In
this blog post:
The visit to the JWTZ camp
Tanzania People’s Defense Force JWTZ
Manongi, king of the NCA
DC Rashid Mfaume Taka – human rights
criminal and perjurer
Summary of Osero developments of the
past decades
It’s been revealed that the military
camp in Loliondo is being made permanent, and with funding from the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority. I should have written about this immediately when
I heard about it on 2nd March, but I’m too sad, tired and stressed,
and didn’t start writing until the weekend, and after that I needed to know
what some people had to say about the draft ... Then, this past week, RC Gambo
toured Ngorongoro District and had a visit to the military camp in his
schedule, so I waited for another week, totally in vain, since “nobody” has
heard anything about Gambo at the JWTZ camp. Due to an emergency, the RC had to
return early to Arusha, and may therefore not even have visited the soldiers. I
may update this blog post, and now it surprisingly seems like I may be getting
information about another issue for next blog post.
Update 16th March: RC Gambo was at the military camp, “placing the foundation stone”. Council Chairman Siloma had some stomach
churning words of praise for the soldiers, but I’m too tired to analyze that at
the moment.
The visit to the JWTZ camp
On
Monday 2nd March Azam tv aired a news piece from a visit to the Tanzania
People’s Defense Force’s camp in Loliondo. This camp was set up in late March
2018 and now permanent structures are being built. The visitors were Ngorongoro
DC Rashid Mfaume Taka and Ngorongoro chief conservator Freddy Manongi, and it
seems like this visit took place on 1st March or some day earlier,
as part of a tour of Ujirani Mwema (good neighbourliness …) projects supported
by the very wealthy Ngorongoro Conservation Area where many children suffer
nutritional deficiencies, and where the conservator himself was pleading with the
prime minister’s office to disallow building a pastoral girl school which was
in the government’s plans (the school was allowed anyway).
DC and Chief Conservator next to each other in light blue shirts. Brig. Gen. Majani second from the left. Photo: NCAA |
The
funding provided by NCAA is mentioned as 500 million TShs, while NCAA in social
media mention 200 million TShs, and other people have heard about other sums,
and this is being done while the legitimate resource sharing with the residents
within Ngorongoro is reportedly being illegally grabbed.
In
the news clip appears Brigadier General Omar Majani, which means that for the
first time I’ve got the name of someone responsible for these soldiers, other
than the commander in chief. This Brig. Gen. Majani comments in the most absurd
way saying that residents tell him that gunfire was regularly heard and dead
bodies (!) found along the road every second week or week and half, but that
since the past two years this is no longer happening and people sleep with open
doors … While there’s some highway robbery and poaching, mostly committed by
people from other areas, murder isn’t particularly common in Loliondo, and the
most widespread brutality has been that of rangers working for “investors”.
Contrary to Brig. Gen. Majani’s version of the Loliondo situation before and
after their arrival, a year ago 26-year old Yohana “Babuche” Saidea was killed
by the soldiers themselves and there isn’t any prosecution nor investigation.
The
DC is, in the clip, said to worry about livestock from the neighbouring
country, which hardly is an army matter, and in 2018 the soldiers were
illegally seizing Tanzanian livestock … and then he goes further into the
absurd, claiming that these days even wild, or ferocious (wanyama wakali),
animals sleep at night and the situation is “75% stabilized”.
As
known by readers of this blog, and by most people in Loliondo, these soldiers,
the DC and Manongi are among the most dangerous criminals of the area.
Tanzania People’s Defense Force JWTZ
The
military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso town, around 24th
March 2018 and from the start there was fear and uncertainty regarding whether
the soldiers were there for boundary issues with Kenya, or would be used to
repress the land struggle and worsen the police state. Sadly, we’ve got the
answer.
In
May 2018 the police, led by the Officer Commanding Criminal Investigation
Division in Ngorongoro District, conducted an intimidation drive to derail the
case filed by four villages in the East African Court of Justice during the
illegal invasion of village land with mass arson and human rights crimes,
ordered by the DC in August 2017, and the fear was such that the only person
speaking up was advocate Donald Deya. The presence of the soldiers has been
said to have contributed to the unprecedented silence. 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. In one of the attacks
committed by soldiers, on 27th August 2018 at Kilamben, near Enalubo
in Ololosokwan village, far from Serengeti National Park, six men, among them
the former councillor Kundai, were at a meat-eating camp in the bush (orpul)
when some fifteen soldiers arrived to torture them and interrogate them about
guns, Kenyans, and cattle encroaching on protected areas, while their comrades
were beaten. Kundai was so badly injured that he had to attend hospital, and so
were others.
On
25th 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 8th 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 14th
November the attackers were burning down bomas in the areas from where they
were chasing away people, while the silence continued. 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 16th
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 implementers 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. 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 21st 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 (see summary) - then joined the abuse seizing cattle on village land
and beating up herders.
The
soldier brutality was renewed for Christmas. On 19th-20th
December 2018, several people were beaten by the soldiers, apparently for just
being next to the road and not fast enough. Also on 20th December,
the army soldiers drove cattle from village land in Oloosek to Klein’s gate,
and this time again the rangers refused to accept the seized cattle.
In
the morning of 21st 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 22nd 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 22nd 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 chose not to mention that the attackers were soldiers
from the national army.
Surprisingly,
RC Mrisho Gambo, accompanied by MP Olenasha, in mid-January 2019 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.
The
soldiers went on terrorizing mostly non-pastoralist people in Wasso town. When
one of their victims, 26-year old Yohana “Babuche” Saidea on 2nd April
2019 passed away from torture injuries caused by soldiers, youths in Wasso held
a peaceful manifestation. Reportedly, the Officer Commanding District was
advising Babuche’s parents to “negotiate” with the soldiers instead of taking
legal action. 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, until Azam tv reported about their presence as were
it some kind of charitable project.
It’s
more than clear that the presence of soldiers in Loliondo is a greater danger
than both highway robbers and poachers …
Manongi, king of the NCA
As chief conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Freddy Manongi, has access to funds enormous enough to befriend anyone. When the Maasai were evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife. This promise was not kept, and the very substantial tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest, while the human rights situation has deteriorated, which was worsened by the designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1975, the Maasai living inside Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted, and the same year cultivation was prohibited in NCA. This ban was lifted in 1992, but re-introduced in 2009 after threats from the UNESCO. The people of NCA are living under the colonial-style rule of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), are not allowed to grow crops or build modern houses, have the past years been losing access to one grazing area after the other, and are suffering from high levels of child malnutrition. Research (Galvin et al.) has established that on average pastoral women in Loliondo – who aren’t under the yoke of the NCAA - were slightly taller and weighed 3.5kg more than those in NCA, while children of 1.5 to 2 years of age of Loliondo GCA weighed more than those of NCA by at least 1.5kg.
As chief conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Freddy Manongi, has access to funds enormous enough to befriend anyone. When the Maasai were evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife. This promise was not kept, and the very substantial tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest, while the human rights situation has deteriorated, which was worsened by the designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1975, the Maasai living inside Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted, and the same year cultivation was prohibited in NCA. This ban was lifted in 1992, but re-introduced in 2009 after threats from the UNESCO. The people of NCA are living under the colonial-style rule of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), are not allowed to grow crops or build modern houses, have the past years been losing access to one grazing area after the other, and are suffering from high levels of child malnutrition. Research (Galvin et al.) has established that on average pastoral women in Loliondo – who aren’t under the yoke of the NCAA - were slightly taller and weighed 3.5kg more than those in NCA, while children of 1.5 to 2 years of age of Loliondo GCA weighed more than those of NCA by at least 1.5kg.
This
blog primarily deals with land in Loliondo, and for a couple of years there has
been talk about placing Loliondo under the NCAA, which obviously is the last
thing needed by the Maasai. Further, Manongi has in encounters with the press
expressed his opinion that the 1,500 km2 Osero (bushland) of important dry
season grazing should be converted into a protected area, as was proposed in a
rejected land use plan funded by OBC that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed
of Dubai, and uses the Osero as a core hunting area.
In
September 2019, a Multiple Land Use Model report - prepared at the insistence
of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre – and proudly presented by Manongi,
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. In Ngorongoro Division (NCA) 17 out of 25 villages and 6 out of 11
wards would be affected, while the proposed “community development zone” into
which people and livestock are supposed to be squeezed, is very dry and lacks
proper water sources and grazing. 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.
The
Pastoral Council – that represents to Maasai in the NCAA – issued a statement against
Multiple Land Use Model report, but not in a strong enough way, and shortly
thereafter the chairman was seen visiting charitable projects together with
Manongi. The Pastoral Council is seen as toothless, compromised by Manongi, and
thoroughly corrupt. Though the latest heard is that Manongi wants to completely
remove it from the NCAA. At least several forces (NCAA, the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism, and the RC) want funds to bypass the Pastoral Council to
instead go to the Ngorongoro District Council.
A better idea, I’m told, would be to make the Pastoral Council stand an
independent entity, and not just like a branch of the NCA community development
department.
However
genocidal the Multiple Land Use Model report may be, some say that it’s not
enough for Manongi who doesn’t want any kind of zonation, but his wish is to
empty the whole of the NCA of people and livestock, and as seen in his media
encounters, he also wants to empty the Osero in Loliondo, Lake Natron and
probably other areas. Maybe he wants to empty the whole country and turn it into
a playground for tourist and “conservationists”.
DC Rashid Mfaume Taka – human rights
criminal and perjurer
Rashid
Mfaume Taka, DC for Ngorongoro was first seen as a new kind of more “civilized”
DC, but has proven to be the worst of the worst. Taka has ordered many lengthy
illegal arrests for “reasons” that under other circumstances would be comical
indeed – like when a Belgian nurse was arrested for several days, suspected of
being me, even though I posted photos in social media proving otherwise … or when
to keep people silent and fearful (or whatever) during the visit by the RC
after the arson attacks committed by soldiers working for OBC, innocent people
were arrested for several days suspected of having met me in Olpusimoru, Kenya,
when I was far away in Sweden. It was this DC who officially ordered the
illegal evictions from village land in 2017, which lead to Serengeti rangers –
assisted by rangers from NCA, KDU, OBC and the district - committing multiple
crimes like mass arson, beatings, seizing (in Arash even shooting) of cattle,
and rape. In a statement from the MNRT and in media the DC talked about
evictions 5 km into village land, which Tanapa’s map from the illegal operation
also show, but this didn’t prevent him from committing outrageous perjury in
the East African Court of Justice testifying that the operation would only have
taken place inside the national park …
The
DC leads the Ngorongoro Security Committee that since many years maintains a
police state in Loliondo. This police state has been kept up through total
lawlessness terrorizing anyone who could possibly dare to criticize OBC - and
the American Thomson Safaris that claims ownership of 12,617 acres of Maasai
land - threatening and slandering such
people, taking them to be interrogated by the Security Committee, questioning
their citizenship, and illegally arresting them for prolonged periods. This
police state worsened considerable by 2016, and in 2018 when the military camp
was set up, almost complete silence was achieved.
As
a human rights criminal and perjurer, the DC is far more dangerous than any
highway robber or poacher found in Loliondo.
Summary of Osero developments of 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 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 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 25th 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 21st 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 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 21st
September 2017.
When
in Arusha on 23rd September, President Magufuli collected protest placards
against Maghembe, OBC and abuse, to read them later.
On
5th 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 7th October 2017 Maghembe was removed and
Hamisi Kigwangalla appointed as new minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Kigwangalla
stopped the operation on 26th 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 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 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 13th 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
6th 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 21st 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
24th 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 10th 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
25th 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 21st 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
15th 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 4th March
charged with economic crimes. On 29th 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 21st 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.
The
first days of March 2020, it was revealed that the military camp in Lopolun was
being made permanent with funds from the NCAA.
Silence
is worse than ever, but there is grass.
Susanna
Nordlund
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