Hearing in the East African Court of Justice, but Perjurers not yet Cross Examined

On 10^th – 11^th June there was a hearing of Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. As mentioned in the previous blog post, my plan was to write extensively about this, but the defendants had only set aside two days, and their witnesses will be cross examined at a later date, and that was the matter of most interest to me. Now besides being delayed, I may repeat mostly old news here, but it wouldn’t be the first time, and I need to keep repeating the basic facts until they stick (it doesn’t work that way, but I can try...)

All information from readers is, as always, more than welcome.

In this blog post:

East African hearing 10^th–11^th June, without as much happening as I’d expected

The questions

Summary of Osero developments

East African hearing 10^th–11^th June

The case concerns the 1,500 km2 of village land per village Land Act No.5 of 1999 that’s an important dry season grazing area that at the same time, since 1992-1993, is used as the core hunting area of Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. There have been repeated attempts to alienate this land from the Maasai, and in 2009 there were illegal evictions, mass arson and multiple human rights crimes, ordered by the DC’s office, after a decision at regional level, committed by the Field Force Unit assisted by OBC rangers. Thereafter, OBC funded a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2 Osero (bushland) into a protected area. The plan was rejected by Ngorongoro district council, but this didn’t stop several other attempts and threats, not least in 2013 when the at the time minister for natural resources and tourism, Khamis Kagasheki, kept making twisted threats saying that grabbing the 1,500 km2 from the Maasai would be the same as gifting them with the cramped remainder of their land ... This bizarre threat was eventually stopped by PM Pinda. Through the years, a virtual police state has developed in Loliondo. “Investors” (OBC and Thomson Safaris), their “friends”, some “journalists”, and basically all government employees have participated in threats, slander, and in questioning the nationality of those speaking up against the land threats and “investors”. There have been the most ridiculous and frightening illegal arrests, and even malicious prosecution. Reference No. 10 of 2017 was filed by the four villages on 21^st September 2017 during an illegal operation like that of 2009. A repeat should not have been possible after eight years of preparation and activism, but since a few years back intimidation and divide and rule had worsened, and many voices had been silenced. Some of them had formed part of a select committee set up by Arusha RC Gambo tasked by PM Majaliwa to “solve the conflict”. This committee that had been met with spontaneous protests in village after village when marking “critical areas” finally reached the compromise proposal of a WMA that had earlier been resisted in Loliondo for a decade and a half since it transfers too much power over the land to central government and “investors”, but now it was seen as a victory, as it was much better than the proposal in the rejected land use plan (a complete land alienation for a protected area) – and by this time there were only two alternatives. Everyone was waiting to hear from the PM, and were not at all expecting another illegal invasion of village land with mass arson, beatings, arrests, seizing and in Arash even shooting of cattle, blocking of water sources, and rape. As said, it was during this operation ordered by the DC, officially funded by TANAPA, and implemented by Serengeti rangers assisted by local police and other rangers (NCA, OBC, KDU) that Reference No. 10 of 2017 was filed by the four villages.

The court had requested both sides to file expert evidence relating to the boundary between Serengeti National Park and Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District. This was because, after the Attorney General in the first response to being sued had pretended that the invaded land would have been a protected area, since the draft land use plan rejected in 2011 would somehow have passed - even when the PM announced a completely different, but maybe almost as destructive (and fortunately delayed) decision on 6^th December 2017 (via a legal bill forming a special authority to manage land in Loliondo, and placing this under the NCAA) – later witnesses for the respondent came up with another preposterous lie saying that the operation would have taken place exclusively in Serengeti National Park, and not at all on village land.

There was a hearing in the EACJ on 5^th March 2019, but the villages had to ask for an adjournment, since they hadn’t been able to find an expert cartographer in time, supposedly in large part because of the climate of terror that in 2018 had worsened considerably. They had also thought that the government side would ask for an adjournment, since they hadn’t filed affidavits themselves, 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 (and in Nganana’s case worse than perjury) of saying that the 2017 operation did not take place on village land, but only in the national park!

In the East Africa Court of Justice on 10^th June 2019 main counsel Advocate Donald Deya, accompanied by Advocate Jebra Kambole represented the villages. Thirteen out of fourteen witnesses were in court and their submissions, even though again late, were admitted by the judges. The hearing was adjourned to the following day since the Attorney General needed to prepare to cross examine the witnesses except for the expert witness (cartographer) that would require some more time and professional opinion to examine. On the 11^th, four of the applicants’ witnesses were cross examined and then the Principal Judge, Monica Mugenyi, adjourned the hearing until some time in August when the rest of the applicants’ witnesses and the respondent’s perjurers will be heard.

The good news is that the chairmen of the four villages, even if two of them were acting chairmen, had sworn affidavits and were in court. I was very worried after the somewhat inexplicable terror of 2018 that – unlike the operation of 2017 that just silenced some important people (like the MP …) - silenced absolutely every leader. The hearing even had some attendance by the press, with a brief piece on ITV featuring the main counsel Donald Deya, and the councillor for Ololosokwan ward, Yannick Ndoinyo, was heard on Radio Five explaining the reason for suing the government.

Earlier case developments

The first attempt to derail the case – an attempt that was dismissed by the court on 25^th January 2018 - was via a preliminary objection that the villages couldn’t sue the government, since they were part of the same government. This attempt was in the response by the Attorney General in which the same pretended that the 1,500 km2 would at some point have been converted into a protected area.

Next attempt come in late May 2018 via an intimidation campaign against leaders and common villagers. 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 Officer Commanding Criminal Investigation of Ngorongoro district (OCCID) – Marwa Mwita – and the 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. On 20^th June 2018, the defendant had several witnesses, not least the OCCID, swearing affidavits with claims about forgery, impersonation, and illegal assembly. In these the lie about an operation that would have taken place exclusively in the national park was introduced by a Serengeti park warden called Julius Francis Musei, but still in an attached letter from the OCCID the first lie, describing the illegal operation as carried out to evict some residents in the Game Controlled Area “within” Loliondo Division (the GCA is bigger than the whole division), was being used.

Violation of interim orders

When suing the Tanzanian government through the Attorney General, the villagers also filed Application 15 of 2017 seeking interim orders to stop the government from evicting them, confiscating their livestock, beating them, or burning their houses (all which is illegal anyway …) while Reference No. 10 of 2017 is ongoing. These orders were issued by the East African Court of Justice on 25^th September 2018, almost a year after the illegal operation was stopped. The orders were: a) That the Respondent and any persons or offices acting on his behalf, cease and desist from evicting the Plaintiffs; destroying their homesteads or confiscating their livestock on that land, until the determination of Reference No. 10 of 2017 and b) That the Office of the Inspector General of Police restrains from harassing or intimidating the Applicants in relation to Reference No. 10 of 2017 pending the determination thereof.

Less than two months later, these orders were brutally violated by soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ) – and nobody at all spoke up.

While maybe not directly related to the case, starting in late June 2018, the JWTZ soldiers that since March had a camp set up in Lopolun near Wasso, showed up in several places torturing innocent people, apparently focusing on those with many cattle in Ololosokwan, and those accused of inciting others to graze on the land occupied by Thomson Safaris in Sukenya. These soldiers even tortured former councillor Kundai who was badly injured at a meat-eating camp in Kilamben, Ololosokwan. Reportedly, the soldiers while torturing people were questioning them about guns, Kenyans, and cattle encroaching protected areas.

Then from 8^th November, in violation of court orders, the soldiers began beating up people in wide areas around OBC’s camp – reportedly saying that it was for having sued the government - and chasing them away with their cattle, and between 14^th and 19^th November they were burning bomas in several areas of Kirtalo and Ololosokwan, while everyone stayed silent. The soldiers seized cattle on village land, driving them into Serengeti National Park to hand them over to the rangers that refused, and instead the cows in at least one case were released among predators at night. Though later the Serengeti rangers joined in seizing livestock on village land, extracting fines, and beating up herders. Reportedly, the district council chairman, the district CCM chairman, and some village chairmen went to ask the DC why people were being beaten, and the DC denied any knowledge. I was getting messages from several people that I had not previously heard from, and this information was also confirmed by those who should have been speaking up, but were too terrified. I did of course blog about this extreme brutality in violation of court orders.

The week before Christmas the soldiers were attacking people again, apparently anyone they came across on the road, and who wasn’t fast enough to run away, like a destitute old man from NCA looking for work in Ololosokwan, who was badly beaten. Again, the soldiers seized cattle on village land and tried to hand them over to Serengeti rangers that refused. On 21^st December the soldiers burned down 12 or 13 bomas in the Leken area of Kirtalo, with all belongings inside, and lambs and goat kids perished in the fire. For Christmas, a message from the DC was shared in Whatsapp groups. In this message the DC said he was sorry for the abuse suffered by people in Karkamoru (Leken), that he’d been out of the district, was sending a team to establish what had happened, and that there wasn’t any “operation” in the area.

Later it transpired that the King of Morocco, who had visited Loliondo at least once before, had been expected for the days before Christmas 2018, but postponed his visit. A cargo plane from the Royal Moroccan Air Force had already landed in Loliondo.

Not until mid-January did anyone speak up and then it was the Arusha RC Gambo, of all people (he didn’t say a word about the 2017 illegal operation), who during his visit to the district made a statement in a vague way condemning the burning of bomas, without mentioning the soldiers.

Perjury

In December 2018, but not seen by anyone until March, as said, DC Rashid Mfaume Taka and four others swore affidavits lying that the 2017 operation would not have taken place on village land, but only in Serengeti National Park. The fact that the Attorney General first had used a completely different lie is just the least flagrant illustration of how outrageous this lie is. Thousands of direct victims and other witnesses do of course know exactly what happened. Also remember:

Firstly, it was the DC himself who in a letter and notice dated 5^th August 2017 ordered those residing “mpakani kabisa kwenye Pori Tengefu la Loliondo” (closely bordering in Loliondo GCA) to leave before 10^th August – or to be removed by force. That clearly refers to village land.

Secondly, the press statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism on 17^th August 2017 explaining the “removal of cattle and housing from Serengeti National Park and the boundary of Loliondo Game Controlled Area”, the DC is quoted 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 village land, of course.

Thirdly, and maybe most important, TANAPA’s map “Livestock and Bomas Evacuation Exercise August 2017” very clearly shows that most bomas were burned on village land, and the minority that were inside the park were in an area that’s inside as per the descriptions of 1959 and 1968, but reportedly outside according to some piles of stones.

Fourthly, in an article by Manyerere Jackton in the Jamhuri on 12^th September 2017, 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. Though, as one of Tanzania’s most malicious liars, Manyerere Jackton isn’t a credible source. More telling is that this rabidly anti-Loliondo and pro-OBC “journalist” after the 2017 operation had begun to totally change his attitude towards DC Rashid Mfaume Taka, from slander to quoting him as someone telling the truth.

Fifthly, Minister Maghembe during the 2017 operation was 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 – the same lie as the Attorney General used in the first response to being sued. Meanwhile, the DC reminded that the PM was still to make a decision about the area, but was in no way trying to hide the fact that the operation was taking place illegally on village land. He version was to claim that people were entering the national park too easily and apparently that this was a valid reason for invasion of village land and massive human rights crimes.

I would have liked to write about the cross examination of the DC in this blog post, but now this will happen at a later date. After the panic and terror of 2018, I’m glad that all four village chairmen – even if two, for some reason, were acting chairmen - had sworn affidavits. I had feared the worst. I suppose the unexpected action by the Preventing and Combatting Corruption Bureau has eased the fear. I’ve got more to write about the EACJ case, but will save that until after next hearing.

The questions

Some questions remain frustratingly and worryingly unanswered.

I still haven’t got any information about the team of ministers, led by the Minister for Lands, tasked by President Magufuli to prepare suggestions about implementing his 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. As said before, 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, but this didn’t stop a long snake of fossil fuel guzzling vehicles with cabinet secretaries to come and “inspect” the Osero, and the way the president’s statement was worded, it would have been better if they hadn’t found any wildlife ... 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, even though Kigwangalla has said that they have handed in their suggestions.

After some of the most promising developments ever, that I’ve written about in several blog posts, and in which OBC´s director Isaack Mollel and the until recently District Security Officer Issa Ng’itu got caught by the Preventing and Combatting Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and were charged with corruption, nothing has been heard from PCCB for months (the latest was that the investigation needed more time) while there are hundreds of “investor friends” to investigate in Loliondo.

Nothing is being heard about PM Majaliwa’s delayed and terrible decision of 6^th December 2017. I hope everybody has forgotten about it, and maybe I should stop mentioning it.

I still don’t know who ordered the last year’s extreme soldier brutality …

At least, I’ve been told there’s green grass in Loliondo, even if some say that it isn’t enough, and that it’s been raining today  - and nobody thinks twice about going right up to OBC´s camp.

Here’s a summary that’s very important for newcomers. I’m working on a much longer and more detailed summary.

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 by the DC at the time, Jowika Kasunga, 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 2017 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 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 7^th 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, without even mentioning the soldiers.

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