Maghembe and the two committees
The arson attack and human rights crime
Reshuffle
The MNRT spokesperson
Press meeting in Ololosokwan
OBC’s report
Where’s Kigwangalla?
Kigwangalla's letter...
The Jamhuri again.
In a cabinet reshuffle on 7th October Jumanne
Maghembe was removed as Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, and not
given another ministry. This is cause for celebration, even though the reason
for his removal isn’t clear, and the views of the new minister aren’t (weren’t?)
known, while the spokesperson for the ministry continues in the worst
Maghembe-like way. As usual this blog post is delayed, and the previous one has
updates. Today, on 19th October, Kigwangalla sadly issued a letter with the “investor’s”
own favourite diversionary tactic…
Updated under "Kigwangalla's letter". There is some good news.
As mentioned earlier in this blog, many Tanzanian ministers for natural resources and tourism have
been very accommodating to the wishes of Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that
organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai – but Maghembe takes the prize,
even bypassing Kagasheki, as OBC’s most fervent friend.
In November 2016 OBC sent
out a press release about a report (for almost a year impossible to get hold
of, but now there’s at least a draft version that’s available) that they had
prepared detailing the environmental threat posed by the Maasai against the
core hunting area next to Serengeti National Park, which is land that OBC for a
long time have lobbied to turn into a “protected area”. PM Majaliwa tasked
Arusha RC Gambo with “solving the conflict” (more than a “conflict” it’s
intimidation and abuse of the legitimate landowners) and Gambo set up a select
committee including representatives of government organs, not least the various
parastatals within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, “investors”,
conservation organisations, NGOs, women and youths, and some local political,
traditional and religious leaders. OBC’s report was presented to the committee on
16th January 2017 and the director of TANAPA, Allan Kijazi, regional
security officer, Fratela Mapunda, and the Director of Wildlife, Alexander
Songorwa aggressively supported the hunters’ idea of alienating 1,500 km2 of
village land for a “protected area”. Leaders in Loliondo started to think that,
to keep the land, they would have to agree to a Wildlife Management Area that,
while still village land, would give more power to the Director of Wildlife,
and to the “investor”, for whom grazing areas would also have to be set aside. While
this committee was at work, on 25th January Maghembe showed up in
the osero (bushland) under threat to – flanked by the “journalist” who has
written over 40 articles full of hate speech and incitement against the
Loliondo Maasai (and severe defamation of many individuals) Manyerere Jackton,
and a journalist who occasionally joins him in this dirty work, Masyaga Matinyi
– announce that the 1,500 km2 had to be taken from the Maasai for a “protected
area” before the end of March. A few days later Maghembe met the press not only
to “defend conservation and tourism”, but also to parrot OBC’s (and Manyerere
Jackton’s) “arguments” about “Kenyans”, NGOs and about tour companies that have
contracts with the villages. RC Gambo told the press that the work of the
committee would go on, regardless of the statements by Minister Maghembe, and
by that time leaders in Loliondo saw him as their only ally.
 |
| Manyerere, Maghembe and Matinyi in Loliondo. |
5th –7th
March, Maghembe took the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Land, Natural
Resources and Tourism – chaired by Atashasta Nditiye – on a Loliondo trip,
trying to keep the standing committee members away from talking with local
people and co-opting the whole trip in such a way that several members
protested about being used to rubber stamp Maghembe’s plan to give the land to
OBC. On 8th March, the standing committee was met with protestors
blocking the road in Mbuken, Arash and then with a bigger protest on the road
leading up to the NCA headquarters. The Serengeti chief game warden Mwakilema
told Maghembe’s co-opted standing committee that funds from Germany’s Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the state owned
German Development Bank (KfW), for a Serengeti Ecosystem Development and
Conservation Project, were subject to the approval of the land use plan that
would alienate the 1,500 km2 for a protected area. This has still not been
denied nor confirmed by the Germans.
On 15th March,
some 600 women held a manifestation in Wasso town, with the message, “Ardhi
yetu, maisha yetu” (Our land, our life). The RC with his committee were in town
to finalize their work and the women demanded a real solution to the land
conflict with placards against losing more land, against OBC, and against the
District Council accepting money from Germany, and the Council Chairman,
Matthew Siloma, refused to sign accepting the German pieces of silver (though
some claim that he later secretly signed). On 17th-19th March
the RC’s committee toured the area under threat from Ololosokwan southwards all
the way to Piyaya and Malambo to mark “critical areas”, and at every place they
were met with protests. Women were crying and screaming for the government to
abandon the plans to take the land, some car mirrors were broken and some
protesters were detained by the police. The RC ordered the Regional Police
Commander to arrest anyone interfering with the process, and irrationally
accused the protestors of being “bribed”. The protests were most awkward for
local leaders who saw the RC as their only ally, but maybe the protestors knew
something that I didn’t know.
 |
| Wasso 15th March. "Conservation is our tradition, OBC leave us our land" and ""District Council, don't receive money from the Germans, since it's death to us" |
On of 21st March,
after long deliberation, the RC’s select committee announced a proposal reached
through voting – a Wildlife Management Area (WMA), and the proposal that had
been successfully rejected by the Maasai for a decade and a half was now
presented as a victory. On 20th
April, in Dodoma, the committee’s final report (still not made public) was
handed to PM Majaliwa who was to “make a decision”, for which everyone is still
waiting.
The arson attack and human rights crime
While everyone was
still waiting to hear from PM Majaliwa, from 13th to 26th
August 2017 hundreds of bomas (241 according to the perpetrators, and later
some more were added) were burned to the ground by rangers from Serengeti
National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area assisted by local Loliondo
police – and others, namely OBC and KDU (anti-poaching, close to OBC. I’ve
observed how KDU rangers aren’t sure if they work for KDU or OBC) rangers - and
thousands of people were left without food or shelter. Cows were dispersed
during this extreme drought, and there was terror and panic everywhere. The
arson started in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan village where a Serengeti ranger
had shot the herder Parmoson Ololoso in both legs and one arm on 8th
August, and then the arson continued all the way to Piyaya 90 km further south.
Village centres became congested with people and animals. Those returning after
the illegal evictions were brutally beaten by the rangers and some arrested and
sent to Mugumu at the other side of Serengeti National Park. Cattle were seized
and big fines demanded. All this did not happen in any protected area, but on
village land that per Village Land Act No.5 of 1999 should be managed by the
local villages. The affected villages are Ololosokwan, Kirtalo (Soitsambu
ward), Oloipiri, Olorien, Oloosoitok (Maaloni ward), Maaloni, Arash, Ormanie
(Arash ward), and Piyaya. The human rights crimes continued until the end of
September and into October, including the burning of more bomas in areas of
Oloipiri and Olorien on 25th September.
Local leaders claimed
to have been caught by surprise, that they had only heard about an operation to
remove livestock from inside the National Park, but there is a letter from the
DC, dated 5th August (not that long before the criminal operation
started and I don’t know when it was received and by who), ordering the removal
of livestock and housing from Serengeti National Park, and bordering areas, and this letter should have been taken to a
court of law as soon as being received, whenever that was. The letter goes on
about “Kenyans”, and then says that all herders that haven’t moved from the
park and “very near the boundary” (mpakani kabisa) “back to the villages” by 10th
August will be removed by force. “Mpakani kabisa” is clearly a criminal threat,
and then we have seen how it has also included bomas 9 kilometres from
Serengeti National Park. The DC, Rashid Mfaume Taka, was before becoming
involved in human rights crimes considered a new friendlier kind of DC, and was
viciously attacked by OBC’s journalist who after the operation started changed
to reporting his words as if were they the truth.
A press statement from
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism didn’t deny that the operation
was taking place on village land – for which there isn’t any legal ground
whatsoever - but presents the removal of bomas 5 km (houses have been burned
even further away than that) from the boundary of Serengeti National Park as
something legitimate to protect the environment and the tourism business.
Minister Maghembe had
a somewhat different message to that of his own ministry. He started pretending
that the 1,500 km2 would already be a protected area - first telling the press
that it was a “game reserve”, and then appearing on tv with a map from a land
use plan funded by OBC that had been strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District
Council in 2011, since it proposed turning the 1,500 km2 into a Game Controlled
Area per Wildlife Conservation Act 2009, which is the same as a game reserve
and would have meant eviction and led to destruction of livelihoods,
environmental degradation and increased conflict with neighbours. The same
shameless lies at the service of OBC were pronounced by Minister Kagasheki in
2013 until he was stopped by then PM Pinda who declared the obvious: that the
land was village land and the Maasai should continue their lives as before
Kagasheki’s threats. Maghembe wasn’t stopped at threats but could continue with
human rights crimes.
Too many leaders in
Loliondo have been shockingly slow and inactive in reacting to the arson attack
and human rights crimes, and most shocking, painfully so, is the silence by the
MP who was trusted (not least by me) to always stand up for land rights. This
can of course partly be explained by the intense fear that’s reigning in
Loliondo after a long campaign to intimidate everyone into silence, and which
has included both illegal mass arrests and malicious prosecution. Though all
kinds of theories about selfishness also flourish. Onesmo Olengurumwa of
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition sent out a call to immediate
intervention already on 13th August, and on 30th August together
with four representatives from Loliondo he met with the government organ
Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) to hand in a formal
complaint, which had effect since CHRAGG on 4th September issued an
interim stop order demanding that the government explain the operation – but
brutal beatings, arrests and seizing of cattle continued unabated. Some leaders,
like the Ololosokwan ward councillor and others, have spoken up strongly in
media. IWGIA issued an urgent alert on 25th August, Survival
International sent a letter to President Magufuli and others on 7th
September, and reportedly the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples has also written, but international reactions are so much more tepid
than at a time when the current atrocities were just a vociferous threat, and
even than at a time when nothing was happening.
On Thursday 21st
September 2017, a court case was finally filed in the East African Court of
Justice: the villages of Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Olorien and Arash versus the
Attorney General.
Reshuffle
On 7th
October Magufuli announced a cabinet reshuffle that was expected, even if it
wasn’t known that it would happen on that day, or what the changes would be. The
good, very good, news was that Maghembe was removed as Minister for Natural
Resources and Tourism and not given another ministry. His deputy, Ramo Makani,
was removed as well. The new minister is the former Deputy Minister for Health,
Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Hamisi Kigwangalla, who
sadly in his former capacity showed ignorance and total disregard for human rights. Other than a short, not too promising, mention of Loliondo during his
inauguration, which was also tweeted by Kigwangalla, he didn’t say a word about
Loliondo until today, 19th October.
Some think it was the Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga, who influenced Maghembe (maybe I can write about this at some later point), while others have mentioned the protest placards that President Magufuli collected on 23rd
September, after heading the commissioning ceremony of officer cadets in
Arusha. Though it’s also true that Maghembe was extremely unpopular in the
tourism industry for having supported VAT on tourism services.
In the reshuffle Atashasta
Nditiye, the chairman of the co-opted standing committee that visited Loliondo
in March, was appointed as Deputy Minister for Works, Transport and
Communication. The Ngorongoro MP, the inexplicably silent William Olenasha, was
moved from Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries to Deputy
Minister of Education, Science and Technology.
The MNRT spokesperson
On 12th
October the Mwananchi newspaper published an article by the spokesperson for
the Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism, Hamza Temba, arguing that “Loliondo
Game Controlled Area” (supposedly the 1,500 km2 since he writes that people can
stay in 2,500 km2) must be protected for the environment and tourism business.
Kenyans are of course mentioned, as is the recent destruction of bomas.
Astonishingly, Temba claims that many leaders and other people in Loliondo
would have “agreed” to the “operation”, without mentioning any names. When
asked in social media, an anonymous representative adds more reasons for the
ministry’s proposal from 2013 of taking the 1,500 km2 away from the Maasai, but
seems totally unable to understand that it isn’t right to illegally on village
land burn people’s houses and belongings, brutally beat them up, and take their
livestock just because you (or your favourite “investor”) want to turn an area into a protected area. The request for names
of leaders that would have agreed to this crime is just ignored by Temba.
Meeting with the press in Ololosokwan
The same day, the
Mwananchi also reported about a public meeting in Ololosokwan on 11 October, in
which the local Maasai expressed their happiness over the sacking of Maghembe
and pleaded with Kigwangalla to come and visit them to hear their side of the
story instead of listening to rumours. Ayo Media and ITV also reported from
this meeting. Ololosokwan ward councillor (CCM), Yannick Ndoinyo, thanked the
president for firing Maghembe, but said there was more to do. He stressed that
the village land was registered in every way, but the was still invaded, and he
asked the president to explain the situation to all ministers for natural
resources and tourism, so that they leave village land in peace.
Soitsambu ward
councillor (Chadema), Boniface Kanjwel, thanked the president for having read
the protest placards in Arusha, and wanted him to tell Minister Kigwangalla
that the Maasai are good conservationists. He said cows had been sold and
people beaten on village land, and called for the Ministry for Lands, and TAMISEMI
to speak up against the Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism. Special
seats councillor (Chadema), Tina Timan, spoke up against the human rights
abuse, and the propaganda claiming that the Maasai of Loliondo would be
“Kenyan” and asked the new minister to come and meet with them.
Saibulu Letema, CCM
secretary of Ololosokwan ward, spoke about the serious loss of cows that people
depend on, and of OBC’s habit of bribing every minister for natural resources
and tourism. The chairman of Olorien village, Nekitio Ledidi, asked the
government to recognise that the Maasai are Tanzanian who deserve housing and
not abuse. Naponu Rakatia from Oloipiri told about beatings of children and
women, loss of livestock, and of all belongings, even clothes and shoes when
the rangers burned the bomas.
OBC’s report
A report written by
OBC and that was sent to newspapers in early November 2016 and presented to the
RC’s committee in January this year has been inexplicably hard to get hold of. Now,
almost a year later, a draft version has emerged (or is it the final?) named
“Challenges encountered by OBC in Loliondo” (the name mentioned in the
newspapers almost a year ago was “LGCA is diminishing”). The purpose of the
report is to inform the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of the
current state of Loliondo Game Controlled Area, and this state is described as
alarming destruction caused by the Maasai, which has also affected hunting activities,
the quality of trophies, and their availability. The 1,500 km2 protected area
that was proposed in the rejected draft District Lan Use Plan funded by OBC (as
the general manager boasted about to the press in November 2009) isn’t
explicitly mentioned, but there are complaints that Wildlife Conservation Act
2009 can’t be enforced due to a “loophole”, and that basing hunting block fees
on the whole 4,000 km2 LGCA isn’t realistic since it includes, “Thomson area,
all small towns, district headquarters and many other human settlement areas”. The
report raises alarm about expanding subsistence agriculture, bomas
intentionally placed to block hunting fields, and influx of livestock during
the hunting season, not least from Kenya. OBC lists the company’s goodwill
contribution to the district council for community development that’s been
“badly wasted”. There’s a proposal to revaluate the hunting block and downgrade
from “grade A”. The report ends, “Both
conservation and trophy hunting will come to an end if no deliberate and
immediate actions are taken by the ministry of natural resources and tourism to
safeguard flora and fauna.”
OBC have since long
ago disqualified themselves through constant incitement against the Maasai
landowners that has led to illegal “operations" and human rights abuse. The
hunters must be chased away to allow the villages to plan sustainable land use
in peace.
Where’s Kigwangalla?
He’s invited to
Loliondo to learn what’s going on, but hasn’t responded.
Kigwangalla’s letter
The new minister didn’t
take up the invitation to come and see for himself, and listen to the victims
of the illegal “operation”. Instead, without having been to Loliondo, today, on 19th
October, he issued a letter ordering cattle and tractors from “outside the
country” to leave Loliondo Game Controlled Area within seven days, or they would
be nationalised. In social media Kigwangalla claimed to have been informed
about over 6,000 cattle and over 200 (sic!) tractors from the “neighbouring
country”. Nobody in Loliondo has any doubt about who the “informant” is. Nobody
has escaped the fact that “Kenyans” is the favourite diversionary tactic of OBC
and friends. Have they acquired yet another minister?
Everyone who can do something,
please help stop this nightmare.
Update: in a meeting with tourism stakeholders on 22nd
October, Kigwangalla revoked all hunting blocks issued this year saying that
permits will be re-applied through auction in 60 days. Hunting blocks with
conflict, like Loliondo and Lake Natron, will not be renewed until the conflicts
are solved. I do hope this is an opportunity to get rid of OBC.
The same day surfaced a timetable for a visit by
Kigwangalla to Loliondo on the 26th – 27th. Meetings with
the victims of the illegal “operation” aren’t anywhere in the timetable.
On 26th October there was a public meeting
and Kigwangalla put stop to the criminal “operation”. He described the
fundamental problem as the increase of people and cattle, not mentioning the immense
value of the land for outside interests, like investors and conservation
organisations. The minister said the problem isn’t solved by using guns, but at
the same time talking about people, NGOSs and others using harsh words that don’t
solve anything (as if they would dare to) and thereby he showed an astonishing
lack of understanding of power relations. He declared the way forward as
participatory conservation, but also saying that the conflict was now on the
table of the PM, which he couldn’t say anything about here today. So, we’re
back at waiting for Majaliwa.
 |
| Naponu Rakatia |
At least there have
been some good rains.
Susanna Nordlund
By the way…
The newspeak of the Jamhuri again
It’s well-known that
for the rabidly anti-Loliondo journalist, Manyerere Jackton, the word “Mkenya”
(Kenyan) means a Loliondo Maasai who dares to speak up against “investors” that
threaten land rights. It should also be known that in the Jamhuri “mtetezi wa
hifadhi” (environmentalist) means someone who has sided with these “investors”
against his or her own people. Since I don’t have any psychiatric training
whatsoever, I would have wished not to have to write about Gabriel Killel
again, but Manyerere Jackton has written another article full of insane and
malicious lies, in which he presents Killel as an unjustly jailed
“environmentalist”. It does of course not matter to the “journalist” that
Killel has never protected the environment, or even shown any interest in flora
and fauna, and that his background is as a Catholic priest who was fired for
insulting/attacking the bishop about money issues. What matters is that he’s an
NGO director who in 2014 went to Dodoma with a delegation to support Thomson
Safaris and OBC, and has then fallen deeper and deeper into the cesspit of
treason to in January this year visibly deranged on Channel 10, express support
for the 1,500 km2 land alienation plan, which not even his partner in treason
Oloipiri/OBC/TS councillor William Alais has ever done. Killel has responded to
three court cases, one filed by his own “wife”, another for insulting the
magistrate for this case, and a third for physically assaulting Chadema special
seats councillor Tina Timan - all due to his violent character that many people
could witness after he started showing up screaming everywhere he came looking
for those he suspected of having informed his Norwegian Sami donor about his
sudden “friendship” with land grabbing investors. As mentioned in earlier blog
posts, it was I who informed the donor that works from indigenous people to
indigenous people with a focus on education, doesn’t want to be involved in any
politics, and obviously not to be associated with such “investors” that Killel
had previously always pretended to oppose. Killel thought he deserved to have
his cake and eat it. After his “friendship” with the “investors”, Killel
quickly became Manyerere Jackton’s “source” and together with the “journalist”
took active part in the campaign to silence everyone in Loliondo via illegal
arrests and malicious prosecution in 2016. In this latest article (online
26/9), Manyerere Jackton’s lies about me (that he very well knows are lies) are
of the kind that I wish were true. He writes that I’m close to Maanda Ngoitiko
and Tina Timan, and that I would be paying for court cases against those that
oppose the incitement of NGOs! Such friendships and such money is exactly what
I need, but don’t have… Manyerere Jackton also writes that I would have said
that I’m happy about Killel’s imprisonment, which is partly true, since (maybe)
he will be prevented from doing too much harm for a while, but prison isn’t the
right place to deal with Killel’s problems.
At last someone has
taken legal action against the indescribable malice of the false, misleading
and defamatory “information” published in the Jamhuri. Maanda Ngoitiko – to
whom the lies have caused considerable personal and professional damage - has
sued Alais, Killel and Jackton. I don’t know if it can lead anywhere, but at
least someone has put down a foot. 70 % of the Loliondo Maasai would have a
case against the Jamhuri, and so would I. More about this in next blog post.
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