Just when I
had scrambled through a night to finish a blog post about Loliondo before
Majaliwa’s visit to Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), to manage to treat the
Loliondo and NCA issues separately, the PM makes a terrifying statement about Loliondo
- when in NCA! It has become necessary to keep the issues separate after increased
national and international interest has led to a flood of mixed-up articles.
In Loliondo OBC,
that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km2 of important grazing land, village land belonging
to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area.
In NCA, an 8,292
km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the poverty-inducing rule and
restrictions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and since 2019
there’s a genocidal eviction plan, that extends to annexing some surrounding
areas, the area under threat in Loliondo included.
For further
confusion Loliondo is one of the three divisions of Ngorongoro district, while
NCA is the same as Ngorongoro division of the district. The 4,000 km2
Loliondo Game Controlled Area, that delineates the hunting block, is the whole
of Loliondo division, plus part of Sale. This isn’t that hard to
understand. If you google Loliondo, you may find articles about the neighbouring
Longido district, since Tanzanian journalists very often mix up Loliondo and
Longido, but even when geographically correct, almost all articles will be confused
in some way, even the most serious ones. When this blog is confused, I say so.
In this blog post:
Majaliwa in
NCA issuing illegal orders about Loliondo
OBC and the
1,500 km2 Osero
Points of
what has happened so far this year
About NCA in
the PM’s meeting in NCA
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area and the MLUM review proposal
Majaliwa in
NCA issuing illegal orders about Loliondo
After visiting Loliondo on 14th
February, PM Majaliwa came to Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the 17th.
Just like in Loliondo the public was locked out of the meeting, but the reactions
to this were stronger with people gathering to sing outside. Also, online there
were much more reaction from Ngorongoro youths than from their Loliondo counterparts
that have been silenced by a special kind of local police state, even if, after
years of silence, there were protests in Loliondo in January. Two journalists (of
course not those from the anti-Maasai organisation) were arrested and later
released. In Loliondo some independent journalists were allowed. Just as in
Loliondo, the attendants who were allowed in could not have their phones with
them. An explanation from leaders to why they went along with excluding the
public has now been shared, and it was because the hate rhetoric in parliament would
have focused on presenting the Maasai as “violent”, but that was only a small
part of the many obvious and hateful lies that were told in the national
assembly. Local leaders should have learnt that there’s nothing more dangerous
than being meek and dancing to Majaliwa’s tune.
In Ngorongoro Majaliwa made ignorant
and lawless statements about the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo, of a
kind that he had not made when in Loliondo three days earlier. Some people said
that at the end of the meeting, the PM declared that beacons were to be erected
to demarcate the boundaries of the 1,500 km2 area, and the following
morning it was more than confirmed.
Majaliwa again showed that he doesn’t
know, remember, or care about what has happened, or what anyone has said. He
just wants to push forward his (OBC’s) agenda. He said that the 1,500 km2
is “empty” (there are both permanent and seasonal bomas) so what’s the problem,
he wondered, if it’s water we have the minister here, and boreholes can be drilled
elsewhere, he added. Just three days earlier, the Ngorongoro MP had very
clearly explained the area’s importance for grazing. Excising the 1,500 km2
from the 4,000 km2 Loliondo GCA signifies destruction of lives and
livelihoods. The remaining area has two towns, with district headquarter and
hospitals, agricultural areas, forest, and the horrible American company Thomson Safaris claiming their own private nature refuge.
An official written statement from
the PM’s office says that Majaliwa’s words were. "The controversy is
between the local residents and the conservationists, but no one really knows
where the area starts and ends. These are the 2018 resolutions reached at a
meeting in Ololosokwan. It is best to place permanent markers to make it easier
to identify the area; it should be known what size the 1,500 square kilometres is
and which area it concerns”.
"Nothing
is to be done as a trick that affects any Tanzanian, there is no such
government. Everything that is said to you is beneficial, and it is done in
good faith.”
“In addition,
the Prime Minister instructed all authorities concerned with the issue of placing
beacons to ensure that they involve the leaders of the areas at all stages.”
The reason that the area isn’t
demarcated is that it – contrary to OBC’s wishes – has not been grabbed
from the local Maasai, and there’s an ongoing case in the East African Court of
Justice. There also wasn’t any such meeting in Ololosokwan in 2018. Majaliwa’s
disastrous activities to “solve the conflict” via a select committee took place
in 2016-2017.
Remember that we are dealing
with someone who, when Magufuli hadn’t been seen since 27th February
2021, at prayer in the main mosque in Njombe town on 12th March, assured
Tanzanians that the president was in good health and working hard, with loads
of files on his desk. On 17th March 2021, Magufuli was officially
declared dead.
The following day in
parliament, Majaliwa repeated the same ignorance and land alienation plan for the
1,500 km2 Osero. The PM initiated by saying that the contributions in
the recent parliamentary discussion about Ngorongoro had shown the importance of
managing the area in a sustainable way for the broader interest of the nation.
For crying out loud, a large segment of Tanzanians witnessed the behaviour of
those MPs, and saw that what’s needed is an urgent genocide prevention task
force! Other than demarcating the 1,500 km2, the only plan mentioned
was not to hinder, but to help, those who “voluntarily” seek to relocate from
NCA.
PM Majaliwa is lawless,
boundaryless, and very dangerous. He must be stopped!
OBC and the
1,500 km2 Osero
Otterlo Business Corporation
(OBC) that since the early 1990s has the hunting block (permit to hunt) in
Loliondo and organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai has for years
lobbied to have their 1,500 km2 core hunting area turned into a
protected area. 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 (currently
the DED has taken this place) openly, shamelessly, and with astonishing
lawlessness work for the investors, threatening, defaming and arresting anyone
suspected of being able to speak 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.
 |
| Sheikh Muhammed at Oloipiri Primary School in 2018 |
OBC have been lobbying to
convert the 1,500 km2, which is an important grazing area, and
legally registered village land, into a “protected area”. In 2008-2009 then DC
Jowika Kasunga pressured the local villages to enter a MoU with OBC. During the
drought in 2009, an illegal mass-arson operation on village land was ordered by
the DC’s office. Hundreds of bomas were burned to the ground, cattle were
seized and scattered into drought areas, and all kinds of violent crime was
committed by the Field Force Unit and OBC’s rangers.
Some local leaders, but far
from all, reconciled with OBC that then went on to fund 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, Khamis Kagasheki,
then Minister 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 unity and seriousness in Loliondo, the
Maasai garnered the support of both the CHADEMA opposition party and the ruling
CCM, and Kagasheki’s threats were finally stopped by PM Pinda.
Then, under Lazaro Nyalandu (minister
who replaced Kagasheki), divide and rule, and efforts to buy off local leaders
worsened, which was followed by increased repression and multiple lengthy
illegal arrests in 2016.
By 2016, local leaders were
much weakened, and PM Majaliwa set out to “solve the conflict”, via a
non-participatory select committee set up by then RC Mrisho Gambo, while Minister
Jumanne Maghembe was just as enthusiastic about OBC’s land use plan as
Kagasheki had been. When Gambo’s select committee, which, besides conservationists,
“investors” and such, also contained some local leaders and NGOs, toured the
area under threat to mark “critical areas”, at every place they were met with
protests. Finally, when the select committee reached a sad compromise proposal in
the form of WWA (which had previously been fought off successfully) local
leaders saw it as a victory.
Nothing was supposed to happen
while everyone was waiting for Majaliwa’s decision, but on 13th
August 2017, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area rangers, assisted by
OBC rangers, KDU/TAWA anti-poaching squads, local police, and others set fire
to five bomas in Oloosek, on village land and far from the national park. The
rangers said they had orders to remove livestock, housing and people from the
1,500 km2 that OBC, Minister Maghembe, and others wanted to alienate
from the villages. Leaders claimed to have been caught by surprise, and that
they had only heard about an operation to remove people and livestock from
Serengeti National Park. The DC was saying that the reason was that people and
cattle were entering the national park “too easily” but that it wasn’t about
the 1,500 km2 since PM Majaliwa was to make a decision.
The illegal operation would go
on for over two months and hundreds of bomas were razed from Ololosokwan to
Piyaya 90 km further south – most intensely between 13th and 26th
August, but with scattered arson attacks well into October - there were
beatings, illegal seizing of cattle, and herders were illegally arrested.
Village centres became congested with people and animals. Those returning after
the arson were brutally beaten by the rangers who also destroyed makeshift
shelters and blocked access to water sources. Women were raped by the rangers.
The last day of the illegal operation some rangers shot 80 cows in Arash. There
was terror and panic everywhere, and painful disappointment with the inaction
of some leaders.
The illegal operation, with its
many human rights crimes, wasn’t stopped until Hamisi Kigwangalla was made new
minister in late October, and for a short time was saying that OBC would be
chased away, until he U-turned.
On 6th December
2017, Majaliwa finally delivered his long-awaited decision about the 1,500 km2,
and the decision was a big and terrifying disappointment. The PM hadn’t chosen
between a WMA or a GCA 2009 but decided “something else”. Many people had been
present, but nobody seemed to have understood very well, since Majaliwa first
had said many nice and promising words. The only thing that everyone had heard
clearly was that OBC would stay. A brief press statement the following day made
things somewhat, but not much, clearer. The PM had ordered the MNRT to prepare
a legal bill with the aim of forming a “special authority” to manage Loliondo
Game Controlled Area, to protect the ecosystem of Serengeti National Park,
while benefitting all sides, and this was to be rushed through to be included
in the 2018/2019 budget. Councillors and village chairs from Loliondo issued a
concerned, but not strong enough statement, while in the Jamhuri newspaper, OBC’s
“journalist” Manyerere Jackton celebrated Majaliwa’s decision. (See the
previous blog post for a somewhat more detailed description of Majaliwa’s intervention).
Then, 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 the point that no local leaders dared to
speak up against an intimidation drive to derail the case in the East African
Court of Justice that had been filed during the 2017 operation. On 25th
September the court issued interim orders restraining the government from evicting
the residents, destroying their homesteads, or confiscating their livestock on the
disputed land until the main case is determined. Then, 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, an in violation of court orders.
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.
Theories on why this happened mention Mollel’s clashes with Kigwangalla and
Gambo, or that it could be a message to Abdulrahim Kinana (who since the early
1990s had been close to OBC) that nobody is safe. After a prolonged stay in
remand prison, he was released without any court ruling, allegedly after plea
bargaining. While Mollel was still locked up, in September 2019 a genocidal
plan for 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, Salula Ngorisiolo was killed at Oloirobi polling station when NCAA
rangers and police open fire at unarmed voters who were protesting election
fraud, and OBC ended up with at least three of their employees as councillors.
In 2021, the new DED Jumaa
Mhina started acting as a DC, pressuring the chairmen of the four villages with
a case in the East African Court of Justice to withdraw this case. The chairmen
are resisting, and the case continues.
On 11th January
2022, Arusha RC John Mongella reignited the threat against the 1,500 km2.
Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500
km2 to inform them that the government would make a painful decision
for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders refused to accompany the RC
for a tour of the 1,500 km2, or to sign the attendance list, which
could have been used to claim that they’d agreed to something. On 13th-14th
January there was a protest meeting and a statement in Oloirien. All leaders,
including those who’ve been fearfully silent for years, and even the traitors
who to some extreme extent have been working for OBC and against the people, signed
the statement against the RC’s threat and against OBC, while the popular
protest was even clearer. The only thing that was slightly off with the leaders’
statement was a strange reference to the sad proposal that had been handed to
Majaliwa in 2017, as if it had been something positive. It would have been
better to just forget it. Then another stop order (there is already one) was
applied for in the East Africa Court of Justice.
Then on 14th February
2022, PM Majaliwa visited Loliondo with some ignorant talk about the wider interest
of the nation, and on the 17th in NCA he orders beacons to be erected
to demarcate the 1,500 km2! The following day he repeated the same
in parliament.
It should be remembered that,
as reported in the previous blog post, the PM does not believe in land laws. I’d
say that he’s totally lawless and boundaryless.
Points of
what has happened so far this year
-This year started with a
leaked plan for “voluntary” evictions from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA)
to be fully prepared to begin in February.
-Then on 11th
January RC Mongella visited Loliondo and issued a land alienation threat that
made even the biggest traitors speak up. The following day there were protest
meetings and a statement.
-A couple of international organisations
issued statements in support of the Maasai.
-The Jamvi la Habari paper initiated a hate
campaign against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social
media, was joined by crazed sports presenters, and later (or from the start?)
the old anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper.
-These journalists started an
organization with its sole focus on evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro and
were treated as serious actors by other media.
-Tanzanians in social media
who had earlier not paid much attention to Ngorongoro saw what was going on,
were appalled, and started speaking up, even the most prominent ones.
-In parliament on 9th
February MPs competed in being wilfully ignorant, hateful, and calling for
evictions from Ngorongoro, and Loliondo, there was much laughter and table
banging, while only three MPs spoke up for the Maasai. Majaliwa said that the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act would be reviewed, but first there was to be a
seminar for the MPs and he would meet with people in Ngorongoro and Loliondo.
-The Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism uploaded some of the worst clips of MPs, and not as bad
examples …
-On 11th February eight permanent
secretaries to ministries arrived in Loliondo.
-On 12th February a
one-sided “seminar” about Ngorongoro was held for the MPs who continued their
hateful and defamatory incitement against the Maasai.
-On the 13th the
new anti-Maasai organisation held a loathsome press conference.
-In NCA people didn’t sleep
and many spent the whole Sunday 13th praying.
-On 14th February
PM Majaliwa visited Loliondo and engaged in ignorant talk about the wider
interest of the nation.
About
NCA in the PM’s meeting in NCA
As mentioned above, Majaliwa’s
meeting at the NCA hall, was for leaders and closed to the
public. There was confusion and thorough registering of the attendants. Two
journalists were arrested and released later the same day.
 |
| Not allowed to meet Majaliwa. |
Majaliwa made it clear that he
was there to talk about the challenges of increased populations of people and
livestock, and of how to protect tourism and conservation. The decades of abuse
by the NCAA against the Maasai was not an issue in any way.
In media what’s been reported is
that the PM has taken note of the resident’s willingness to conserve the area for
tourism, and later most reporting has been about Majaliwa’s announcement that
those willing to “voluntarily” relocate from Ngorongoro should not be hindered,
but helped, and that they should register at the offices of the DC, RC and the
chief conservator.
As mentioned in earlier blog
posts, the researcher Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel published an article in
December 2021, explaining how people are made relocatable through long
processes of marginalisation. “Making land grabbable: Stealthy dispossessions by conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania”.
So far, there has hardly been
any reporting at all about what the attendants had to say. Maybe because those who would have reported about it were arrested.
Alaitole councillor James
Moringe said that local leaders are not ready to negotiate with the government
on how to evict people but on how to address challenges to promote
conservation, people, and tourism. James reported the disappearance of rhinos and
handed a list of rhinos to the PM along with an envelope containing his suspicions.
Mosses Ndiyaine, resident of
Oloirobi village said the people of Ngorongoro are ready to sit down with the
government but before doing so challenges that exist because of the poor
relationship between the NCAA and the residents must be addressed. Like, the transfer
of funds and dismissal of employees of the Pastoralist Council, the authority
suing residents for alleged wrongdoing, lack of management plan for Ngorongoro
Conservation Area and the three foundations of its establishment (People,
Tourism and Conservation), and the saltlick stock tests showing adulterated and
potentially harmful content.
William Oleseki from Endulen,
said he was one of the representatives in Dr Runyoro’s commission to review the
Multiple Land Use Model in Ngorongoro, but it wasn’t participatory, and the views
of the local Maasai weren’t included in the final report, which led the local
representatives to withdraw from the commission.
Kisika Kilorit, traditional
leader from Alilelai ward said they were ready to sit down with the government
to address the challenges but were surprised by the way some government
officials appointed by President Samia to sit down with traditional leaders to
discuss how to solve the challenges facing the area, and how despite the Arusha
RC’s promises to meet with the traditional leaders for this matter it has never
been successful. And they were surprised to see the media move to write and the
parliament to discuss an issue that is already in the process of negotiating
with the traditional leaders and the Arusha RC, without the traditional leaders
being informed.
Kakesio councillor Johanes
Tiamasi said that the government had previously relocated people to an area in
Sale Division, but they had to flee the area for security reasons and now most
of them have returned and some have fled to an unknown location while the government
has not followed up to fulfil their responsibilities for security.
MP Emmanuel Oleshangai too said
that the people of Ngorongoro are ready to enter negotiations with the government
to address challenges (as if it isn’t what they’ve been doing all the time
while continuously being mistreated. This talk gives me a headache. Just tell the
PM to go “somewhere” …). He said since the coming of the Chief Conservator (Manongi) there
have been changes in the management as many managers were sacked and the obstacle
is this conservator who has been observed clearly saying he has failed to
manage the tripartite objectives for the establishment of this area, MP
Oleshangai said. There are subordinate staff who report to this conservator,
whose job is to ensure sabotage against the community and those who do not
support this objective are dealt with mercilessly including transferring them
to other posts. The Assistant Commissioner named Elibariki Bajuta has been
intimidating and threatening his colleagues that he has put the Government in
the pocket, and nothing can be done against him.
The MP stated that the
increase in population and livestock is not the only challenge facing the area,
but there is the challenge of many uncoordinated tourist vehicles, arbitrary
construction of hotels and tourist camps, as well as some of these hotels
directing sewage systems, and such, drying up water sources flowing into the
Ngorongoro Crater.
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area and the MLUM review proposal
The Maasai in the 25 villages
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.
Since it was announced in
September 2019, there have been several protest statements and delegations by
ward and village leaders, customary leaders, and youths. There have been
promises from Kigwangalla and then Ndumbaro that the MLUM review is to be done
afresh and in a “participatory” manner, but then the same genocidal threat is
returned. In April 2021, 45 families accused of returning to Ngorongoro after
being relocated to Jema in 2006 were ordered to leave within 30 days. Further,
more than a hundred houseowners, accused of building their houses without NCAA
permits were ordered to demolish them. On the list were even government
buildings, like schools and a police station. A third group of approximately
174 other families accused of being illegal immigrants were listed in the
notice. After protests, the eviction notices were withdrawn until further notice.
President Samia has parroted the eviction rhetoric in the most unsettling way.
Then in January there was leaked information about a plan for immediate
“voluntary” relocations to Kitwai and Handeni, while RC Mongella renewed the
land alienation threat about the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo which is
another issue, but included in the MLUM review proposal, and the always present
anti-Maasai media campaign was intensified. Then PM Majaliwa illegally announced
the alienation of the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo.
PM
Majaliwa is lawless, boundaryless, and very dangerous. He must be stopped!
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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