New or by Now Old Year, Old Silence, and the Same Unanswered Questions about Loliondo

Three months have passed since the latest blog post, which is unacceptable and can only be explained with that everyone is saying that there isn’t anything happening (very improbable) and that I (thousands of kilometres away) know more than they do. This does however not excuse my silence when there are so many old truths to keep reminding of, and unanswered questions to keep asking.  However madly disappointed I am with “some” people in Loliondo, and however exhausted I am by unrelated unsolvable problems, I must never again stay quiet for this long.

For a brief reminder of what this blog is about: Maasai pastoralists in Loliondo, who already lost land with the creation of Serengeti National Park, have kept being threatened with “conservation”, and due to the influence of tourism investors been victims of human rights crimes and suffered (keep suffering) a local police state with all government officials at the service of these investors that want to manage the land.

In this blog post:

Resumed hearing in the East African Court of Justice

How could a whole year pass without anyone speaking up about the soldier violence – arson included - of 2018?

Why has OBC’s director, Isaack Mollel been locked up in remand prison for almost a year?

Why has Kigwangalla sued the Jamhuri magazine? (This part may be outdated and irrelevant)

What’s the government’s plan?

Summary of Osero developments the past decades

There are of course more questions than these, and they will be asked in coming blog posts.

Resumed hearing in the East African Court of Justice

On 28^th January REFERENCE NO. 10 OF 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania was up again for hearing. On the latest occasion, 5^th November 2019, two villagers from Oloirien were cross-examined by the state attorney and then the hearing was postponed. This time the court granted the applicants an adjournment, since they had to find a new geo-spatial expert after the old one was no longer able to continue as expert witness, reportedly due to safety issues for himself and his family. It’s obvious that the new geo-spatial expert can’t be a Tanzanian. The old expert is however, according to several sources, running for Ngorongoro MP, which - if done as needed by the constituency - would be riskier than witnessing as an expert in court.

I don’t quite understand the need for a geo-spatial expert when the defendants so thoroughly have documented their own crimes. The DC’s order of an illegal invasion of village land in 2017 is in black on white, there was a statement by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, and TANAPA’s map very clearly shows that an overwhelming majority of bomas were arsoned illegally on village land. The defendants parodical perjury, prepared after trying other lies, only makes it clearer what they are up to. There is no way that the villagers could lose such an easy case in a regional (not Tanzanian) court. I’m so glad that this case is ongoing. At least something is being done about the atrocities.

TANAPA's map for the illegal mass arson operation in 2017. The minority of bomas inside the park (in the south) were in an area where people for years  had lived paying "fees". Now the criminals are lying that no bomas were burned on village land ... I've written several blog posts about this perjury and will write more.

How could a whole year pass without anyone speaking up about the soldier violence – arson included - of 2018?

There had been many shocking silences when people in the Osero were brutally attacked in 2017, but in 2018 the silence was total and terrifying, and it continued for the whole of 2019.

Around 24^th March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun near Wasso by the Tanzania People’s Defence Force. Though the first case of shocking silence under extreme abuse was in May that year when the police, not the soldiers, conducted an intimidation drive to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice, and the only person speaking up was advocate Donald Deya. Then, from late June there were several cases of soldiers attacking and torturing groups of people on village land in the Osero (and one case in Sukenya beating up some people who weren’t “respecting” Thomson Safaris’ landgrab there), without any clear information surfacing about who was ordering them. The passivity by leaders about these attacks was horrible to witness, and it would get worse.

On 25^th September 2018, the East African Court of Justice issued interim orders restraining the government from evicting the applicants, destroying their homesteads, confiscating their cattle, and from harassing or intimidating them in relation to the case.

In brutal and flagrant violation of court orders, around 8^th November 2018 the soldiers had started beating and chasing away people and livestock from areas around OBC’s camp that was being prepared for guests. On 14^th November the attackers were burning down bomas in the areas from where they were chasing away people, while the silence continued. Motorcycles were confiscated, and the soldiers stole goats, supposedly to eat them. Besides areas of Kirtalo, areas of Ololosokwan, like Oloirien, Endashata, and Mederi were attacked by the so-called People’s Defence Force that had been set upon the people. The soldiers were telling their victims that they were beaten for having sued the government, and that the land was a “corridor”. On 16^th November, cows belonging to some people from Ololosokwan were caught in Oloirien (area between Ololosokwan and Kirtalo, not the village with  the same name) and driven to Lobo in Serengeti National Park where the soldiers wanted to hand them over to the park rangers (the main implementors of the illegal operation in 2017) that refused. Instead the cows were released among predators at night! Some of the bomas burned were those of Shungur and of Cosmas Leitura in the Oloirien area, and a couple of days later, on 19th November the Kuyo, Lukeine, and Masago bomas were burned in Orkimbai in Kirtalo. These were just some of the cases of arson.

Absolutely nobody at all was speaking up, not ward or village leaders, not traditional leaders, not the NGOs, not any women’s groups, and certainly not the MP who didn’t even say anything during the illegal operation of 2017. Even some activists who’d gone to the UK to decolonise museum artefacts refused to mention the ongoing crimes in violation of court orders. Some seemed convinced that the arson attacks were ordered by the highest level of government, which is the president, and told me that I was far away while they had their families in Tanzania, and bad things could happen to them. Others said that all leaders had been corrupted.  Reportedly, in the morning of 21^st November 2018, the council chairman, the district CCM chairman, and some village chairmen went to ask DC Rashid Mfaume Taka why people were being beaten. The highest presidential appointee and central government enforcer in the district, the criminal who officially ordered the illegal operation of 2017, DC Rashid Mfaume Taka, denied any knowledge about what was taking place.

The Serengeti rangers (maybe feeling encouraged that Kigwangalla’s U-turn was complete) then joined the abuse. On 22^nd November 2018, some people from Arash were savagely beaten for hours by the rangers at Lobo when they were to pay so-called “fines” for their sheep and goats that had been caught illegally outside the national park. On 26^th November the Serengeti (TANAPA) rangers caught several herds of cattle at Mambarashani, and drove them to Lobo inside the national park to claim that they were found there. They demanded 100,000 Tanzanian shilling per head of cattle for the release, which would have been extortionate even if the “fines” had been legal, but now it was pure gangster extortion. The “fines” were paid, I don’t know if after negotiation, and the cows were released.

The soldier brutality was renewed for Christmas. On 19^th December 2018, mzee ole Shura was badly beaten by soldiers in Kirtalo, and on 20^th December the same crime was committed in Ololosokwan against mzee ole Masiaya. These old men were just out walking. Mzee ole Masiaya, who was from Ngorongoro looking for work in Ololoskwan was beaten for no reason, even when he’s the kind of person that the plan is to turn everyone in Loliondo into: destitute and under the yoke of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Later I was informed that before attacking ole Masiaya the soldiers had beaten 15-year old Ngoiser Sumare, and 25-year old and pregnant Ntajiri Sirmange who was in the company of children. The soldiers claimed to be searching for Kenyan cows, but the only victim who was herding any kind of cows was Ngoiser. Also on 20th December, the army soldiers drove cattle from village land in Oloosek to Klein’s gate. Apparently, the park warden did again not want cows from the soldiers, and they were released without charge.

In the morning of 21^st December, the soldiers descended upon the Leken area in Karkamoru sub-village of Kirtalo burning to the ground 12 bomas with all belongings inside. The cows were out, but young lambs and goat kids died in the fire. The names of whom the bomas belonged to that have been reported to me are Toroge, Moniko, Salaash, Shura, Kimeriay, Parmwat, Sepere, and Nguya. A 65-year old man and two pregnant women were beaten. Then, around 2 pm it started raining heavily. At the Saturday market in Soitsambu on 22^nd   December people from Leken were buying big polyethylene sheets. The victims of arson in Leken stayed in place in makeshift tents, and started rebuilding.

It was said that the King of Morocco, who had visited OBC’s hunting block once before, had been expected for the days before Christmas, but postponed his plans.

This time, on 22^nd December 2018, a strange message from DC Rashid Mfaume Taka was shared in social media. He said he’d been informed about the attack when out of the district for work reasons, that he was sorry and had commissioned a team to visit the affected area. The DC also assured that there wasn’t any “operation” and said that the villagers should continue with their normal activities. He “forgot” to mention that the attackers were soldiers from the national army.

On 7^th January 2019, the DC once again ordered illegal arrests of two schoolteachers who were locked up for 5 days, denied bail, without access to lawyers or relatives. All they were questioned about was having met me at Olpusimoru market across the border in Kenya, when I was far away in Sweden. They were arrested in connection with a visit by the RC to the district, and Onesmo Olengurumwa of Tanzania Human Rights defenders’ Coalition brought lawyers and spoke up in media, but still without mentioning the attacks by soldiers. Surprisingly, RC Mrisho Gambo, accompanied by MP Olenasha, made a statement condemning the arson as inhumane and done circumventing the regional security committee, but using madly vague words, not mentioning the soldiers, as if they would be wasiojulikana, the very dangerous unknown people who are known by everybody. Then a very tight lid has been put on all information, and nobody seems interested in investigating. Some who had thought that the president ordered the arson changed to saying that the soldiers were directly employed by OBC’s director, maybe involving the DC. I hope the crimes committed by soldiers will be brought up in the case in the East African Court of Justice.

The soldiers went on terrorizing mostly non-pastoralist people in Wasso town. When one of their victims, 26-year old Yohana “Babuche” Saidea on 2^nd April 2019 passed away from torture injuries caused by soldiers, youths in Wasso held a peaceful manifestation. After this, the soldiers were transferred, and new ones brought to the camp at Lopolun. Since then, nobody has had anything to say about what these soldiers are doing.

Why has OBC’s director, Isaack Mollel been locked up in remand prison for almost a year?

The damage done by Isaack Mollel – OBC’s Tanzanian director since 2007 - is so great that it’s hard to describe. He has several times exposed his “theory” about land in Loliondo in media - that OBC are innocent victims of destructive Maasai, “Kenyans”, NGOs, and other tour operators “invading” the hunting block  - and his “journalist”, Manyerere Jackton, has done it even more frequently with amazing hate rhetoric and unhinged slander. During his time as director there have been two major illegal operations on village land, with massive human rights crimes, in 2009 and 2017, and OBC have funded a rejected draft land use plan proposing turning the 1,500 km2 Osero of important grazing land that’s OBC’s core hunting area into a “protected area”. The Loliondo police state - with every government official at the service of the “investors”, and where anyone who could speak up will be threatened, called to the security committee, or illegally arrested, has worsened considerably during Mollel’s time, with further acceleration since 2016.

However, it doesn’t seem like these crimes are being dealt with at all, and aren’t the reason that Mollel has been locked up for almost a year. Some think that justice has been done, but Mollel is in a judicial vacuum without any justice at all. He’s being treated like too many innocent people who are accused of unbailable economic crimes and kept in remand prison for months on end. Mollel must have stepped on the toes of some of his mightier accomplices, which would be easily done with his arrogant personality, but I just don’t know what has happened. The theory by everyone in the know seems to be that Mollel’s problems originate from OBC’s, and Sheikh Mohammed’s, big friend since the early 1990s, CCM party elder Abdulraham Kinana, falling out of favour with President Magufuli.

On 29^th January 2020 a hearing was again postponed, since an agreement between Mollel and the Director of Public Prosecutions was not yet finished - then the same happened on 26^th February.

The first week of February 2019 ten Pakistani nationals who had been doing temporary work for OBC from November 2018 were arrested for not having obtained the required work permits. They were charged, released on bail, and the case was to be heard on 22^nd February. Arusha RC Gambo wanted Mollel to be arrested as well, but the police were reluctant to do this. When the Minister of Home Affairs, Kangi Lugola, came to Arusha for a tour of the region, the RC complained to him that some police were barring criminals from being arrested, and on 13^th February the minister ordered the arrest of Mollel, who then showed up, was charged, and released on bail. Some sources were saying - alleging that the information came from Mollel’s lawyers - that PM Majaliwa had written a letter saying that Mollel should not be disturbed, while others said that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism had written the same, but about the temporary workers. 

Anyway, Mollel failed to show up at a court hearing on 22^nd February 2019, since he was being questioned by TAKUKURU/PCCB (Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau) and the hearing was postponed. Reportedly, his home and OBC’s office in Arusha had been searched, as had OBC’s camp in Loliondo. On 4^th March 2019 Mollel and OBC (this is what PCCB’s statement said) were charged on ten counts of unbailable economic crimes committed between 2010 and 2018, most concerning importing a considerable number of vehicles for OBC from Dubai, and the accusations were about economic sabotage and money laundering. TAKUKURU/PCCB had found Mollel to several times have forged documents, lied to the Tanzania Revenue Authority with the aim of tax evasion, and registered his own vehicle as belonging to OBC. Mollel didn’t have to answer these charges, since the court wasn’t able to hear the case, and it was adjourned until 18^th March. Mollel was locked up in Kisongo remand prison. I’ve lost count of many hearings have since then been adjourned. Some newspaper articles are published about this case, but without any background or analysis.

On 29^th March 2019, PCCB moved closer the serious issue of OBC’s many years of lobbying for terror and land alienation when who’d until recently (February 2019) been Ngorongoro District Security Officer –the district spy chief - Issa Ng’itu was charged on fifteen counts of corruption, submitting false documents, and forgery between 2017 and 2019. The charges concerned Ng’itu several times receiving money – in total over 10 million Tanzanian shillings - from Mollel while knowing that this is against the law, having bought (or otherwise obtained) a Landcruiser Prado from Mollel, and together with Mollel having forged different documents relating to this vehicle. According to Ayo TV, the money transactions were found on a SIM-card. Three more charges were added to Mollel’s case. Then nothing more was heard about Ng’itu’s case and eventually it was revealed (not in the press that just went silent) that he had been released and promoted to Regional Security Officer somewhere south (Rukwa according to people who later met Ng’itu).

Mollel has written to the Director of Public Prosecution declaring his will to confess economic crimes and repay the money. This came after President Magufuli in September 2019 issued a directive announcing this apparently perverse American practise called plea bargaining, which basically means that innocent people can confess and be extorted, while those guilty can confess and bribe themselves away from justice. Though it seems like it has only led to further postponements.

But why did Mollel get caught? It seems clear that RC Gambo was involved. I was already in 2016 told (by leaders, others were sceptical) that the RC was “our only ally”, while everyone else, and not least PM Majaliwa, were strongly in favour of land alienation and human rights crimes, but Gambo has never spoken up against the atrocities, except vaguely, weakly, and late about the soldier violence in November-December 2018. Minister Kigwangalla in November 2017, after having stopped the illegal invasion of village land ordered by the DC, promised that Mollel would be investigated by PCCB, but he also made other big promises that he later U-turned upon, like declaring that OBC would have left the country before January 2018, and that he would deal with the corruption syndicate at their service, that was reaching into his own ministry. Kigwangalla complained that Mollel had boasted that he would bribe him more cheaply than he had bribed his predecessors, and I have no doubt that it was Mollel’s plan, and not much doubt that he would be arrogant enough to say it, but it’s also true that Kigwangalla is very emotions-driven and can say anything, regardless of facts. PCCB didn’t catch Mollel until over a year later, which further speaks against Kigwangalla’s involvement.

• ·        What happened after Kigwangalla’s big promises was that Majaliwa on 6^th December 2017 made a vague but terrifying announcement that the land would be managed by a “special authority”, and that OBC would stay. Kigwangalla was quiet, but announced in a Whatsapp group that OBC were staying and that more (!) companies of the kind were needed, but that Mollel was troublesome. In March 2018 Kigwangalla was questioned when he in social media was welcoming Sheikh Mohammed to Loliondo, and then replied that there wasn’t any problem with the hunters, but with the arrogance of some of the staff, and with the grazing pressure. When questioned in social media in May 2018, Kigwangalla had the most insane meltdown denying the illegal operation that he himself stopped, and even the existence of people in the Osero!
• ·         On 19^th April 2018 OBC’s assistant director, handed over 15 Toyota Landcruisers to the then acting Director of Wildlife, Nebbo Mwina - neither Mollel nor Kigwangalla were present. Mwina said that the government recognised the continued important contributions by OBC, wanted them to continue developing the long-time relationship, and not despair because of underground talk. James Wakibara, director of the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) also wanted to thank OBC, and especially the company’s director who couldn’t attend! It was not the first time the ministry got splendid gifts from OBC, and many people seem unable to recognise corruption when the gifts aren’t going into individual pockets.
• ·         Then in 2018 fear and silence reached levels not even seen in 2017, the police conducted an intimidation drive to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice, followed by extreme violence committed by soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force working for OBC.
• ·         In 2019, after illegal arrests in January “nothing” happened, except for Mollel’s arrest, a much-praised statement by the president that wasn’t even about Loliondo, and a basically genocidal Multiple Land Use Model report that in September was much celebrated by NCA chief conservator Manongi. Everyone continues fearful and silent
• ·         Meanwhile, in conventional media, Kigwangalla has been saying that there’s peace and harmony in Loliondo, and a solution that everyone agrees with. Absolutely nobody in Loliondo knows what that solution is …

What should be most sobering for those who are happy about Mollel’s long stay in remand prison, is the fact that his accomplices - except for Ng’itu’s brief arrest that was followed by a promotion - are walking around totally untouched. Mollel is a gangster working for a gangster company, but his accomplices are public servants who under total lawlessness have maintained a police state in Loliondo terrorizing anyone who could possibly dare to criticise OBC (and Thomson Safaris), and have ordered and implemented major human rights crimes. Not least DC Rashid Mfaume Taka who officially ordered the illegal invasion of village land in 2017, and multiple illegal arrest for the sake of intimidation.

The good that Mollel’s arrest has brought is that OBC are much more toned down on the ground. There’s only one patrol vehicle driving around and, reportedly, nobody has been harassed. Staff members reportedly keep saying that Sheikh Mohammed is coming, which they have been saying for a long time. As mentioned earlier, on 21^st November 2019 several people observed a considerable number of vehicles going to OBC’s camp. District officials said that some MPs together with people with disabilities had visited the camp on a tourism study tour, which sounds abnormal indeed. I’ve failed at obtaining more information. Very sadly, there doesn’t seem to be anyone with an interest in finding out more.

Who wants to keep Mollel indefinitely in remand prison? Why? Or will he soon be out? What will happen then?

Mollel

Why has Kigwangalla sued the Jamhuri magazine?

The Jamhuri slander and misinformation magazine has again turned against Kigwangalla, and I’m not sure why, but there are some probable reasons. Apparently, there isn’t any connection to Loliondo, but I’m very disappointed by how some suddenly were treating the Jamhuri as a reliable source. If you don’t care about the victims of the enemy’s enemy, at least try to care about facts.

Though at the time of writing the minister and the magazine could very well again have kissed and made up, the issue is no longer being mentioned, and it could be irrelevant to this blog, but since I’ve put together a brief summary about Green Mile Safari, I´ll keep this section …

A reminder:

The services rendered to OBC by the “journalist” Manyerere Jackton, in now well over fifty articles, mostly in the Jamhuri newspaper have been something out of the ordinary. He’s kept campaigning for the alienation of 1,500 km2 of important dry season grazing land while painting the Loliondo Maasai as “Kenyan”, environmentally destructive, and governed by corrupt NGOs, occasionally also adding to the mix other tourism operators in Loliondo, and European countries. He’s gone as far as claiming that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private individuals that he (or his sources) considers to be “Kenyan”. People not familiar with Loliondo have expressed shock that he can just go on like this, comparing it to media in Rwanda 1994, but other journalists and most Tanzanians involved in discussing and commenting what’s happening in the country, just don’t seem to care at all. Manyerere Jacktons’s slandering of people speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for land rights, has been vicious and insane. Sometimes he’s so lazy when making up his stories that he includes someone that’s more a friend of OBC than of land rights, and often he fabricates details for no apparent reason at all. He enjoys showing that he’s directly involved in arrests of innocent people, and have several times emailed me rude one-liners just before I’ve been informed of such arrests. Before a friend of mine was illegally arrested in 2016, followed by several other illegal arrests, Manyerere Jackton emailed me, “Finally, you will know who is the worst journalist and who is the worst mzungu!” Before the illegal operation with massive human rights crimes of 2017 he was making up stories about how DC Rashid Mfaume Taka was corrupted by NGOs, but after the DC ordered the illegal operation, Manyerere was full of praise for him. Other journalists, not least Masyaga Matinyi who even flanked Minister Maghembe, together with Manyerere, when he in Loliondo in 2017 called for the alienation of the 1,500 km2, have also repeated the anti-Loliondo rhetoric, but Manyerere is the by far most prolific writer of hate speech against the Loliondo Maasai. Maybe it isn’t possible to understand the bottomless pit of slander and lies that this “journalist” digs from if you haven’t yourselves been his victim, but many people have. I’ve repeatedly been described in the Jamhuri as working with people I’ve never met, and being in places where I’ve never been, besides getting billions of money from those who’ve sent me to destabilize the Serengeti ecosystem, being a donor to the NGOs, investigating the Sonjo-Loita conflict siding with the Loita, and so on without one concern for actual facts.

Manyerere, Maghembe and Matinyi

Manyerere Jackton seems to be keeping a low profile since December 2018, and as far as I’ve seen, he hasn’t written about land in Loliondo after Mollel’s arrest. Though on 21^st January 2020 he re-used his old list of “Kenyans” in Loliondo for an article “warning” about “illegal immigrants” getting Tanzanian telephone numbers with the aim of obtaining Tanzanian ID documents (Watumia laini za simu kuukwaa uraia) ... The Jamhuri didn’t start mentioning the arrest until the president had announced the plea bargaining option, and then briefly and from Mollel’s point of view, complaining that PCCB mention one sum of money in the charge sheet and another one to the press, The long campaign for land alienation in which the Jamhuri has very aggressively participated on Mollel’s side isn’t mentioned. However, the Tanzanite – Musiba’s paper which, often using bad photoshopping, slanders those who dare criticise Magufuli – for some reason picked up the rabid defence of OBC, with arguments of loss of revenue for Tanzania, and of the long-term diplomatic ties with the UAE, while blaming RC Gambo, and unnamed European companies and human rights defenders. This despite of the Tanzanite being very anti-Kinana. It should be remembered that the Jamhuri is pro-government as well.

After stopping the illegal invasion of village land and the massive human rights crimes in 2017, while promising that OBC would have left Tanzania before January 2017, Kigwangalla was unsurprisingly attacked in the Jamhuri for having “messed up”, not listening to “conservationists”, and of course with some added lies that he’d allowed cattle in protected areas (Kigwangalla alikoroga, 31-10-2017, Kigwangalla yamfika, 14-11-2017). This was milder than how others have been slandered … Manyerere Jackton had much cause for celebration after Majaliwa’s announcement in December2017 that OBC were staying and that the land was to be managed by a “special authority”, and eventually, after his nasty U-turn, Kigwangalla was praised in the Jamhuri for having learnt the truth about Loliondo (Wanyama wanamalizwa Loliondo, 11-12-2018). This changed some time the later part of 2019, and Kigwangalla is suing the Jamhuri.

By all appearances, Manyerere Jackton’s more recent anti-Kigwangalla rants, have to do with the journalist’s, even if not as crazed as his “love” for OBC, bias in favour of another UAE hunting company - the infamous Green Mile Safari (GMS), and his obsession with linking former minister Lazaro Nyalandu to GMS’s American rival at Lake Natron. I can’t see any connection between GMS and OBC other than the United Arab Emirates, and that some friends of OBC have shown an inclination to sympathise with GMS. GMS is owned 48% by Sheikh Abdullah bin Butti Al Hamed, a government official and businessman from Abu Dhabi where the company’s marketing and clients are also based, while 52% is owned by the prominent Tanzanian businessman, Awadh Ally Abdallah. A video from 2012 shows abuse so horrific that it’s almost impossible to watch, committed during a GMS hunt.

Wengert Windrose Safaris, part of the Friedkin group of companies owned by an American billionaire, have had a hunting block adjoining that of GMS in Lake Natron, and the two companies have for many years been involved in bitter rivalry. Friedkin are as bad as GMS, or worse, and their human rights crimes and corruption, not in Lake Natron, but in Makao WMA in Meatu has been documented by PINGOs Forum and Legal and Human Rights Centre. Some years ago, I had some limited personal experience with Friedkin when they had me temporarily banned from Youtube after I uploaded their promotional video of legal hunting that they had removed when a friend of mine linked to it in an article. What’s crystal clear is that neither of the two companies should be allowed to operate in Tanzania

Some of the back and forth about GMS - that I’m unfortunately not an expert at (unlike Loliondo) – and the company’s fate under different minister for natural resources and tourism. I have probably left out important aspects:

• ·         In 2013 Kagasheki wrote a letter to the Tanzanian ambassador to the US complaining about Friedkin’s (WWS) “dirty tricks” and calling corruption allegations against GMS “unjust”.
• ·         In 2014 shadow minister Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban, CHADEMA) presented in parliament the video of GMS’s horrible abuse of hunted animals, an international campaign against GMS was initiated, and Nyalandu resolved to revoke GMS’s licence. Manyerere Jackton wrote extensively about how Nyalandu was corrupted by Friedkin, which he could have been, or not. It’s impossible to know when the “journalist’s” credibility is so far below zero.
• ·         In 2016 - witnessed by outraged international activists - GMS was allowed back by Maghembe, since they had not been convicted in a court of law.
• ·         In November 2017, weeks after Nyalandu had defected to CHADEMA, Kigwangalla in parliament lashed out against his corrupt practices as a minister two years earlier, including the relation to Friedkin, and directed PCCB to investigate Nyalandu.
• ·         In January 2018, Kigwangalla presented a list of hunting operators (allegedly obtained through US intelligence) suspected of supporting a poaching syndicate. Both GMS and WWS (Friedkin) were on the list.
• ·         In August 2019, Kigwangalla announced that he was revoking GMS license, since they had been breaching regulations. GMS also had a conflict with 23 villages over TShs 350 million in unpaid levies. The owner Awadh Abdallah denounced it all as fabrications, and claimed not to have received the notice. GMS were ordered to vacate by 20^th December, but stayed on and were forcefully evicted a month later.
• ·         Manyerere re-used his old stories about GMS and Friedkin, but now linking Kigwangalla to the latter (Niacheni niseme ukweli japo unagharimu 16-08-2019, Wanaswa uhujumu uchumi 29-11 2019).

I have no idea if Kigwangalla has any association with Friedkin, and I’m quite sure that neither does Manyerere have any idea (not that he cares when he writes his rants). Anyway, this made Kigwangalla direct lawyers to write to the Jamhuri about his intention to sue the magazine, which he hadn’t done when he earlier had been attacked and lied about. Maybe he found it specially annoying to be accused of the same as he had accused Nyalandu of. The  Jamhuri then moved on to writing about how Kigwangalla had misappropriated funds when engaging celebrities for tourism promotion, and that this was the reason for his disagreement with the principal secretary to the ministry, which Magufuli had given the two five days to sort out. This is when some who really should know better started treating the Jamhuri as an investigative paper … Then, when the magazine wrote about being sued by Kigwangalla (Dk. Hamisi Kigwangalla akimbilia mahakamani, 28-01-2020), the Friedkin association wasn’t even mentioned in the article (only the misappropriation of funds) which may indicate that the Jamhuri didn’t have anything at all pointing in that direction, other than that Manyerere felt like writing it.

Some also say that people within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism are using the Jamhuri to get rid of Kigwangalla. The reason would be that he’s not enthusiastic enough about human rights abuse for more protected areas. To me he seems quite ready to accept any abuse, but others are of course worse.

This has turned into a digression away from Loliondo. Even if it’s well-known I should make it clear that all ministers of natural resources and tourism mentioned here are very bad indeed. Kagasheki and Maghembe rabidly and vociferously campaigned for land alienation, and major human rights crimes were committed during the time of the latter, but Nyalandu tried to buy off every leader in Loliondo, showed off drinking from a water project donated by OBC (or the Red Crescent), and told the press that three wards were in agreement with the investor, which they of course weren’t about the land, but the leaders sadly and opportunistically were aggressively attacking the defenders of the land while depending on the work done and risks taken by the same. Human rights were one reason for Nyalandu’s defection to the opposition, and at times he has seemed somewhat convincing, but if he were a reformed man he would have apologized for Loliondo instead of at the time Mollel was first arrested posting a picture with Sheikh Mohammed in social media, while describing it as international peace and harmony. Kigwangalla was an instant hero in Loliondo for a few days when he stopped the illegal operation of 2017 and made big promises about chasing away OBC and dealing with the corruption syndicate that was reaching into his own ministry, but as known, he made a U-turn. Some feel sorry for him for having had to bow to the pressure of his superiors, but we are talking about the kind of government minister who under perceived provocation will resort to obvious lies and threats. He can be dangerous as when as deputy minister for health (and also in his current capacity) he has incited against vulnerable minority groups (LGBT Tanzanians). To me it seems like Kigwangalla just thought that dealing with OBC was an easy way to popularity but misjudged the size of OBC’s friends.

Anyway, in the game of being pure evil, Manyerere Jackton beats any of these ministers.  

What’s the government’s plan?

In an interview to the Mwananchi newspaper on 3^rd February Kigwangalla again talked about having solved the “conflict” in Loliondo - complaining about not getting enough credit for it -and that there is peace between people, investors and government, while the NGOs are packing up. The truth is that the NGOs were intimidated into silence already in 2016, before Kigwangalla was put at the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, and he has been talking about a “solution” that everybody agrees with since 2018 (when a military camp was set up, and fear and silence became worse than ever) but absolutely nobody in Loliondo can tell what that “solution” is. Those who should know, say that nothing is public, but what’s known is that the government wants to extend Ngorongoro Conservation Area,  and there isn’t anyone who would like to be put under the yoke of the NCAA that’s felt down to the weight of children that’s lower than in Loliondo.

The latest that was heard publicly was a Multiple Land Use Model report - prepared at the insistence of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre – and proudly presented by the Ngorongoro chief conservator Manongi, that proposed not only to annex the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, that in itself would be an obvious disaster, but to do the same with extensive areas at Lake Natron GCA, and turn most of those areas into no-go zones for herders and livestock, together with most villages in Ngorongoro. This would mean the end of Maasai life and culture in the whole of Ngorongoro district, and beyond. A new version of the report was prepared, this time including three “community representatives”, but the representatives panicked and refused to share the report that’s said to be as disastrous as the first version. Again, nothing public, but it’s been said that at a regional CCM meeting, it was promised that the proposals of the report would not be implemented and that everything would continue as it is.

Who is the government anyway? PM Majaliwa and the heads of the different branches of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism obviously have only the worst wishes for the Loliondo Maasai. The president has never shown any signs of knowing or caring anything about Loliondo. MP – and deputy minister - Olenasha was basically an activist and had for years been firmly on the side of the people in the land struggle, but turned into the worst disappointment ever when he kept silent during the long and very violent illegal invasion of village land in 2017. His supporters say that he’s doing a great job inside the government, which is better than speaking up in parliament, but threats, violence, fear, and even the loss of access to grazing areas in NCA have been worse than ever during his term. The party apparatus seems somewhat supportive, and since it’s an election year, it would be logical if nothing happened, or even some kind of promising statement were delivered, but logic is not always practised, and when “everyone” (or at least all councillors) have returned to CCM for “personal safety”, or whatever, who can blame anyone for thinking that being tortured is what the Maasai of Ngorongoro district enjoy?

At least rains have been good, and there’s plenty of grass.

All information and explanations are more than welcome.

Maybe the one who will speak up is still in primary school. Let’s hope that she has at least been born.

Susanna Nordlund

sannasus@hotmail.com

Summary of Osero developments the past decades

All land in Loliondo is village land per the 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 1990s. By 2019 there does no longer seem to be journalists of any kind, when it comes to Loliondo.

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 grass 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 newspaper – 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 new GCA that would be a protected area, and rely on others, the same people they persecute, to stop it… With Lazaro Nyalandu as minister the focus was on holding closed meetings 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, Manyerere 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 20^th April, and a long wait to hear the PM’s decision started.

While still waiting, on 13th 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, notably the formerly serious MP, 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 2018. 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 land, per Majaliwa’s plan, is to be put under the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

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 in social media 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, but which was later shown not to have been about Loliondo or Ngorongoro.

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 Prevention and Combatting of 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. Preliminary hearings in the criminal cases against Mollel keep being postponed, while Ng’itu was released and promoted. In October 2019, Mollel’s lawyers announced that their client had written to the Director of Public Prosecution to confess and pay back the money.

In September 2019, the Ngorongoro Chief Conservator announced a terrifying MLUM report that included not only to annexation of the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo to the NCA, but to do the same with extensive areas of Lake Natron GCA, turn most of those areas into no-go zones for herders and livestock, and to do the same with most villages in NCA. There was a half-compromised statement by the Pastoral Council, and an even weaker statement by the councillors. A new version – including three “community representatives” – has not been shared, but is said to be just as bad.

Reportedly, on 21^st November 2019 group of MPs (not the Ngorongoro MP) together with people with disabilities had made a “tourism study visit” to the OBC’s camp. Nobody seems interested in finding out more about this.

Silence is worse than ever. Nobody knows what the government’s plan is.