The Tanzanian
government must stop threatening and abusing the Maasai of Ngorongoro District,
whether it’s for the old “Loliondogate” issue in Loliondo and Sale Division and
the hunters’ wish for a “protected area”, or for the even older wish to for the
love of tourism money further dispossess and strangle those in Ngorongoro
Conservation Area. Now the Arusha RC John Mongella must backtrack on his (the
government’s) terrible threat described in the previous blog post.
In this blog post:
Application
for stop order in EACJ after the RC’s threats
The case
The crime
Worrying
developments, confusion and protest in Sanjan, Malambo
Maasai
eloquence and police stupidity in Endulen
The
anti-Maasai press
Support
from national and international organisations
Ndumbaro in
Las Vegas
Application
for stop order in EACJ after the RC’s threats
On 21st January
2022, the chairmen of Ololosokwan, John Pyando, Kirtalo, Yohana Toroge, Oloirien,
Parmaari Merika, and Arash, Mepuki Lemberwa, filed an urgent application in the
East African Court of Justice requesting the court to intervene issuing a stop
order against the Arusha RC’s contempt of court shown on 11th
January when he, alleging the broader interest of the nation, threatened that
the government would alienate the contested 1,500 km2 of village
land bordering Serengeti National Park. This important event was however
overshadowed by worrying reports from Malambo, about which it was hard to get a
clear picture.
After filing the application,
the chairmen and some other villagers met with the press outside the court.
This application became necessary after, as reported in the previous blog post, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned to the Ngorongoro District Council HQ village and ward leaders from the areas with land in the 1,500 km2 Osero where Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) organise hunting for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, and which they for many years now have been lobbying to have turned into a protected area (OBC has had the hunting block, permit to hunt since 1993). The local political leaders refused to accompany the RC for an inspection tour of the 1,500 km2, and they even refused to sign the meeting’s attendance list, since it could otherwise claim that they had agreed to something.
On 14th January at
a protest meeting in Oloirien, a statement, signed by customary leaders,
women’s representatives, and village chairs and ward councillors – including OBC’s
“friends” - from areas with land in the 1,500 km2, was read. For
those who have lived and cried through these years of panicked silence and
boundaryless treason that almost destroyed the land struggle, this change is still
hard to believe, and there are so many questions.
“We are not leaving, we are not going, go and tell Samia
we are not going, finish us all here.” Sign: "Samia, remove the Arab so that we'll be safe."
The statement is protesting
the RC renewing the Loliondo land conflict between the villages and OBC. It clarifies
that the disputed land is village land that never has been turned into any
protected area and asks the government to abandon any ambition to set aside
village land for hunting. It reminds of the ongoing court case, in its final
stages, that was filed during the illegal arson operation in 2017, and of the
interim orders issued in September 2018, which the RC is violating.
Unfortunately, also a sad compromise proposal reached before the illegal operation
(and I’d say that the weakness shown by local leaders at that time led
authorities to think it was safe to invade village land) is mentioned in the
statement. The statement aptly describes the conflict as enacted by
conservationists to protect investors without recognising the vital interests
of the villagers.
On 16th and 17th
January there was some media coverage of the protests. The RC would reportedly
make a clarifying statement later the same week, which he still hasn’t done. On
the 16th he published a description of his Loliondo tour on his
Instagram account, including confused talk about Game Controlled Area beacons
in Arash, and of visiting OBC’s camp in the “village of Oloipiri”. The camp is
in Kirtalo, but OBC have wanted it to be situated in Oloipiri, since they have “good
relationships” after they corrupted leaders there, but now even the Oloipiri
leaders signed the protest statement. The RC’s ignorance is not appealing, but
it is to the advantage of the Maasai.
The case
Ref No.10 of 2017 concerns
important Maasai dry season grazing land bordering Serengeti National Park, in
villages of Loliondo and Sale divisions of Ngorongoro District. The loss of
this land would lead to destruction of lives and livelihoods far beyond the
applicant villages, and logically to increased conflict with neighbours, since
there isn’t any alternative empty land to go to, except for the National Park.
This land belongs to the four applicant villages (and other villages whose
leaders were too afraid or too corrupted to join, but they could still join as "interveners"),
since they in the 1970s were registered under the Village and Ujamaa Villages
Act, then in 1982 under the Local Government (District Authorities) Act, and
then got further protection as village land belonging to the village assembly
(all adult villagers) managed by the village council under Village Land Act
No.5 of 1999. Eviction from this land is in total contravention and violation
of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, Village Land Act 1999,
Wildlife Conservation Act, 2009, and the Treaty for the Establishment of the
EAC.
 |
| The original villages affected by OBC, before they were split up into more villages. |
On 9th November
2017, the government side responded to Ref No. 10 of 2017 via a preliminary
objection that the villages couldn’t sue the government, since they were part
of the same government. This objection was dismissed by the court on 25th
January 2018. “Interestingly”, the government (Attorney General) in this
response pretended that the 1,500 km2 would have been turned into
the protected area wanted by the investor and the ministry, calling it the
“Wildlife Conservation Area” and the “Game Reserve” – when everyone was still
waiting for the PM’s decision, which when delivered in December 2017 was a
vague, but very threatening idea about setting up a special authority to manage
the land, which was delayed until another threatening proposal was issued in
September 2019.
The last week of May 2018,
local police led by the acting Officer Commanding Criminal Investigation
Division Ngorongoro District initiated a campaign to derail the case through
intimidation against leaders and common villagers in the villages that had sued
the government. The village chairmen were prevented from attending a court
hearing in the East African Court of Justice, since they had to present
themselves at Loliondo Police Station. Some people who weren’t silenced in 2016
at the time of multiple illegal arrests have been “hiding” in fear since May
2018 until now, and some are yet to re-appear.
At the hearings in June 2018,
the government’s witnesses introduced a new version of events – differing sharply from what the Attorney
General had claimed in November 2017 – now claiming that the mass arson
operation would have only taken place inside Serengeti National Park.
On 25th September
2018, the court delivered its ruling on Application No.15 of 2017, and issued
interim orders restraining the respondent (government side) from any evictions,
burning of homesteads, or confiscating of cattle, and from harassing or
intimidating the applicants.
On 8th November
2018, while OBC were preparing their camp, soldiers stationed in Loliondo since
March the same year, and who since July had assaulted and tortured groups of people,
started beating people in wide areas
around the camp, and after a couple of days these soldiers, assisted by OBC
rangers – in flagrant and brutal violation of the interim orders – burned down bomas
in some areas of Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. Beatings and seizing of cattle
continued in some areas, and on 21st December 2018 the soldiers
descended upon Leken in Kirtalo and burned 13 bomas to the ground. The silence
by all local leaders during these crimes was among the most terrifying and
infuriatingly disappointing moments of my over a decade of following the
Loliondo land struggle.
In December 2018, the
witnesses from the government side - DC Rashid Mfaume Taka, DED Raphael Siumbu,
park warden Julius Francis Musei, geographical information system officer Alli
Kassim Shakha, and even wildlife officer Nganana Mothi … – swore affidavits claiming that the 2017
mass arson operation would have only taken place in Serengeti National Park.
This was quite outrageous perjury when it was the DC himself who on 5th
August 2017 issued the order for the illegal invasion of village land, and had
been quoted about it both in a statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism and in the OBC loyal press. A map from TANAPA, used by the
attackers during the operation, also clearly shows that most bomas were burned
on village land.
In 2020 the witnesses of
applicants and respondents were cross-examined, and in 2021 written submissions
were filed, while DED Mhina has worked hard to have the case withdrawn. Both
sides have been causing delays, but now the case is in its final stages – and RC
Mongella, representing the government, has as mentioned interfered with
contempt of court, forcing the village chairs to file an application for urgent
stop orders.
The crime
(very abbreviated version)
Otterlo Business Corporation
that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai has the hunting block
(permit to hunt) in more than the whole of Loliondo Division (plus part of Sale
Division) of Ngorongoro District since the early 1990s, but the core area,
where they actually hunt, is in the 1,500 km2. The owner of OBC,
from whom nothing is ever heard, is the businessman and Assistant
Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence of UAE, Lt. General Mohammed Abdul
Rahim Al Ali. For years OBC have lobbied to have the 1,500 km2
turned into a “protected area”, which would mean evicting the Maasai. The
threat has been delivered under different names, but is the same as a Game
Reserve, where local people and livestock are not allowed, while tourism and, unlike
in a National Park, hunting is very much encouraged. Around OBC (and the
American Thomson Safaris) a local police state has developed, in which
basically every government official, and particularly the security committee
and always the consecutive DCs (though currently the DED has taken this place)
openly, shamelessly, and with astonishing lawlessness work for the investors,
threatening, defaming and arresting anyone suspected of speaking up. This has
led to several illegal invasions of village land with mass arson, multiple
human rights crimes, fear, treason, and almost complete silence these past
years when repression has worsened in the whole of Tanzania, until local
leaders finally woke up in January 2022.
In 2009, under Minister
Mwangunga, this lobbying led to an illegal mass-arson operation on village
land, ordered by the DC’s office. Then OBC funded a draft District Land Use
Plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2 into a protected area. This
plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.
In 2013, Kagasheki, who by
this time was heading the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, made
vociferous statements shamelessly lying that alienating the 1,500 km2
meant gifting land to the Maasai. At that time of not-again-seen (until maybe
and hopefully now) unity and seriousness in Loliondo, Kagasheki’s threats were
finally stopped by PM Pinda. Then, under Nyalandu, divide and rule, and efforts
to buy off local leaders worsened, which was followed by increased repression
and multiple lengthy illegal arrests and malicious prosecution in 2016. By that time local leaders were
much weakened and agreed to a previously unthinkably sad compromise proposal
(which they for some reason can’t stop bringing up now, just stop …) while
Maghembe showed signs of being as rabidly at the service of OBC as Kagasheki
had been.
Unexpectedly, while waiting to
hear from PM Majaliwa about his decision after receiving the compromise proposal,
an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2013, erupted on 13th
August 2017, ordered by DC Rashid Mfaume
Taka. This atrocity, with beatings, illegal arrests, rape, and seizing of
livestock, wasn’t stopped until Kigwangalla was made new minister in late
October the same year, and for a short time was saying that OBC would be chased
away. Then he changed his mind. In 2018, OBC, as had been done before, made
substantial vehicle gifts to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
A military camp was set up in
Loliondo in 2018, and fear worsened to where no local leaders dared to speak up
against an intimidation drive to derail the case in the East African Court of
Justice filed during the 2017 operation. At the lowest point ever, nobody even
spoke up when the soldiers from the national army started torturing people and
in November and December 2018 razed bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan, without
any kind of official order, not even an illegal one.
There was a small relief when
OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested in 2019, but the Loliondo police
state wasn’t dealt with and hardly even Mollel’s personal economic crimes.
After a prolonged stay in remand prison, he was released with no court ruling. It
looks like he had just stepped on the toes of those above the law, or was used
to send a message to Membe and Kinana (the latter close to OBC since the start,
but fell out with Magufuli). While Mollel was still locked up, in September
2019 a genocidal plan for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was presented and
it included proposals for surrounding areas, such as fulfilling what OBC had
been lobbying for. With the so-called elections in 2020 (a tragic farce in the
whole of Tanzania that included the killing of Salula Ngorisiolo in Ngorongoro
on election day), OBC ended up with at least three of their employees as
councillors.
In 2021, the new DED Jumaa
Mhina has been acting as the worst DC, pressuring the chairmen of the four
villages with a case in the East African Court of Justice to withdraw this case,
and doing the same to end the case against Thomson Safaris in the court of
appeal.
Then Arusha RC, John Mongella,
on 11th January renewed threats that the 1,500 km2 will
be turned into the protected area wanted by OBC, and local leaders woke up from
their slumber.
Worrying
developments, confusion and correct action in Sanjan, Malambo
Meanwhile, in Sanjan, Malambo
in the far south of the old Loliondo Game Controlled Area, Sale division, bordering
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, there were protests. As the application was to be
filed in the EACJ, reports emerged that people were gathering to protest and
that boundary beacons were being brought in to Malambo. Some even said that the
beacons had been installed. I planned to publish a much shorter than normal
blog post, the same day as the application was filed, but instead I frantically
and with very little success tried find out what was happening in Malambo. It
was as if confusion was created to draw attention from the application. There
were also reports that customary leaders had been summoned to the police after
a meeting had been held in Endulen in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).
What appears to have happened
was that someone phoned the chairman of Sanjan village in Malambo ward, saying
that beacons were to be erected on village land, according to threats for areas
outside NCA in a genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal presented by
the notorious NCA chief conservator Manongi in September 2019. At the same
time, Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) that manages wildlife
outside national parks and NCA had set up camp in Sanjan, which isn’t a common
occurrence. So, people gathered to hold protest meetings until TAWA left after
three days.
Now, most informed people say
that there never were any beacons. However, chasing away TAWA was a correct and
satisfying move whatever they were doing in Sanjan. TAWA is not anything that
you would like on your land. They have for years, with their KDU anti-poaching
squads, been staying at the same premises as OBC’s rangers, and probably still
are ( I have not been able to have this
confirmed). In 2017, in the illegal operation implemented by Serengeti National
Park, under chief park warden Mwakilema (now appointed as head of TANAPA by
President Samia) KDU rangers participated in the human rights crimes, as did
NCA rangers, OBC rangers, district natural resources, and local police.
Maasai
eloquence and police stupidity in Endulen
On 17th January, in
Endulen in Ngorongoro Conservation Area meetings were being held, prompted by
leaked information that the government would have applied for funds and would
soon start evictions of those “volunteering” to move out of NCA. This came
after eviction notices to supposed immigrants and demolition orders for houses
without “proper permits” (including those built by the government) were issued
in April 2021 and withdrawn until further notice after protests, following the
genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal that was presented in 2019 and
keeps being brought up interspaced with promises of doing it afresh in
“participatory” manner.
As mentioned in the previous
blog post, the researcher Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel published an article in
December 2021, explaining how people are made relocatable through long
processes of marginalisation. “Makingland grabbable: Stealthy dispossessions
by conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania”
In the drizzling, or more than
drizzling, rain participant after participant explained in front of ITV cameras
that this is their land and they aren’t going anywhere, the person who should
leave is the chief conservator Freddy Manongi, and enough is enough of abuse
against the Maasai of Ngorongoro.
On 20th January two
customary leaders and the Endulen village and sub-village chairs were summoned
to the police the following day. They were questioned on why they held a
meeting on land issues, but they had brought a lawyer and weren’t charged with
anything.
ITV didn’t broadcast anything
from the meeting in Endulen. It’s assumed that the reason was pressure from the
NCAA, but their clips have been shared by other people.
The Maasai in NCA live under
restrictions not found in Loliondo, 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 as a result are suffering from high levels of child
malnutrition, while throughout the years they have been shaken by rumours and
threats of eviction. The current threat was announced in September 2019, when
chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public the Multiple Land Use Model review
report’s proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of
Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. This had followed a
joint monitoring mission from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International
Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) that once again visited Ngorongoro and
in their report repeated that they wanted the MLUM review completed to see the
results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of
settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. Recommendations and concerns from UNESCO
had in the past repeatedly led to a worsened human rights situation.
When the Maasai were evicted
from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, losing access to over 14,000
km2, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to
continue occupying the 8,292 km² 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 tourism revenue has turned into the paramount
interest.
The MLUM review report proposes
to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core conservation
zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this
includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters Ngorongoro,
Olmoti and Empakaai where grazing these past few years has been banned through
order. This has led to losing 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka,
Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock
in these wards. The proposal is to do the same with Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli
footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro
District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including
areas of Longido and Monduli districts, like Selela forest and Engaruka
historical site) and the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo and Sale Divisions
and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and
livestock. These huge areas include many villages and are important grazing
areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and
livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost
perfectly to the wishes of OBC.
Yesterday, 26th January there
was an article in the Jamvi la Habari by one Ibrahim Malinda instigating panic
through unprofessional claims, in the usual panic about numbers of people and
livestock in NCA, claiming that rich Maasai are building luxury mansions and
that millions of shillings from the “neighbouring country” are being used to
destroy Ngorongoro, adding some pictures not from Ngorongoro. I wonder what the
wildlife situation is like at Malinda’s place. I suppose he’s lucky if he has a
lizard. Then there are of course those who rile each other up in social media
with pictures of livestock and houses. I wish they could mind their own
business and stop inciting against those who have already been evicted for “conservation”
and compare with their own population densities and wildlife, instead of with
some kind of national park. Particularly vile was a former sports journalist, turned
ignorant newspaper frontpage reviewer, Maulid Kitenge, seen in a clip that
looks like it’s been made to incite pre-school children against the Maasai. I’ve
been advised to keep calm and educate people, but this is what it looked and
sounded like:
Fortunately, OBC’s own
journalist, Manyerere Jackton, who for years in the Jamhuri newspaper not only exaggerated,
but totally fabricated stories about Loliondo, including some crazy slander of
any person he suspected of being able to speak up, has been silent since OBC’s
Tanzanian director spent some time in remand prison with economic sabotage
charges that later were mysteriously dropped. The Jamhuri has however more
recently engaged in the campaign against the Maasai of NCA.
Support from
national and international organisations
On 25th January,
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) issued a statement urging
President Samia to listen to Loliondo villagers, and to those in Ngorongoro
Conservation Area.
And on 26th January,
the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) and Indigenous
Peoples Rights International (IPRI) issued an urgent alert about Loliondo.
The 70,000 Maasai mentioned is
an estimate of those who would be seriously affected by losing the 1,500 km2
(everyone in Loliondo Division, plus Malambo ward in Sale Division), not of
those who reside there.
Today, 27th January the
Oakland Institute issued a press release in support of the Maasai of Loliondo
and NCA.
Ndumbaro in
Las Vegas
Meanwhile, Damas Ndumbaro, the
anti-pastoralist Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism has visited the 50th
annual convention of Safari Club International, to attract investors to
Tanzania’s hunting blocks, accompanied by the Director of Wildlife, Maurus
Msuha, chairman of TAWA, Hamis Semfuko and the acting Commissioner for Conservation
of TAWA, Mabula Misungwi.
Ndumbaro used to occasion to
invite Donald Trump Jr. to Tanzania.
Still,
I can’t stop thinking about the tomblike silence when soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force invaded village land with extreme brutality, violating interim orders in 2018 and apart from this blog it was only briefly mentioned by the Oakland Institute, or the silence about a disappointing visit by cabinet secretaries in February 2019, and the very timid reactions to the inclusion of Loliondo in the genocidal NCA Multiple Land Use Model review proposal in 2019 (there were reactions from Ngorongoro Division). Then I can’t stop thinking that the illegal mass arson operation in 2017 could have been averted if leaders, already with the increased repression in 2016, had organized mass action instead of bending over backwards to assuage the enemy. Though I have been told that it wasn’t possible due to the activities of traitors, and, above all, to who was president at the time.
But now the terrifying drought
has ended. It has rained.
Susanna
Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been
blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her
fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be
able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never
worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her
Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com
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