. Then, in late May 2018, there was an intimidation drive to derail the case filed in the East African Court of Justice by four villages during the illegal operation in 2017, and after that soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force, that had set up camp in Lopolun near Wasso town in March 2018, started attacking and torturing groups of people in various locations. In November 2018, these soldiers were in violation of EACJ court orders, chasing away people from wide areas around OBC’s camp, while beating up anyone who got in their way and between the 14^th and 19^th they burned bomas in areas of Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. I heard from several people on the ground that I’d not previously been in contact with. It was the lowest moment of all the years I’ve been following the Loliondo land struggle, since not one single leader spoke up against what was happening, reportedly because they believed that the attacks were ordered by the president, and that they and their families would be even less safe than previously. Kigwangalla himself didn’t say a word. The beatings again worsened when Christmas was approaching, and on 21^st December the soldiers burned twelve or thirteen bomas in the Leken area of Kirtalo.

Later I was informed that the King of Morocco had been expected to visit Loliondo the days before Christmas, but postponed, even though at least one cargo plane from the Royal Moroccan Airforce had landed in Loliondo. I don’t know if he was to be the guest of OBC, of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, or of Tanzania. “Probably all of those”, is what I’ve been told when asking.

As said, 2019 brought possibly positive developments, but first DC Rashid Mfaume Taka ordered some crazy illegal arrests, maybe to keep people silent during the visit to Ngorongoro district by Arusha RC Mrisho Gambo. Anyway, surprisingly, on 12^th January Gambo – who didn’t say a word about the illegal 2017 operation – made a statement condemning the burning of bomas in 2018 even if he didn’t mention the soldiers but made it seem like the it was committed by wasiojulikana, unknown arsonists. Then followed the president’s statement that he wasn’t happy about evictions of rural people and after that the Preventing and Combatting Bureau showed that OBC’s director was no longer untouchable. The situation on the ground is reportedly much calmer, but everyone stays as silent as in 2018.

Peter Msigwa, Chadema MP for Iringa, held the opposition speech in which Loliondo was mentioned, but only reminding that Loliondo was dealt with in detail (not quite true, but there were some relevant mentions at that time) by the opposition when the 2017/2018 budget was discussed. Though I would have expected something more a year later when there was a lot more to say during the 2018-2019 debate, but Loliondo was hardly mentioned at all by the opposition at that time. Now in May, in his speech Msigwa complained about many committees that had never provided any feedback to people in Loliondo, and reports that had been kept secret. This is true, but he could have been more specific. For example, “nobody” (maybe literally) has seen any report about Majaliwa’s decision of 6^th December 2017, which, as said, could be just as well, since the little that’s been shared would be highly damaging if implemented.

At least, even if he afterwards has U-turned and shown all kinds of strange behaviour, at one point Kigwangalla listened to the victims of the “investor-friendly” corruption and terror complex in Loliondo. That’s a lot more than all his predecessors have done, except maybe Maige (and then the horrible draft district land use plan appeared anyway …) have done. All other ministers of natural resources and tourism seem to have kept to listening to OBC’s complaints, and to those inside the ministry, and maybe some international organisations (“Germans”), and then tried to find a way of alienating the 1,500 km2 Osero from the Maasai. 

PCCB are silent

There hasn’t for some time now been any news about the Preventing and Combatting Bureau’s (TAKUKURU/PCCB) investigation into OBC’s director Isaack Mollel, and I don’t know why. On 11^th April Frida Wikesi, the acting head of PCCB in Arusha, when presenting the latest work by the bureau, told the press approximately. “This (Isaya) Mollel has been bribing various government officials for the purpose of making them his advocates in the conflict over mixed land use in Loliondo Game Controlled Area and in this he has caused the government loss of billions of money through tax evasion.”

There are two cases: one about temporary workers without permits, and one about Mollel’s corruption. There was supposed to be a preliminary hearing in the first case in May, and the other one was still being investigated, but then I haven’t heard anything more.

In short, and as mentioned before, in February, ten Pakistani nationals were arrested for having done temporary work for OBC without permits. Arusha RC Gambo wanted Mollel arrested as well, but the police were reluctant. Then Gambo complained to Minister of Home Affairs Lugola, who was touring Arusha region, and Mollel was arrested, charged, and released on bail only to then get caught by PCCB, and charged on ten counts of economic crimes, mostly concerning importation of vehicles from Dubai, and forging documents to evade taxation. Mollel was locked up in Kisongo remand prison. On 18^th March the ten charges about employing foreign nationals were dismissed, and Mollel instead got 37 new charges concerning this case. On 29^th March the until recently Ngorongoro District Security Officer Issa Ng’itu (basically the district chief spy) was charged on fifteen counts of corruption, submitting false documents, and forgery between 2017 and 2019. The charges concern Ng’itu several times receiving money – in total over 10 million Tanzanian shillings - from Mollel while knowing that this is against the law, having bought (or otherwise obtained) a Landcruiser Prado from Mollel, and together with Mollel having forged different documents relating to this vehicle.

I don’t know why this is happening now and where PCCB have been all these years of suffering and fear while local authorities - besides committing massive human rights crimes during illegal evictions - have threatened, defamed, illegally arrested, and maliciously prosecuted those speaking up, or being perceived to be able to speak up, against the “investors” (OBC and Thomson Safaris) in Loliondo that most threaten land rights.

There are hundreds of well-known people to investigate, and I hope that more is soon heard from PCCB. They did arrest one former minister of natural resources and tourism – Nyalandu - but very sadly this doesn’t seem to have been about Loliondo, but about harassing him for opposition politics (he left CCM and joined Chadema in 2017).

Upcoming EACJ Hearing

On Monday-Tuesday, 10^th-11^th June, there’s a court hearing in Reference No. 10 of

2017: the villages of Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania, filed on 21^st September 2017, during the illegal and extremely brutal mass arson operation.

The first attempt to stop the case was via a preliminary objection that the villages couldn’t sue the government, since they were part of the same government. This objection was dismissed by the court on 25^th January 2018. In this same response by the Attorney General it was also claimed that the 1,500 km2 Osero would be the kind of protected area proposed in the rejected draft district land use plan funded by OBC, which is absurd when the land has never been declared as such, and the PM on 6^th December 2017 announced another, different, but maybe just as bad decision.

In late May 2018, the efforts to derail the case moved on to an intimidation campaign against leaders and common villagers in the villages that had sued the government. There were multiple arrests and summons to the police station, in which the chairmen were questioned on why they sued the government, on who gave them the authority to do so, and on whether they had the unequivocal support of the villagers to sue. When they presented evidence in the form of meeting minutes from the respective villages, they were accused of having forged these. and these illegal efforts by the OCCID and police terrified and silenced basically everyone. The village chairmen were prevented from attending a court hearing on 7^th June 2018, since they had to attend Loliondo police station.

In the affidavits filed by the government side on 20^th June 2018, especially one sworn by a park warden called Julius Francis Musei the lie was totally changed to saying that the 2017 operation would have taken place inside Serengeti National Park, and not on village land. Therefore, in November 2018 the court ordered both sides to file expert evidence relating to the boundary between Serengeti National Park and Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District.

At a hearing on 5^th March the villages asked for an adjournment, since they hadn’t been able to find an expert in time, not least because of the climate of terror, I suppose. They had also thought that the government side would ask for an adjournment, since they hadn’t filed affidavits, but strangely it was found that they had indeed done so in December. In these affidavits DC Rashid Mfaume Taka, District Executive Director (DED) Raphael Siumbu, park warden Julius Francis Musei, geographical information system officer Alli Kassim Shakha, and very sadly wildlife officer Nganana Mothi commit the outrageous perjury of saying that the 2017 operation did not take place on village land.

There are thousands of directs victims, and other witnesses who can set the record straight, and I hope that some of them will on Monday and Tuesday. As known, during a catastrophic drought, starting on 13^th August 2017 in Oloosek in Ololosokwan and then continuing all the way south to Piyaya, hundreds of bomas were burned to the ground by Serengeti rangers, local police and other rangers (OBC, anti-poaching etc.) on village land per Village Land Act No.5 of 1999, victims were illegally arrested, cattle were illegally seized, people were brutally beaten, rangers blocked access to water sources, and several women were raped by the Serengeti rangers.

Besides the many victims, the perjurers’ own documents prove their perjury:

The DC must be asked why in his notice from 5^th August 2017 he was ordering those residing  “mpakani kabisa kwenye Pori Tengefu la Loliondo” (closely bordering in Loliondo Game Controlled Area) to leave before 10^th August. That clearly refers to village land.

Why is the DC quoted in the press statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism explaining the “removal of cattle and housing from Serengeti National Park and the boundary of Loliondo Game Controlled Area”, saying that in Loliondo GCA the operation is taking place on a 90 km stretch from north to south and with a width of 5 km. That’s very clearly village land.

Why does TANAPA’s map “Livestock and Bomas Evacuation Exercise August 2017” so clearly show that most bomas were on village land?

Why in the article by the anti-Loliondo “journalist” Manyerere Jackton on 12^th September 2017, “NGO ya Uingereza yamjaribu Magufuli” is the DC quoted as saying that 89 bomas had been burned inside Serengeti National Park and 241 bomas in the 5 km “border area” (village land) and that GPS coordinates have been taken for all bomas?

Why was Minister Maghembe during the operation all over media (like a lengthy interview on Kwanza TV) with the map from the rejected land use plan from 2010, lying that the 1,500 km2 where bomas were being burned had already been turned into a protected area, if the operation was only taking place in the national park?

Why was the Attorney General in the original response using the same lie as Maghembe, and not the later lie about an operation that took place only inside the national park?

I hope the soldier brutality in violation of the interim orders issued by the EACJ on 25^th September 2018 will also be dealt with. Though there’s the added confusion that nobody seems to know who ordered the attacks. While ongoing, local leaders explained their silence with the conviction that the order came from the highest level of government, but now some have changed to believing that it was OBC’s director who corrupted and employed the soldiers, which would make the silence even more inexplicable.

Now I’d like to publish this blog post before the court hearing – starting tomorrow - that I soon hope to dedicate a good blog post to, and I’d greatly appreciate information from anyone attending.

Oloosek 13th August 2017

There have been some good, but delayed rains.

Summary of Osero developments of the past decades

All land in Loliondo is village land per Village Land Act No.5 of 1999, and more than the whole of Loliondo is also a Game Controlled Area (of the old kind that doesn’t affect human activities and can overlap with village land) where OBC, that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the hunting block. Stan Katabalo – maybe Tanzania’s last investigative journalist - reported about how this hunting block was acquired in the early 90s. By 2019 there does no longer seem to be journalists of any kind.

In 2007-2008 the affected villages were threatened into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC.

In the drought year 2009 the Field Force Unit and OBC extrajudicially evicted people and cattle from some 1,500 km2 of dry season grazing land that serve as the core hunting area next to Serengeti National Park. Hundreds of houses were burned, and thousands of cattle were chased into an extreme drought area which did not have enough food or water to sustain them. 7-year old Nashipai Gume was lost in the chaos and has not been found, ever since.

People eventually moved back, and some leaders started participating in reconciliation ceremonies with OBC.

Soon enough, in 2010-2011, OBC totally funded a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2 into the new kind of Game Controlled Area that’s a “protected” (not from hunting) area and can’t overlap with village land. This plan, that would have allowed a more “legal” repeat of 2009, was strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District Council.

In 2013, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki, made bizarre statements as if all village land in Loliondo would have disappeared through magic, and the people of Loliondo would be generously “gifted” with the land outside the 1,500 km2. This was nothing but a horribly twisted way of again trying to evict the Maasai landowners from OBC’s core hunting area. There’s of course no way a Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism would have the mandate for such a trick of magic. After many mass meetings – where there was agreement to never again enter any MoU with OBC - and protest delegations to Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, the then Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in a speech on 23^rd September the same year revoked Kagasheki’s threat and told the Maasai to continue their lives as before this threat that through the loss of dry season grazing land would have led to the destruction of livelihoods, environmental degradation and increased conflict with neighbours.

Parts of the press – foremost Manyerere Jackton in the Jamhuri – increased their incitement against the Maasai of Loliondo as destructive, “Kenyan” and governed by corrupt NGOs. OBC’s “friends” in Loliondo became more active in the harassment of those speaking up against the “investors”, even though they themselves didn’t want the GCA 2009, and rely on others, the same people they persecute, to stop it… With Lazaro Nyalandu as minister the focus was on holding closed meeting trying to buy off local leaders, and there was sadly some success in this.

Speaking up against OBC (and against Thomson Safaris, the American tour operator claiming ownership of 12,617 acres, and that shares the same friends as OBC) had always been risky, but the witch-hunt intensified with mass arrests in July 2016. Four people were charged with a truly demented “espionage and sabotage” case. Manyerere Jackton has openly boasted about his direct involvement in the illegal arrests of innocent people for the sake of intimidation.

In July 2016, Manyeree Jackton wrote an “article” calling for PM Majaliwa to return the Kagasheki-style threat. In November 2016 OBC sent out a “report” to the press calling for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to intervene against the destructive Maasai. In mid-December 2016, the Arusha RC Mrisho Gambo was tasked by the PM with setting up a committee to “solve the conflict”, and on 25^th January 2017 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Maghembe, in the middle of the drought stricken Osero, flanked by the most OBC-devoted journalists, and ignoring the ongoing talks, made a declaration that the land had to be taken before the end of March. In March 2017 Minister Maghembe co-opted a Parliamentary Standing Committee, and then Loliondo leaders’ “only ally”, RC Gambo’s, committee started marking “critical areas” while being met with protests in every village. German development money that the standing committee had been told was subject to the alienation of the 1,500 km2 was – after protests by 600 women – not signed by the district chairman. On 21^st March a compromise proposal for a WMA (that had been rejected in Loliondo for a decade and a half) was reached through voting by the RC’s committee, then handed over to PM Majaliwa on 20^th April, and a long wait to hear the PM’s decision started.

While still waiting, on 13^th August 2017 an unexpected illegal eviction and arson operation was initiated in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan and then continued all the way to Piyaya. Beatings, arrests of the victims, illegal seizing of cows, and blocking of water sources followed. Women were raped by the rangers. Many, but not all, leaders stayed strangely and disappointingly silent.

The DC and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism explained the illegal operation with that people and cattle were entering Serengeti National Park too easily, while Minister Maghembe lied that the land was already the “protected area” wanted by OBC and others.

There was an interim stop order by the government organ Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG), but the crimes continued unabated.

A case was filed by four villages in the East African Court of Justice on 21^st September 2017.

When in Arusha on 23^rd September, President Magufuli collected protest placards against Maghembe, OBC and abuse, to read them later.

On 5^th October 2017 the Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga, (who had met with people from Loliondo) told supporters that his friend Magufuli had promised him that all involved in the illegal operation in Loliondo would be fired.

In a cabinet reshuffle on 7th October 2017 Maghembe was removed and Hamisi Kigwangalla appointed as new minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.

Kigwangalla stopped the operation on 26^th October 2017, and then made it clear that OBC’s hunting block would not be renewed, which he had already mentioned in Dodoma on the 22^nd.  On 5^th November, he fired the Director of Wildlife and announced that rangers at Klein’s gate that had been colluding with the investor would be transferred. Kigwangalla emphasized that OBC would have left before January. He talked about the corruption syndicate at their service, reaching into his own ministry, and claimed that OBC’s director, Mollel, wanted to bribe him, and would be investigated for corruption. However, OBC never showed any signs of leaving.

Kigwangalla announced in social media that he on 13^th November 2017 received a delegation headed by the German ambassador and that the Germans were going to fund community development projects in Loliondo, “in our quest to save the Serengeti”. Alarm was raised in Loliondo that the district chairman would have signed secretly, which some already had suspected.

On 6^th December 2017, PM Majaliwa announced a vague, but terrifying decision to form a “special authority” to manage the 1,500 km2 osero. He also said that OBC would stay. Manyerere Jackton celebrated the decision in the Jamhuri newspaper. Further information and implementation of this “special authority” has fortunately been delayed, even if it was mentioned in Kigwangalla’s budget speech on 21^st May 2018. The only additional information that has been shared is that the whole of Loliondo, per Majaliwa’s plan, is to be put under the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Sheikh Mohammed, his crown prince, and other royal guests visited Loliondo in March 2018, and Kigwangalla welcomed them on Twitter. Earlier, in restricted access social media, Kigwangalla had been saying that OBC weren’t a problem, but only the director, Mollel, and that Loliondo, with the “new structure” needed more investors of the kind.

Around 24^th March 2018 a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso town, by the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ). Some were from the start worried that the aim was to further intimidate those speaking up against the land alienation plans, non-alarmists were saying that it was there for the Kenya border and for normal soldier issues.

An ambitious report about Loliondo and NCA, with massive media coverage (and some unnecessary mistakes) was released by the Oakland Institute on 10^th May 2018, and Kigwangalla responded by denying that any abuse had ever taken place, and threatening anyone involved with the report. He went as far as denying the existence of people in Loliondo GCA.

In May-June 2018 there was an intimidation campaign against the applicants in the case in the East African Court of Justice, and silence became worse than ever.

From late June to late August 2018 there were several incidents of soldiers from the military camp set up in Olopolun attacking and torturing people.

On 25^th September 2018 the East African Court of Justice ordered interim measures restraining the government from any evictions, burning of homesteads, or confiscating of cattle, and from harassing or intimidating the applicants.

In November 2018 while OBC were preparing their camp, reports started coming in that soldiers were attacking people in wide areas around the camp, while all leaders stayed silent. Information was piecemeal, and after a couple of days many people were telling that bomas had been burned in areas of Kirtalo and Ololosokwan.

Beatings and seizing of cattle continued in some areas, and on 21^st December the soldiers descended upon Leken in Kirtalo and burned 13 bomas to the ground, while the silence continued.

It was later revealed that a visit by Mohammed VI of Morocco had been planned for the days before Christmas 2018, but that it was postponed.

In January 2019 innocent people were again illegally arrested for the sole sake of intimidation.

Then RC Gambo on a Ngorongoro visit spoke up about the burning of bomas, but in a very vague way.

On 15^th January the president issued a somewhat promising statement against evictions of pastoralists and cultivators.

In February 2019 OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was surprisingly, on the initiative of the RC, reluctance by the police, and order by Minister Lugola, arrested for employing foreign workers without permits, released on bail, and then caught by the Preventing and Combatting Corruption Bureau, and on 4^th March charged with economic crimes. On 29^th March, the former District Security Officer Issa Ng’itu was added to the charges accused of having received over ten million shillings and a Landcruiser Prado from Mollel.

Susanna Nordlund

sannasus@hotmail.com