In this blog post:
Violent
assault committed by soldiers
The
EACJ case
Probe
team, team of attorney general’s lawyers, or whatever
Reuters
article everywhere
Visit
by RC Gambo
Summary
(important reading for those who want to write about Loliondo, but don’t have
the time to check facts)
Don’t
forget to read the 12th June blog post with the sad story about
Thomson Safaris’ ruthless hypocrisy, the 7th June and 13th May posts with chaotic updates, and the 11th April post about the
visit by Sheikh Mohammed, and Kigwangalla’s spectacular U-turn.
Violent assault committed by soldiers
The
night of 30th June I was informed that on Friday 29th June
some soldiers together with four anti-poaching rangers from the district – villagers
say that they recognised one as an OBC ranger - physically assaulted several
people – two men, two boys, and one woman - at Orkirkai in Ololosokwan village.
One of those who were attacked was Oletipis who works for OBC’s employee
William Parmwat, herding his cows. The soldiers told people not to cross the
road leading to Klein’s and OBC, while beating them senselessly so that some had
to be taken to Wasso hospital with injuries all over their bodies. The
attackers claimed to be “protecting the Serengeti” – the park boundary is some
2-3 km away from Orkirkai that’s on registered village land – and said that
they would be back. Per other reports, the soldiers were talking about poaching,
economic sabotage, and cattle in the park, which is unlikely, since there’s
still grass elsewhere.
Since
around 24th March the Tanzania People's Defence Force has had a
military camp set up in Lopolun, near Wasso “town”. Some people have worried
that the reason for this is to further intimidate the local Maasai, while
others have said that it’s for border issues with Kenya, or “normal soldier activities”.
I
was “lucky” that someone tired of being afraid messaged me about this violent
attack, that could then be confirmed by other sources. No leaders from Loliondo
have spoken up, and nobody has even dared to mention it openly in social media.
Such is the fear.
The EACJ case
The
government of Tanzania continue its efforts to derail the case in the East
African Court of Justice filed during last year’s illegal invasion of
registered village land, by the villages of Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien and
Arash.
As
mentioned earlier, during the weeks leading up to the court hearing on 7th
June, there was a stream of arrests and summons to Loliondo police station,
with the aim of intimidating everyone into silence and derail the court case – all
led by the acting Ngorongoro Officer Commanding District (OCD). (Correction: the person leading the harassment and
intimidation was the Officer Commanding Criminal Investigation Division
Ngorongoro District, Marwa W. Mwita. Despite asking everyone I could think of,
I was unable to get hold of this information until 23rd July 2018.)
The
chairmen of the villages were summoned to the police station, and 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. The chairmen of the villages of
Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Arash were arrested and released on the condition that
they present themselves at Loliondo police station every Friday, which
effectively prevented them from attending the East African Court of Justice in
Arusha on Thursday, 7th June, since, due to road conditions, it’s a
10-hour trip from Loliondo to Arusha (upgrading has commenced on the first
stretch of the road). Now they don’t have to report at the police station
anymore, but have been told that they will be summoned if needed. They have reportedly
been charged with: instituting a case against
the central government without permission; holding a community meeting without
permission from the government; contributing financial resources to pay the
lawyers without government approval; and, being involved in the production of a
report by the Oakland Institute, which according to the Oakland Institute is an
unfounded and false allegation (which I believe, even if being involved in
producing a report isn’t a crime in any way, and neither are the other charges).
The
chairman of Oloirien (I was earlier recommended the spelling “Olorien”), Nekitio
Ledidi, together with another man from Oloirien called Salau Makoi, was
arrested for 25 days (in Tanzania someone arrested must be taken to court or
granted bail after 24 hours, but as known, Loliondo is lawless) before being
taken to court and granted bail on 1st June. Then the two men were
re-arrested, and bail applied for the same day. When summoned to Loliondo
police station on Monday 4th June they were taken to Bariadi in Simiyu
region by a task force. They were kept illegally arrested in Bariadi, accused
of something related to “illegal arms”, which with all probability is a false
accusation, and the chairman was being threatened to withdraw the case in the
EACJ - while everyone in Loliondo stayed silent. For
the past two months, or so, there’s been another stream of arrests in Loliondo,
further contributing to the climate of lawlessness and fear. I’ve been told
that some individuals have had arms, but handed them in. The accusation of
“illegal arms” has turned into a business, making victims pay 2 million to be
released, and people with grudges reporting those that they want to hurt. On 20th
June a habeas corpus - Misc Criminal Application no 38 of 2018 before Judge
Maghimbi - was filed by advocate Jebra Kambole of Law Guards Advocates, and the
officer commanding Loliondo police station summoned to the High Court in Arusha
on 22nd June. The hearing took place on 22nd June, and orders
were to be given on Tuesday 26th June, but fearing this, the government
side instead rushed off to Mugumu in Serengeti district where they on 25th
June charged Nekitio and Salau with between February 2011 and November 2014
having transported and sold in Kenya six elephant tusks, property of the
Government of Tanzania! It’s a little too obvious that accusations of a couple
of crimes, committed over the time of three years - four years ago - come
conveniently to further derail the case in the East African Court of Justice. Currently the two men are in prison in Mugumu. The case which face them is unbailable at the
district court, but bail has been applied for at the High Court of Tanzania.
Several
common villagers, many illiterate, have also been summoned to the police, and
some of them have out of fear, conceded to the police that they had withdrawn
their support and/or authorization for the litigation. Rondi Sereti whose
family had their home burned and suffered terrible livestock losses during last
year’s illegal operation, and who has appeared in media, including South African television, together with his wives, was arrested for several days,
accused of being in possession of an illegal firearm, but was released after
preliminary investigation couldn't implicate him to be prosecuted.
Everyone
is a pastoralist and would be adversely affected by a massive loss of grazing
land leading to the destruction of livelihoods, environmental degradation, and
increased conflict with neighbours. Too many do however seem intent at keeping
a low profile, out of harms way, while others must fight for the land. And then
we have the unpresentables that benefit as “friends” of the “investor” while
expecting others to save the land. Nobody
will however find more than one single Loliondo pastoralist that will say, “welcome,
take away the 1,500 km2 osero”.
The
1,500 km2 of grazing land under threat is land that also serves as the core
hunting area of Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that organizes hunting for
Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai in Loliondo, since 1992. In the 2009 drought year
OBC’s rangers assisted the Field Force Unit in illegal evictions from the land
in question. After that, OBC tried a more legal approach funding a draft
district land use plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2 into a “protected
area”, which was strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District Council. Then, in
2013, the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism at the time, Kagasheki,
tried to reach the same end, but via bizarre lies that the Maasai were
“landless” and would be “gifted” with the land outside the 1,500 km2. After
many mass meetings and protest delegations, then PM Pinda revoked Kagasheki’s
threats and told the Maasai to continue their lives as before. Now 2013 seems
like the good old days…
In
2016 a massive intimidation campaign, including illegal arrests and malicious
prosecution, partially succeeded in silencing everyone. After that, OBC sent
out a report asking the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to assist
them with the destructive Maasai, and PM Majaliwa set out to “solve the
conflict” tasking the Arusha RC with setting up a select, non-participatory
committee that finally came up with a sad compromise proposal, and then
Minister Maghembe kept issuing horrible threats and lies. While waiting to hear
the PM’s decision, an illegal operation invaded legally registered village
land, and this was ordered by the DC, officially funded by TANAPA, and
implemented by Serengeti rangers, assisted by local police, NCA, KDU and OBC
rangers. There was mass arson of hundreds of bomas, documented by the
perpetrators themselves, beatings, arrests of the victims, illegal seizing of
cows, and blocking of water sources. Women were raped by the rangers, and some
leaders, notably the formerly much trusted MP stayed inexplicably silent. The
new minister – Kigwangalla – finally stopped the operation after over two
months, becoming an instant hero in Loliondo when he made strong statements that he would clean up his house, stop the corruption syndicate at the service
of OBC, and assuring that the hunters would have left before January 2018,
never to be given another hunting block. Though OBC never showed any signs of
leaving, and on 6th December 2017 the PM declared that they were
staying, in the same meeting as he announced that his decision was a vague and
threatening “special authority” to manage the land. Then Kigwangalla made a
complete U-turn, going to the extreme of on Twitter denying the existence of
people in Loliondo!
Before
the current intimidation campaign, the government side tried to stop the court
case 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 25th January 2018.
On
7th June, I was told that at the hearing the lawyers for the government
side (attorney general) had started objecting that nobody is, or was evicted
from the village land, but the operation was done in Serengeti National Park,
even though all documents by the perpetrators themselves clearly show that the
illegal operation took place on legally registered village land. In public
documents from the lawyers, it says that government side’s counsel sought to
give new arguments (not in the pleadings filed in court), and also sought to
give testimony “from the bar” (without having filed affidavits or brought
persons able to give this testimony). The court pointed this out and gave the respondent
till 21st June to file documents to prove its assertions that the villagers
did not legitimately meet, but such documents have to date not been filed.
Meanwhile, the court said that it would deliver its ruling
on the application for interim orders “on notice”, meaning that the
villagers’ counsel will be notified when the ruling is ready. Nothing more has
been heard about this.
Probe team,
team of government lawyers, or whatever
On
17th June I was told that the government had formed a “probe team” to investigate on the sources of the Oakland
report, and mine too. After years of
experiencing how things are done in Loliondo, I’m convinced that nobody will
“investigate” anything at all. Those someone want to target will be targeted,
and accused of anything, whether it makes sense, or not. The Oakland report had
mostly old information that everyone already knew about but hadn’t put together
in such a clear way, some previously unseen, but old, documents (about the
Thomson case, not the 1,500 km2 osero) obtained by an American organisation assisting
with that court case, and Oakland had independent researchers visiting Loliondo
(the report also had some important mistakes that I wrote about on 13th May). They got massive media coverage without anchoring it with Loliondo
activists (if anyone can still be called that), which most people (me included)
think was a good thing to do, even if doing it earlier and involving more
people would have been even better, only some of those baselessly accused of
having worked with Oakland reacted somewhat negatively. I’ve had hundreds of
sources through the years, not least some of the most horrible “friends” of
“investors” (I could volunteer those names to the “probe team”…), and now I
have basically none. Most important is to remember that article 18 of the
constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania states that:
“Every
person – (a) Has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas; (b) Has a
right
to seek, receive and/or disseminate information regardless of national
boundaries;
(c) Has the freedom to communicate and a freedom with protection from
interference
from his communication; and (d) has a right to be informed at all times of
various
important events of life and activities of the people and also of issues of
importance
to the society”
The
attorney general’s team lawyers also came to Loliondo. I don’t know if they are
the same as the “probe team”. Apparently, this team
didn’t harass villagers but kept to sitting in offices with the Village Executive
Secretaries. The fear is that the attorney general’s lawyers want to allege
that the village chairpersons weren’t legitimately elected, and that the meetings held
in August 2017 and that authorised the EACJ litigation did not actually take
place. I haven’t been able to obtain any
further information about a “probe team”, but whether it was or was not, it silenced
even more people.
Reuters
article everywhere
An
earlier mentioned Reuters article about the Tanzanian government’s effort to
intimidate the villagers to withdraw the case in the East African court is
having its own life. It has kept being published just everywhere. This is very
frustrating since, besides some relevant comments by advocate Don Deya, the
article, that’s described as having been edited, almost doesn’t get one point
about the background right. It says that the land has been turned into a “park”
when it stays as village land and nobody is currently stopping those illegally
evicted from returning, except maybe for the violent soldiers that appeared in
Ololosokwan on 29th June. This could be explained by confusion, but
the article also incorrectly says that the evictions took place in 2014, when
such illegal operations were committed in 2009 and 2017. The headline is very misleading
as well, saying “Maasai community clash with Tanzania in court over eviction
from Serengeti”... One publication,
Business Daily, has even added a photo of the charlatan faith healer, Babu of
Samunge with a caption saying that it’s, “Members of the Maasai community
complaining about eviction at a past meeting”. What can be done about this kind
of Loliondo reporting? It’s unfortunately far from the first time. When
pointing it out after publication I’m invariably ignored, and what’s worse,
such factual errors keep being copied by other media, and even important organizations
(of which there was an extreme example in 2015), long after publication. I keep
posting a summary with the basics for journalists or anyone in a hurry who
would like to write about Loliondo. I’d proofread any well-intentioned writing
about Loliondo for free, and would love to have anyone offering the same to me,
instead of having to chase and beg people.
Visit by RC Gambo
The
Arusha RC Mrisho Gambo, who a year ago was called the “only ally” of the
Loliondo pastoralists, but then didn’t say one word when they were the victims
of massive human rights abuse, toured Ngorongoro district 21-24 June, visiting
different projects. Most media attention was dedicated to some confused news
that people in Oloipiri would be delaying the road work upgrading the Mto wa
Mbu–Loliondo road to tarmac, putting up buildings and requesting compensation,
and that all such people would be arrested. This is geographically impossible, since Oloipiri is not along that road stretch, and the
village is not even along the continuation of the main road. It’s unclear if
there was a mix-up with some other village, or if it was all a lie. Some people
say it’s a combination. Anyway, the upgrading is presented as some kind of divine
gift from the president, instead of normal use of tax money.
In
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Gambo announced that the 17% of funds that’s
supposedly for development, due to corruption and mismanagement, would be
diverted form the Pastoralist Council (PC) to be managed at the District
Council in collaboration with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. It’s
feared that the District Council is even more unsuitable than the PC, and that
those funds will be used to impose the “special authority” to manage the 1,500
km2 that OBC have spent years lobbying to have alienated in Loliondo. The
Maasai in NCA keep losing access to grazing area after grazing area, and are
not even allowed to engage in subsistence agriculture. The aim seems to be to
drive them out of NCA, and to make the Loliondo Maasai just as miserable and
malnourished as those in NCA.
Later
appeared some positive reports about Gambo. The RC would have made it clear
that the military camp in Lopolun doesn’t have anything to do with the land
issue, and he would also have cautioned the police about the disarmament exercise,
saying that it should not be used to harass or intimate activists on the land
dispute. The attack by soldiers in Orkirkai happened after the RC’s visit.
Now
As
it looks now, there aren’t any people to vote for in 2020, since nobody is
speaking up against the abuse. Should Ngorongoro just be added to some other
district?
Summary of the threat against the
1,500 km2 osero
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. By 2018 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 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 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 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 Loliondo
leaders’ “only ally’s”, 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
21st 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 20th April, and a long
wait to hear the PM’s decision started.
While
still waiting, on 13th August 2017 a very 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 leaders stayed strangely and disappointingly silent.
The
DC and the Ministry of Natural Resources 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 21st
September.
When
in Arusha on 23rd September, President Magufuli collected protest placards
against Maghembe, OBC and abuse, to read them later.
On
5th October 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 Maghembe was removed and Hamisi
Kigwangalla appointed as new minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Kigwangalla
stopped the operation on 26th October, and then made it clear that
OBC’s hunting block would not be renewed, which he had already mentioned in
Dodoma on the 22nd. On 5th
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 Mollel wanted to bribe him, and would be investigated for
corruption.
Kigwangalla
announced in social media that he on 13th November 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
6th December, 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 21st May.
A
report about Loliondo and NCA was released by the Oakland Institute on 10th
May 2018, and Kigwangalla responded by denying that any abuse had ever taken
place, and threatening anyone involved with the report.
Currently
there’s an intimidation campaign against the applicants in the case in the East
African Court of Justice.
Susanna
Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
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