One
ex-minister (7 May 2012 – 20 December 2013) of natural resources and tourism,
Khamis Kagasheki, who for whatever reason was (before Maghembe’s latest period …
) the minister who with most determination and the wildest lies worked to
alienate 1,500 km2 of grazing land from the Maasai of Loliondo, has complained
in social media about being mentioned by Kigwangalla as “close to OBC”. He
tweeted, "Waziri wa Maliasili na
Utalii Hamis Kigwangalla alinukuliwa kutaja 'muwekezaji OBC' alivo na kashfa za
Rushwa. Alinitaja mimi kuwa karibu na OBC. Napenda athibitishe ukaribu huo,
vitalu nilivogawa nikiwa Waziri na rushwa niliyopokea"*. I’m not even
sure if Kagasheki was mentioned by Kigwangalla, or just felt mentioned. He has
now blocked me for replying, "After
Maghembe, you are the minister who with most rabid enthusiasm has lied to
fulfil the wishes of OBC of taking 1,500 km2 from the Maasai of Loliondo. I
have no idea if it happened because of bribes, true love, or some convergent
interests.". I thought a reminder of what happened in 2013 could be
timely, especially since so many people now doubt it even if it’s very well
documented! Or maybe they just don’t care, but I’ll set the record straight
anyway.
The beginning
On
27 January 2013, the then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis
Kagasheki, held several “stakeholders’” meetings in Loliondo. He did not grasp
the fundamental question of, “Whose land is it?”, but only saw conflict among
“stakeholders” – especially so-called “investors”, “communities” (the people
who depend on the land for their lives and livelihoods), and government. His
key idea was for “investors” to work together forming an association. He also
made a threat warning that if things would not go well he might be compelled to
ban all human activities in the area. OBC – that organise hunting for Sheikh
Mohammed of Dubai and have kept getting renewals of the hunting blocks in Loliondo
since 1992 (but will now hopefully have to leave before January 2018) were
represented at this meeting by the general manager Isaack Mollel, and
professional hunter Mohamed Horsley who portrayed to be a spokesperson for wild
animals.
The
last weekend of February 2013 Kagasheki returned to Loliondo with the message
that the Game Controlled Area as per Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 was the
best “solution” for Loliondo. In the worst Orwellian way, the Minister
explained to the media that in fact the Maasai were “landless” and would now be “given”
the land that they already had, and which was classified as village land –
except for the 1,500 km2 “corridor” that would “remain under government control”. The condition for this “offer” would be that the community should
form a Wildlife Management Area (which they never had wanted). The move was described as “addressing historical injustices”.
Unfortunately, journalists present lacked the necessary background information
or will, to realize that in fact the historical injustice was about to happen
if this move would be realized.
Kagasheki
would keep repeating these lies in every statement – together with OBC’s lies
about who’s speaking up for land rights in Loliondo - until he was stopped.
The facts
The
Maasai of Loliondo already lost considerable land in 1958 with the creation of
Serengeti National Park. Loliondo Game Controlled Area was also declared in the
1950s and it regulated hunting without interfering with local people’s
activities. With the Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974 that regulated hunting
in all of Tanzania the function of the LGCA changed to limiting the borders of
hunting blocks, and OBC’s hunting block is the whole of the 4,000 km2 Loliondo
CGA, which is more than the whole of Loliondo division and includes, among
other areas, agricultural land, forest, the two “towns” of Wasso and Loliondo,
the DC’s office and Wasso Hospital. This is what Kagasheki pretended would be a
“protected area” that the Maasai would have “invaded”, in which case also the
DC would have “invaded” with his office in Loliondo Town. People like Kagasheki
(and later Maghembe) base their lies on the Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009
that came into effect in 2010 and in which GCAs are protected areas, exactly
like game reserves. Though this act also says that village land and GCA can’t overlap and that “within twelve months of coming into
operation of this act and after consultation of the relevant authorities,
review the list of game controlled areas for ascertaining potentially
justifying continuation of control of any such area”. Therefore, OBC funded
a draft District Land Use Plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2 of important
grazing land on which they hunt (there isn’t much wildlife around the DC office
…) into the new kind of GCA, and thereby evict the Maasai that depend on this
land. This irregular (it didn’t involve the concerned villages) plan was
strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District Council since it would have led to
destruction of livelihoods, environmental degradation and increased conflict
with neighbours.
All
land in Loliondo is village land per section 7(1) of the Village Land Act No. 5
of 1999 since it fulfils the following definitions - one definition being
sufficient to qualify as village land.
-Land
within the boundaries of villages registered according to the Local Government
(District
Authorities) Act, 1982.
-Land
demarcated as village land under any administrative procedure or in accord with
any statutory or customary law.
-General
land that villagers have been using for the twelve years preceding the
enactment of the Village Land Act, 1999. This includes land customarily used
for grazing cattle or
passage
of cattle (TNRF, 2011).
In
2009 there were extrajudicial, very illegal, evictions from OBC's area of
interest, and the Field Force Unit burned down bomas and dispersed livestock
into an extreme drought area. 7-year old Nashipai Gume was lost in the chaos
and hasn’t been found, ever since. The rejected draft district land use plan
from 2010-2011 was a failed attempt to repeat the same in a legal way, and in
2013 Kagasheki worked for the same alienation of the 1,500 km2 osero via
shameless lies that taking this important grazing land was “giving” the Maasai
2,500 km2 that they – and others – already had.
The twisted statements and the
resistance
On
21 March, after a brief meeting in Arusha with top district leaders, Minister
Kagasheki showed up again in Loliondo. Local leaders had got information that
Kagasheki was sent by the president to announce that the 1,500 km2 corridor
would be taken by the government as a Game Controlled Area 2009 to “protect wildlife and water catchments”.
The local leaders refused to enter the district council conference hall to join
the Minister. Instead they demanded that he should answer questions from people
outside the hall. Kagasheki suspended the meeting and took off to Arusha in a
fury. The leaders and other citizens who were around waiting for the minister
talked to the media to express their views on the matter. Ololosokwan ward
councillor Yannick Ndoinyo told journalists, “We are not ready to surrender even one meter of our land to investors
for whatever reason” and several other leaders had the same message.
Thousands
of people met in Oloipiri on 25 March 2013 and decided to stay united, end any
involvement with OBC and, soon after the government had announced the land to
be taken away from them, initiate a court case with an injunction plus a
reclaim of Serengeti National Park. Also, all political leaders, including the
MP, would resign from their posts. This was the highest point of seriousness by
Loliondo leader, but unfortunately, they didn’t keep it up.
Finally,
on 26 March 2013 in Dar es Salaam Kagasheki announced publicly to journalists
that the government would take over the corridor of important grazing land. In
the wording of the minister, he again … lied that the government was “keeping” 1,500 km2 and the people of
Loliondo would be “given” 2,500 km2
where they would be “helped” to
establish WMAs. He added that, “There
will be no compromise with regard to any attempt to infringe the newly
established borders”. The Minister also warned NGOs and so-called “Kenyans”
(the standard accusation by “investors” and their “friends” against Loliondo
activists is to call them “Kenyans”, and to pretend that there are “over 30”
NGOs when there were two NGOs
speaking up for land rights until they were intimidated into silence in 2016)
about inciting the Maasai (Daily News, 27 March 2013).
On
1 April 2013 (and I wish it would have been an April Fool’s joke), a press statement from the Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism titled “Ufafanuzi
Kuhusu Tamko la Waziri Kagasheki Kuhusu Eneo la Pori Tengefu la Loliondo”, was
released signed by the spokesman George Matiko – followed on the 7th
by a somewhat differently worded version in English signed by the minister
himself. These statements – again - insisted on the lies that Loliondo Game
Controlled Area was a protected area that “landless” people had “invaded” and
that the government had taken the decision of reducing the LGCA “to provide
land to the growing landless population in the area”. The 1,500 km2 had to
“remain” LGCA to protect breeding grounds, migration corridors and water
catchments. The Swahili version added that 25% of the country was protected
areas “without conflict”! This version also contained the usual talk by the “friends
of investors” that the problem in Loliondo was caused by NGOs, many led by
“foreigners” (of course without naming such supposed “foreigners”) whose
“secret agendas” (has anyone ever spoken up for justice in Tanzania without being
accused of having a “secret” or “hidden” agenda?) had already been exposed.
(MNRT, 2013).
A
big meeting was planned for 2 April in Wasso, but it turned into a
disappointment. Most councillors had abandoned the resignation promises. There
was no declaration made since the meeting had not got a permit… CCM party cards
were left littering the ground. Though the following days several meetings were
held in Wasso and elsewhere.
In
the midst of this crisis Ngorongoro MP Telele left for China as a member of an
investor-wooing delegation - led by the Director of Tourism of the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Tourism. Telele was
removed in 2015, and it was thought that his successor would never behave in
the same way.
On
4 April, several Tanzanian land and human rights organisations issued a joint press statement setting the record straight about the laws governing the 1,500
km2 and about Kagasheki’s very deliberate attempt to mislead the public. The
statement also emphasised that it is OBC that is endangering the environment by
its hunting practices and illegal constructions.
Around
a thousand women gathered in Olorien/Magaiduru, camping out and holding
meetings for days. On 6 April, a CCM mission led by the deputy secretary
general of the party, Mwigulu Nchemba, met with these women and other people
gathered in Olorien. The CCM representatives were told in no uncertain terms
that the community would fight to the last person for their land and Nchemba’s
conclusion was that the government’s decision was contrary to the laws of the
land and would adversely affect the local community, and that he would refer
the issue to the PM.
At
the same time representatives of the opposition party, Chadema, were addressing
the public at a meeting in Soitsambu. Chadema’s director for Legal and Human
Rights Tundu Lissu and shadow minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Peter
Msigwa, told villagers to support the opposition party in opposing the
government decision. (Mwananchi,
7 April 2013)
Kagasheki
held a breakfast meeting with ambassadors and representatives of international
communities in the country complaining about “37 NGOs” (!) with “hidden
interests” in Loliondo. The minster continued with the shameless lie about
giving land to landless people. He even suggested to have a disagreement with
OBC – the sponsor of the rejected land use plan that proposed the alienation of
the 1,500 km2 – as if the company could go to court because of the “reduction”
of LGCA, when it had been the proposal of the land use plan the company had
paid for! In a report released by OBC in November 2016 the hunters also complained
about the size of the hunting block, since they only hunt on part of it.
Legal
and Human Rights Centre sent on 15 April 2013 a letter to Kagasheki warning him that
his announcements were a contempt of court in the ongoing constitutional case,
urging him to restrain from implementing his decisions and that “In the event this call is ignored or
neglected we shall be forced to institute an application before the court of
law against you personally”.
On
18 April 2013 OBC’s Mollel said to the BBC, "The
people communicating for the Maasai are not the Maasai themselves. They make
sure that [there is] no clear understanding between the investors and the
indigenous people of Loliondo" .
On
18 April 2013, a delegation of representatives from Loliondo that had waited some
days in Dodoma, and before had been in Dar es Salaam, met with Prime Minister
Mizengo Pinda who came from a long meeting with the CCM team that visited
Loliondo and, judging from their public statements, sided with the people. The PM
agreed that the land does indeed belong to the Maasai and he said that the
announcements made by the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism would not
be implemented. Though nothing of this was put in any written document and
Pinda also “advised” the delegates to establish a WMA. He asked them to wait
until he had talked with the president.
On
26 April 2013, a meeting was held in Arash where the councillors informed the
community of the meeting with the PM. Following the meeting, several
journalists were arrested at night and their equipment confiscated. They were
later released, and their equipment returned.
On
30 April 2013 opposition parliamentarian Peter Msigwa made a presentation on
Loliondo in parliament that was dismissed by one CCM legislator after the
other. MP Telele stood up and thanked
the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism and the government for finding a
“solution” to the Loliondo land conflict. Telele had spoken up against the
evictions in 2009 and some of his actions that made him appear to side with
investors or central government against the people of Ngorongoro had been
explained as ignorance – but this was the final nail in the coffin of his
credibility.
Winding
up debate for his ministry’s 2013/2014 budget estimates on 2 May 2013, Kagasheki
said that the government will not be dictated by “NGOs”, some of which are operating
in Loliondo for their own selfish ends. He told parliament that some NGOs are
sowing seeds of discord and causing unrest in the disputed area – which actually
is a perfect description of what the “friends of investors”, some of them indeed
NGOs, are doing.
Beginning of the end of the
Kagasheki-style threat
On
16 May 2013, various traditional leaders from Loliondo gathered in Dar es Salaam
demanding a meeting with the president. Almost a month had passed since the
meeting in Dodoma with the PM who expressed his support and said he would refer
the issue to the president. The demands were not met, and the delegation headed
on to Dodoma to see then PM Mizengo Pinda. In Dodoma, the traditional leaders
were joined by other delegations from Loliondo for a long and costly wait until
the PM on 30 May issued a letter with the government’s statement to the Arusha
RC. The letter, which never was mentioned by the RC, recognised that the land
belongs to the Maasai, but was otherwise a disappointment mostly talking about
considering what infrastructure there is in the 1,500 km2.
On
23 May 2013 Tanzania’s representative at the United Nations, Ramadhan M. Mwinyi read
a statement at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. The statement
starts by denying the concept of indigenous people in Tanzania and then moves
on into self-congratulatory mode for having granted a collective Community Land
Certificate to the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers. The statement again … repeats the
falsehoods about the Maasai as “landless” people that have been “given” 2,500
km2 while 1,500 km2 are being “retained” for wildlife conservation. Fortunately,
Tanzanian representatives from pastoralists’ and hunter-gatherers’
organisations were present at the forum and could call the government’s story
into light with their own statement.
The
journalist, Manyerere Jackton, who by now in 2017 has written well over 40 articles
full of hate speech against the Loliondo Maasai – calling 70 % “Kenyan”,
environmentally destructive, and governed by corrupt NGOs - and extreme,
sometimes surreal, defamation of individuals speaking up for land rights, had
of course written in support of Kagasheki (Waziri Kagasheki asiogope, Serikali
isikubali kuchezewa, 5 April 2013, Jamhuri) and followed up with a series of
articles with his (or OBC’s) view on what was going on in Loliondo.
On
2 September 2013, a delegation sent by the Ministry for Lands, Housing and
Human Settlements Developments held a meeting with councillors and others at
Ngorongoro District Council. Isaac Marwa, the Principal Surveyor of this
ministry, is reported to have said that - after long discussions between the
Prime Minister and the ministers for Natural Resources and Tourism and for
Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments - the Government had agreed to abandon its proposal
of taking 1,500 km2 bordering Serengeti National Park. He added that the issue
of Loliondo had attracted long discussions and campaigns across the world,
including damaging the image of the nation, and they had decided to appreciate
that the land belongs to the villages. A team of eight people led by
councillors and village leaders and monitored by CSOs would make a survey of
the villages of Loliondo and Sale.
On
3 September 2013, the surveying team started its work in Sukenya and Mondorosi.
The following morning when going to continue to Nginye, Njoroi and Kirtalo the
team was told to stop and immediately return to Dar es Salaam. The council chairman
who phoned the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments
for an explanation said that he had been told that the night before the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism had issued a complaint and wanted the
survey stopped. The Lands Minister said that the District Council should follow
up with the Prime Minister and the President, and not with her.
On
22-23 September 2013, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda visited Loliondo. On 22nd
the PM and an entourage including Anna Tibaijuka, the Minister for Lands,
Housing and Human Settlements Development and Lazaro Nyalandu, Deputy Minister
for Natural Resources and Tourism landed at OBC’s airstrip and visited various
projects in Ololosokwan and other villages. According to reports, the PM had
not said anything at all in Ololosokwan.
On
23 September 2013, Wasso was overflowing with people who wanted to hear what
the Prime Minister had to say. In an emotional speech, the PM told them that
the plan of taking 1.500 km2 was scrapped, that the land was theirs and for
their coming generations – and that the Minister for Natural Resources and
Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki would not be allowed to bother them anymore. They
were asked to continue with their lives as before Kagasheki’s statements. This marked the end of the Kagasheki-style corridor threat.
On
25 September 2013 OBC’s Isaack Mollel was quoted in the Mwananchi saying he did
not oppose the decision, but wanted the NGOs to join meetings to prepare land
use plans. Before the announcement, though, Mollel had stated that the tourism
industry in Loliondo would die and the whole ecology of the Serengeti would be
affected if areas in Loliondo were not set aside for conservation since cattle
had started entering the National Park (Mwananchi, 25 September 2013).
The end of Kadasheki as minister
In
December 2013, Khamis Kagasheki resigned as Minister for Natural Resources and
Tourism. The reason for his resignation wasn’t Loliondo at all, but an
anti-poaching operation – Operation Tokomeza – that turned into harassment of
pastoralists and agriculturalists, killing of livestock and into murder, rape,
torture and extortion of mostly innocent rural people all over the country . This kind of
behaviour by game rangers and other law enforcers was nothing new – and had
been going on in various anti-pastoralist operations and in local conflicts all
over rural Tanzania - but the outrage finally reached parliament A
parliamentary committee confirmed the human rights abuses. Kagasheki had at the
start of Operation Tokomeza, in front of tour operators called for, obviously
unconstitutional, extrajudicial killings of suspected poachers, but this was
not even mentioned as a reason he should resign. Besides Kagasheki the ministers for Livestock and Fisheries Development,
Home Affairs and Defence and National Service all lost their jobs. The
president expressed his sympathy for Kagasheki and the other ministers that had
to take responsibility for “mistakes
committed by junior public officers.” (Daily News, 1 January 2014) Some
tour operators, and their tail in social media, wanted Kagasheki back even starting
a petition to have him re-instated... There were allegations that the real
reason for stopping the operation was that it came too close to top level
politicians involved in poaching, which may be true, or not, even if those
lamenting the stop show a shocking lack of concern about the well-documented
human rights crimes… Some also claim that Kagasheki was going to mention top
names involved in poaching, or even that he would already have mentioned them, which
is something he to date has not done,
even though international press would still be more than interested.
After Kagasheki
Over
five years have passed, the situation in Loliondo has been both much worse and
much better than when Kagasheki tried to take the 1,500 km2 osero, at last a
Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism has possibly understood what’s going
on in Loliondo (and the “understanding” seems ordered from a higher level of government
after an intervention by a friend of the president) – authorities and others
stirring up conflict, and committing crimes, to benefit from the “investor”.
As
has been reported in this blog, after Kagasheki, the new minister, Nyalandu,
focused on closed meetings in which he allegedly tried to buy off councillors. In
2016 a terror wave swept over Loliondo and people suspected of being able to
speak up for land rights were illegally arrested, and four of them maliciously charged
with “espionage and sabotage”, which led to more silence than ever. Following
this, and a report prepared by OBC, PM Majaliwa tasked Arusha RC Gambo with “solving
the conflict”, and Gambo set a select committee that in April this year handed
a sad compromise proposal to Majaliwa. While the select committee was at work
Maghembe showed up in Loliondo together with the anti-Loliondo journalist to
declare that the 1,500 km2 had to be taken, and later brought a standing
parliamentary on such a co-opted trip that several members complained about being
used to rubber stamp Maghembe’s wish of “giving the land to OBC”. On 13 August
2017, while everyone was still waiting to hear from Majaliwa, Serengeti and NCA
rangers invaded village land in an illegal operation ordered by the DC. At
least 250 bomas were burned to the ground and there were brutal beatings,
illegal seizing of cows and blocking of water sources.
Maghembe
started lying that the 1,500 km2 was a protected area, as if Kagasheki’s
threats had never been stopped… and on tv he used the years earlier rejected
land use plan that was funded by OBC
Currently
the situation in Loliondo has radically improved, after the new minister,
Kigwangalla, following a less promising start, not only stopped the illegal
operation, but declared that OBC’s hunting block, after all these years, would
not be renewed. Kigwangalla even recognised a corrupt syndicate working for
OBC, providing misleading information and stirring up conflict. This isn’t a
secret for anyone in Loliondo, but it has never been recognised by a minister. Kigwangalla
mentioned that former ministers had been close to OBC (quite an understatement…)
but I can’t hear him mentioning Kagasheki in videos, maybe because of my deficient
Swahili. Kagasheki, Maghembe and Nyalandu were mentioned in an early written
report about what Kigwangalla had said. Anyway, Kigwangalla replied to
Kagasheki’s tweet that he’s his much respected brother and that he hadn’t been
mentioned…
I
won’t accept Kagasheki’s ghost turning up five year later playing innocent, and
his many “fans” have made me see the necessity of setting the record straight.
If you’re ordered to lie in favour of evictions and human rights abuse, you
always have the option of resigning instead of doing the task with enthusiasm…
If I’m still around (probably not), and with mental faculties intact, I will remember
2013 when 50 years have passed.
Susanna Nordlund
Background
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
has the hunting block. Stan Katabalo – maybe Tanzania’s last investigative
journalist - reported about how this hunting block was acquired in the early
90s.
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, then Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in a
speech on 23rd 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 “Kenyan” and governed by
destructive NGOs. OBC’s “friends” in Loliondo became more active in the
harassment of those speaking up against the “investors”, even though they
themselves don’t want the GCA 2009, and rely on others, the same people they persecute,
to stop it…
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 25th January 2017 the Minister for Natural Resources and
Tourism, 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 the RC’s
committee started marking “critical areas” while being met with protest. On
21st March a proposal for a WMA was presented by the RC’s committee, handed
over to PM Majaliwa on 20th April, and we are still waiting to hear something
from the PM.
While
still waiting, on 13th August 2017 an 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. There was an interim stop order by CHRAGG, but the
crimes continued unabated. A case was filed in the East African Court of
Justice on 21st September.
The
new minister stopped the operation on 26th October, and then made it
clear that OBC’s hunting block would not be renewed.
*Aprox.
translation: “the minister for natural
resources and tourism, Hamis Kigwangalla, was quoted mentioning the “investor
OBC” to be involved in a bribing scandal. He mentioned me to be close to OBC. I
want him to clarify this closeness, the hunting blocks I distributed when I was
the minister, and the bribes I’ve received.”
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