After PM Kassim Majaliwa’s agenda-driven, tricky (his kind of word), and non-listening visits to Loliondo and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in mid-February (see previous blog posts) there have been protest and prayer meetings in both Loliondo and NCA, statements, further contributions to the anti-Maasai ethnic hate campaign, very confused media coverage, international solidarity, and the president selling Tanzania in Dubai. Another issue that urgently should (but won't) be brought to light, is that the government has used an ill-intentioned law to kill the case against Thomson Safaris that’s older than this law.
I may have
written this before, but at calmer times, these developments could all have got
their own blog post. Now, I’m not even keeping up. Then Ndumbaro started
telling full-blown Kagasheki-style lies about Loliondo to Deutsche Welle, and
the following day Majaliwa held a misleading spectacle with traditional leaders
not from Ngorongoro to receive a list of households willing to “voluntarily”
relocate from NCA. I hope I haven't missed anything important and that this blog post will be read depite its length.
Reportedly,
Majaliwa will very soon visit Ngorongoro.
Update 15th March: Majaliwa's visit has been postponed.
While the
anti-Maasai hate campaign is speeding and spinning with its more malicious
disinformation, not enough of an effort is made to at least make serious people
and allies keep to facts. Those who don’t know anything make up their own
“facts”, and those who know are too polite to correct them, or worse ... I’ve
almost myself stopped telling writers about their mistakes after publication,
since corrections are never made, and too often misconceptions are kept even
when information is received before publication.
These are three different, but closely related problems:
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. A local police
state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still
people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from NCA.
In NCA, an
8,292 km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the purposeful 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. Current
government efforts focus on “voluntary” relocation and disinformation, while an
ethnic hate campaign rages in media and in the parliament.
In Loliondo,
but outside the 1,500 km2 area, the American Thomson Safaris claim ownership of
a 12,617 acres private nature refuge and have copied OBC’s use of the local
police state. Sadly, for years it’s been basically impossible to get information
about this land grab.
In this blog post:
Loliondo
after Majaliwa’s trick
Ndumbaro
lying about the 1,500 km2
The
government’s many tricks to grab the 1,500 km2
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area and Majaliwa keeps tricking
The
anti-Maasai hate campaign does not stop
The president
selling Tanzania in Dubai
Government
kills the Thomson Safaris case in the court of appeal
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| Deputy Minister Masanja's caravan of women on 5th March. The MNRT's ideal land use. |
Loliondo
after Majaliwa’s trick
As mentioned in earlier blog
posts, in Loliondo on 14th February, PM Majaliwa didn’t make any
precise announcements about the 1,500 km2, or about NCA for that
matter, which for many was a relief after the genocidal momentum that had been
built up in an anti-Maasai media campaign and some extremely crazed and
aggressive incitement against the Maasai by a long line of members of the
one-party parliament. Though with his talk about “wider interest of the
nation”, apparent wilful ignorance about the existence of land laws, and
expressed pleasure with not hearing anyone saying, “this is our land”, he was
not any better than RC Mongella whose visit a month earlier had led to loud
protests after years of frightful silence. The public was locked out of the
meeting, but some independent press was there. Sadly, the leaders present did
not speak up about the law, or about the ongoing case in the East African Court
of Justice, and kept talking about how very ready they were to work with the
government. Some attendants addressed other issues, NCA included, by the
message was also very clear from several local leader, that being ready to work
with the government does not mean being ready to be evicted, and the importance
of the 1,500 km2 for grazing was explained, not least by MP Emmanuel
Oleshangay.
And as mentioned earlier, on
17th February in Ngorongoro Division where he was supposed to
address NCA issues, Majaliwa ended by throwing in some alarmingly ignorant
comments about Loliondo. He said that the 1,500 km2 (the land that
OBC lobby to have converted into a protected area) is “empty” (there are both
permanent and seasonal bomas). The PM said that, if the problem is water, we
have the minister here, and boreholes can be drilled elsewhere. 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 headquarters and hospitals,
agricultural areas, forest, and the horrible American company Thomson Safaris
claiming their own private nature refuge. If anyone has missed it, Majaliwa has
an agenda and won’t listen to anything else. Unsurprisingly, on 1st-2nd
March, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Jumaa Aweso, visited Loliondo to
announce water projects. Majaliwa ordered a demarcation exercise of the
disputed 1,500 km2 to be initiated to “know the boundaries”! There
aren’t “boundaries”, since the area is part of the village land and has not
been grabbed! No boundaries are needed, unless there are bad intentions.
In a written statement from
his office and when presenting his Loliondo and Ngorongoro visits in
parliament, Majaliwa continued with the same threatening and misleading
nonsense. His claim is that the dispute is between local villagers and
conservationists, but since nobody knows the exact boundaries of the disputed
land, at a meeting in Ololosokwan in 2018 there would have been a resolution to
place beacons to demarcate the area. There was no such meeting in 2018.
Further, the written statement says that Majaliwa instructed authorities
concerned with the issue of placing beacons to ensure that they involve the
leaders of the areas at all stages. To make it even more absurd, the statement
says that this isn’t any trick (the word is used in English), that the
government isn’t like that, and that everything is beneficial and done in good
faith! A decades long land rights struggle in which the Loliondo Maasai have
managed to maintain their 1,500 km2 osero, despite extremely violent
illegal operations, a local police state that for some years silenced everyone,
and the constant lobbying by OBC, and there isn’t any “trick” involved in
demarcating the threatened land. To me it sounds like a textbook example of the
nastiest trick!
Mzee Kimeriai from Kirtalo
lives in the 1,500 km2, and after Majaliwa’s lies that this land is “empty” he
is begging the government not to finish off his people.
Following Majaliwa’s threat there has been several land protection and prayer meetings in Loliondo, even if not as many as in NCA. In Malambo, 24/7 patrols have reportedly been set up across the village to report any cars resembling Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), or the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ). On 23rd February a meeting was held in Ololosokwan, organised by traditional leaders, who reported that they had been hopeful when meeting Majaliwa in Wasso, but terrified after hearing his words in parliament. This was a prayer meeting attended by some 1,000 people, and strategies of how to protect the land were discussed.
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| Ololosokwan |
The following day, around 11am
there were reports from people in Soitsambu and Ololosokwan of two army
vehicles full of soldiers moving from Wasso towards Ololosokwan and once in
Ololosokwan in direction towards the osero. An hour later two more army
vehicles travelled the same route. These were the soldiers from the Tanzania
People’s Defence Force that since March 2018 are stationed at Olopolun near
Wasso. During normal routine work that many vehicles aren’t used at the same
time, and reportedly the soldiers were making rude gestures using weapons when
passing people along the way. Most people interpret this as an act of
intimidation, while some say it was normal routine.
A statement about land conflicts in Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Sale, signed by all Ngorongoro councillors, including the most unlikely, regarding the 1,500 km2 mentioned OBC’s lobbying, land ownership, the ongoing case in the East African of Justice, Majaliwa’s lie about a meeting in Ololosokwan 2018, and the disquiet caused by his talk about demarcating the land was addressed. Unfortunately, this statement was never read, since due to problems with logistics, no journalists showed up. Reportedly, other statements are on the way.
Today, 14th March,
there was a protest and prayer meeting in Malambo in Sale Division, at the
southernmost end of Loliondo GCA where people are under threat of having land
robbed from them for a protected area allowing hunting.
Ndumbaro lying about the 1,500 km2
On 8th March, or that’s when the audio clip
was shared, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Damas Ndumbaro had some
fun lying to Deutsche Welle Kiswahili, or maybe he’s genuinely stupid (some are
convinced that’s the case). His lies were in response to the global web movement
Avaaz that’s returned to petitioning about Loliondo (now mixing it with NCA),
and are loved by everyone in Ngorongoro, while this blogger has more mixed
feelings. Avaaz started their petition in 2012, which was bewildering to all
local leaders, as there hadn’t been any threat from the government since OBC’s land
use plan was rejected, and their first petition text was frankly misleading,
talking about “the Serengeti sell-off” when it was about Loliondo (some
signatories believed the threat to be the opposite of what it really was). In
2013, when Kagasheki tried to rob the Maasai of the 1,500 km2, Avaaz
were both helpful, and misleading. Even when they had all facts, they insisted on
writing everything in their own insincere style. What they did in 2014 is so
horrible that I just don’t want to write about it again. Then Avaaz didn’t say
one word during the years of worst terror and violence. This could be because
their contacts in Loliondo didn’t alert them, but others certainly did. Maybe Avaaz
this time are doing the best with the information they’ve been given, and new people
are involved. Though it would be good to arm allies with all facts … It’s what
I’ve been working on for over a decade with not that much to show for it.
In the Deutsche Welle interview
Ndumbaro seems to have been told that only “first peoples” can have “ancestral”
land and enjoys saying that the Maasai came from Sudan. This is what most
Maasai seem to have reacted to – maybe because those from Loliondo are still
quite silent - advising Ndumbaro who’s Mgoni to return to South Africa, but we
already knew that Ndumbaro has a personal hatred against the Maasai, and
against pastoralism. Then the minister moved on to saying that nobody owns land
in Tanzania and that everyone can be moved, citing infrastructure projects, but
this is a case of foreigners practicing a hobby, and Ndumbaro has still not
learnt that there are land laws, even if he this time wasn’t saying that the president
owns all land, which was what he said when parliament had its first anti-Maasai
day. The minister says it isn’t true that there’s hunting in NCA, in which he
has a point. Though the petition was originally about Loliondo, and the NCA
MLUM review proposal includes annexing areas with hunting, which would require changes
to the NCA Act.
The by far most dangerous lies
are when Ndumbaro mentions Loliondo. He’s back to Kagasheki’s shameless, and
frankly twisted, lie that the 4,000 km2 Loliondo Game Controlled
Area (Loliondo division plus part of Sale division) would be a protected area
that has been “invaded”, which previously would have been allowed, but not
anymore, says the minister, ignoring the simple fact that it’s legally
registered village land. This means that he considers the district headquarters
and the DC’s office to be “invaders”. PM Pinda put a stop to this lie on 23rd
September 2013 … The lie is based on that in Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 (that
came into operation in 2010) Game Controlled Areas are protected areas, and they
are not allowed to overlap with village land. Therefore, OBC funded the
draft district land use plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2
into this new kind of GCA, which was rejected by the district council in 2011,
since it would have led to very serious destruction of lives and livelihoods. For
further horror, Ndumbaro pretends that nobody is living in the 1,500 km2!
Whose houses have then been razed in several illegal invasions of village land?
Ndumbaro has a feeling that it’s foreign countries with an interest in Loliondo
and Ngorongoro that are misleading the public … I wonder if anyone has told
this unbelievably ignorant minister that there’s an ongoing case in the East
African Court of Justice to stop the governments efforts to rob the Maasai of
the land.
The government’s many tricks to grab the 1,500 km2
Since tricky PM Kassim Majaliwa
says that the government doesn’t engage in tricking Tanzanians there are a few
nasty tricks to remind about, and this is also to remind Loliondo leaders about
the circumstances in which you’re most likely to be tricked.
In 2008 local leaders were
tricked, or coerced, by then DC Jowika Kasunga to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing
and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the
government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km2 osero was
illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass
arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.
The Maasai moved back, and some
leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a tricky draft district
land use plan that proposed turning the land that had been invaded into a
protected area. The Maasai were united and weren’t tricked. The draft land use
plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council.
The government and the
investor had another dirty trick up their sleeve. In 2013, Minister Kagasheki
lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km2 Loliondo Game
Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro
District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km2
meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This trick did not
work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support
from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped
Kagasheki (not that anyone thought that Kagasheki was doing this on his own,
but he did show enthusiasm).
Then the many tricks to buy
off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found
it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the
people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land.
Though nobody was tricked enough to sign any MoU.
The investors OBC (and Thomson
Safaris) had for many used the tricks of the local police state that through
the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will
threaten anyone who could speak up about them, and engage in defamation and
illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with
Magufuli in office, and by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the
stage with his trick of a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC
Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that
found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical
areas” under protests in each village. The tricky proposal handed over to
Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad comprise that had
earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.
Maybe since tricking was so
easy, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still
waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision on 13th August 2017 an illegal
mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and
off well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti
rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local
police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle
seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested. Minister
Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the
operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s
own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km2, since Majaliwa
was to announce a decision, but that village land was invaded because people
were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.
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| Oloosek, Ololosokwan, 13th August 2017 |
The illegal operation wasn’t
stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into
office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would
have left Tanzania before 2018. I don’t know if this was a trick, but it was
very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6th December
2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about
creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were
staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri).
Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, and would of course be contempt
of court.
In March 2018, Kigwangalla
welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the
Dubai crown prince) and in April OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of
Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp
was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually
made permanent with donations from the NCAA.
Next trick was done by the OCCID
and local police that tried to derail the case in the East African Court of
Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning
local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for
the applicants' main counsel. On 25th September 2018 the court
finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions,
destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon
brutally violated, as a “trick” by soldiers that in November and December tortured
people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was
the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not
understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders
claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by
president Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very
vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the
soldiers.
There were finally some
promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested
on economic sabotage charges and OBC tuned down (they never left and Mollel was
never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t
dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out and back to
work, reportedly after plea bargaining.
Then in September 2019, followed
the terrible trick of a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the
proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km2 and turn it into a protected
area allowing hunting … This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since
been met with innumerable protests from every kind of group of people from NCA,
but near silence from Loliondo.
The worst trick of all were
the stolen elections of 2020, in which Salula Ngorisiolo was killed when police
and NCAA rangers opened fire at Oloirobi polling station in Ngorongoro.
2021, besides the big relief
of 17th March, brought the trickster Jumaa Mhina as new DED using
every trick to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though
the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017,
Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the
United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ.
On 11th January
2022, a new trick was brought by Arusha RC John Mongella who 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 weren’t tricked, not even those who for years had
worked for OBC and against the people. They 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 in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by
village, ward, and traditional leaders.
Then tricky Majaliwa came and
wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse
was expected.
Three days later, on 17th
February in Ngorongoro, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by
beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a
trick!
Then Ndumbaro on 8th March
re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies, and on the 11th Majaliwa again
mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a
fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro,
the previous day.
Placing beacons to mark the
1,500 km2 osero would be a serious invasion of village land and only
serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. It must
be dealt with urgently!
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area after Majaliwa’s trick
In NCA there were big prayer
meetings before, during and after Majaliwa’s visit. There are reports of such
meetings most every day. Just as in Loliondo, the public was locked out of
Majaliwa’s meeting in NCA on 17th February (which I wrote about in
the previous blog post), but with the difference that two journalists were
arrested, and those locked out kept singing outside the NCA hall. Majaliwa kept
to his agenda of “too many” people and livestock and would not listen to
anything else. The far too polite attendants followed the agenda of
“conservation”, but their contributions, including reports about missing rhinos and suspected culprits (briefly mentioned in my previous blog post), weren’t
reported, since due to the arrests there weren’t any independent journalists
present.
What Majaliwa later communicated
in the written statement from his office and in parliament was only 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. The terror is in the
context, in the years of restrictions imposed by the NCAA on growing crops or
building modern houses, in the loss of grazing areas and saltlicks, and in the current ethnic hate campaign in media and in parliament, and in how Majaliwa
refers in a neutral, or positive way, to these MPs who laugh approvingly when
their peers suggest sending in tanks against the Maasai and fabricate one
dehumanizing story after the other. And the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model (MLUM)
review proposal, that was presented by Chief Conservator Manongi in September
2019 has still not been thrown into the rubbish bin.
The MLUM review report’s
proposal is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods
and culture in Ngorongoro District. When it was presented, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International
Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had 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 has 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 (residents in Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted in 1975). 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.
A list of 52 heads of households
willing to voluntarily relocate from Ngorongoro was released a few days after
Majaliwa’s visit. Some of those were deceased while others had moved away from
Ngorongoro over a decade ago. Only two of those on the list were actual
residents of Ngorongoro.
People have for decades been
tortured by the NCAA, so that they will leave “voluntarily”, and in December
2021 the researcher Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel translated this to academic
language about how people are made relocatable and land grabbable through long
processes of marginalisation.
The village chairmen from the
25 villages of Ngorongoro Division held a press conference on 22nd February to set the record straight about PM
Majaliwa’s visit. The village chairs reminded of that Majaliwa only for an hour
listened to leaders, not the public, and that journalists and local experts
were not allowed in. They explained that they are ready, have always been
ready, to discuss challenges with conservation and tourism, like the number of
people and livestock, but not least the disorderly growth of hotels damaging
the environment, of traffic congestion in the crater, of invasive weeds
(significant increase since the Maasai were blocked from accessing the crater).
What they are not ready to discuss is evictions. They are not going anywhere. Their
message to the world is that they don’t need tourism that robs them of their
land.
On 5th March,
Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, who’s very much involved in the war against the
Maasai, brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to
Ngorongoro. This was supposed to be in celebration of International Women’s
Day, but celebrated tourism, domestic tourism, and not least the CCM government.
Almost all these women were overweight, which was a striking contrast to the (due
to purposeful ill-intentioned restrictions by the NCAA) often malnourished
Maasai women. The ministry and the NCAA uploaded video clips of these women
squirting champagne and – like foreign tourists at other times (the return of which
is celebrated) - overcrowding the Ngoitokitok picnic site in Ngorongoro crater,
an image that was much celebrated. This wastefulness and destructiveness were
obviously the image that the anti-Maasai ministry want to show the world, and
it’s been much shared by them. Meanwhile, the Maasai climbed Mount Makarot to
pray for their land.
On 10th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai traditional leaders – not from Ngorongoro – in which he was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. Not only when speaking, but also in the written message from his office the PM said that the government had set aside 400,000 km2 in Handeni. It was the first thing many people saw, but newspapers just copied it, and everything else about the Handeni plans, unquestioningly. The total area of Tanzania is 945,087 km². Present, and speaking for evictions from NCA, was of course the imposter Lekisongo from Monduli who in October 2021 falsely was presented as the leader of all Maasai traditional leaders at a public meeting with President Samia. At that time, Ngorongoro representatives were forced to hold a press conference to denounce this individual – which I suppose made him irresistible to tricky Majaliwa. Among the numerous attendants, the only person from Ngorongoro was an allaeged NCAA informer from Alailelai who’s one of the two persons on the first list that’s been made public who actually is a Ngorongoro resident, but it has later been revealed that he left Ngorongoro over five years ago. The rest of the attendants were from Arusha town and Monduli. This kind of fraudulent spectacle may seem too strange to be true, but remember that Majaliwa 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.
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| Fraudster Lekisongo on the right |
The following day in
parliament, when talking about his meeting with Maasai traditional leaders … Majaliwa
said that he had a slip of tongue and that it was acres and not square
kilometres. He did not explain what he slipped on to meet with Maasai from
Arusha and Monduli, including a well-known fraudster, to talk about Ngorongoro.
On 11th March, the
chairman of the laigwanak of Ngorongoro, Metui ole Shaudo, told Watetezi tv
that he and his peers had not been invited to, or informed about, the PMs
meeting in Arusha, and that they do in no way agree with what was said by
Lekisongo, who keeps pretending that he can represent them. The councillor for
Malambo and laigwanani, Clement Joel Reson, said that in Sale division the
traditional leaders had been waiting in vain for the PM to visit, and then they
see how he shows up in Arusha to discuss Ngorongoro with people not from
Ngorongoro.
On 12th March, the
Ngorongoro laigwanak, traditional leaders, held a press conference to denounce
Majaliwa’s spectacle. The message was that they will sue Lekisongo in a court
of law for repeatedly and fraudulently claiming to represent them while speaking
in favour of the government’s relocation plans. They also denounced Ndumbaro’s talk
that they would be from Sudan. The laigwanak declared that no ward, village, or
traditional leaders had been involved in any Handeni plans.
All journalists were unable to cover this press conference due to restrictions from Majaliwa!
On 13th March,
Majaliwa visted Msomera village in Handeni where houses are being built to
relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro. It would be interesting to know if it’s the COVID-19
funds mentioned in the leaked document from January that are being used.
Now it’s said that Majaliwa
will very soon visit Ngorongoro. I’ll write a new blog post about that.
Update 15th March: Majaliwa's visit has been postponed.
The anti-Maasai
hate campaign does not stop
As mentioned in earlier blog
posts, this year has seen a vicious anti-Maasai hate campaign conducted by
Habib Mchange of the Jamvi la Habari below-gutter tabloid, known for fabrications
and slander of opposition politicians, and for starting numerous “organisations”
to quote himself as their representative. Another member is the sports
presenter, turned frontpage reviewer, Maulid Kitenge, who shortly after having
joined the hate campaign was in Ngorongoro on a first time visit with his
colleague Oscar Oscar in a NCAA vehicle. Anything Kitenge sees: a cow, an
elephant, a modern building, or his own shadow will make him scream like a pig
in heat that the Maasai must be evicted from NCA. The main “arguments” of
this hate movement is that the Maasai are too many, that their livestock are
owned by “rich people from elsewhere” fabricating some baseless anti-Kenyan
paranoia, that they are living like animals, being eaten by predators, and that
there aren’t any graves in NCA! Other members are the editor of the old
anti-Maasai newspaper, the Jamhuri, Deusdatus Balile who added some lurid colonial
fantasies about Maasai burial practices to a well-funded press conference by
this group.
Balile’s colleague in the
Jamhuri, Manyerere Jackton, in well over 50 articles has been spewing out
unhinged hate rhetoric against the Maasai of Loliondo, and campaigned for
taking the 1,500 km2 away from them. He has claimed that 70 percent
of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds
of private persons that his “sources” consider to be “Kenyan”. His slandering
of those speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for
land rights, has been vicious and insane. Even worse is that I’ve experienced
first-hand how he likes to boast about being directly involved in arrests of
innocent people.
Most shameful is how other
media - including Deutsche Welle Kiswahili – have treated this anti-Maasai hate
group and their organisation “MECIRA” as some kind of legitimate conservation
actors.
Though one news outlet,
Darmpya online news, are asking questions, like how come the “allowances” for
attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and
for what purpose. There are also many Tanzanians online who have spoken up
against the hate campaign.
Further, Kitenge has shared a
photo of himself visiting PM Majaliwa …
 |
| Kitenge visiting Majaliwa. Birds of feather ... |
Even worse was of course the spectacle in parliament on 9th February when the atmosphere was such that the crazier hateful lies a parliamentarian spewed out against the Maasai, the more laughter and table banging there was, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to their Instagram page uploaded clips of the most hateful MPs, in case anyone thought they are just deranged individuals who happen to be members of parliament. Only three parliamentarians, all Maasai, spoke up against this hate feast that was followed by a one-sided “seminar” to educate the MP, in which to same behaviour just went on.
Lately, a briefer version of a
clip uploaded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in September has
again been shared online. I wrote about this clip at the time, in which Deputy
Minister Mary Masanja, on a visit to NCAA complains about having seen livestock,
and chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war that they aren’t
fighting for their own interest, but for the nation. He says that the
pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and that they sadly are winning, adding
that now conservationists must “start” developing conspiracies. As if he hadn’t
already in the restrictions and abuse of the Ngorongoro Maasai, and in his “workshops
for editors and senior reporters”. Basically, everyone from Ngorongoro is
convinced that Manongi is behind the current hate propaganda. Remember that the
clip isn’t even any leaked secret plan, but something used to show off, or get
sympathy.
On 22nd February a new article was published by the old anti-Loliondo “journalist”, Manyerere Jackton, who after over 50 articles full of defamation and fabrications, toned down his campaign for OBC when the director, Isaack Mollel, spent some time in remand prison for “economic sabotage”. This time without mentioning names, except for mine, he attacks those who work against Majaliwa’s plans to “save” Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and parrots what he was told in one of Manongi’s workshops. In the past, this individual has described me as an international spy who gets billions of money from those who’ve sent me to destroy the Serengeti ecosystem, among other deranged fabrications. In this latest article Manyerere claims that in Loliondo Majaliwa reprimanded people who spread hate propaganda, including one foreign national who has been deported twice, and who in social media tarnishes Tanzania and her own critics. I haven’t been able to get hold of anyone else who heard this, but the “journalist” knows that the PM was referring to me, and he even spells my name correctly. Though instead of linking to my blog, he can’t abstain from the baseless fabrication of describing me as an important fundraiser for Loliondo NGOs, when the truth is that I’ve never fundraised one shilling for the NGOs, and totally lack any skill for making people give away money. It’s how this “journalist” works. He lies all the time, even about unimportant issues. Though so much worse than this is how he has sent me triumphant one-liner emails when innocent people are about to get arrested in the Loliondo police state. I hope to some day meet Manyerere Jackton in a court of law about this.
President selling
Tanzania in Dubai
At the end of February,
President Samia attended the Dubai Expo 2020 and signed a US$7.49 billion
business partnership deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Here’s photo of her and OBC’s
hunter, the UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
al Maktoum.
There’s a lot more to report about
this, but I’m already afraid that nobody will read this blog post.
Government
kills the Thomson Safaris case in the court of appeal
The government is moving
forward all over the district in its efforts to hand over Maasai land to
“investors”, or what’s in their terminology is called, “the broader interest of
the nation”. The American Thomson Safaris, owned by Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland
claim their own private Enashiva Nature Refuge in the villages of Sukenya and
Mondorosi, or Soitsambu before the sub-division of villages. They base this
claim on having bought the right of occupancy from Tanzania Breweries that
cultivated a small part of it in the 1980s and then, using forged documents, got
a 99-year right of occupancy in 2003, selling it to Thomson in 2006. The right
of occupancy was for 10,000 acres that somehow was turned into 12,617 acres (51
km2) before selling it to Thomson. Though most of all this land grab
is based on the Loliondo police state and Thomson’s way of learning and
perfecting OBC’s strategies of how to use it for divide and rule, violence,
threats and defamation via the DC, security committee, and government officials.
Besides the local Maasai, several journalists have experienced how this local
police state work for Thomson, and so have I.
In 2013, at the height of
unity and seriousness in Loliondo, Land Case 26 of 2013 was filed: Mondorosi
Village Council, Sukenya Village Council and Soitsambu Village Council versus
Tanzania Breweries Ltd, Tanzania Conservation Ltd (Thomson Safaris), Ngorongoro
District Council, the Commissioner for Lands, and the Attorney General. An
earlier case had been dismissed on a technicality. In 2015 the High Court in
Arusha, ruled against the Maasai on all points except a minor one concerning
TBL adding 2,617 acres. Since then, this case has continued in the court of
appeal. To my sadness and frustration, since 2016 it has been basically
impossible to get any updates from the ground. The local police state worsened considerably,
and even more so to silence those speaking up about Thomson Safaris that also
affect a smaller area than OBC. Occasionally I hear from people who talk about
harassment of herders, without explaining well, and then they go offline for
years, literally.
As mentioned in earlier posts,
in 2021 the new DED Mhina started working hard to make the village chairmen
withdraw the cases against OBC and against Thomson Safaris. He almost succeeded
with the heavily compromised chairmen of the villages that have sued Thomson Safaris
who declared that they would sign the DED’s letter of withdrawal, but then they
changed their mind, and such a letter never reached the court.
This year, late-January, out
of court negotiations failed. Thomson Safaris and the government only wanted to
discuss the 2,617 acres, and then only pointing out borderline areas, so the
case continued until 18th February when the Solicitor representing
the Attorney General who was in the case one of the respondents stood before
the Court and claimed to have been representing both parties (the appellants
and the respondents) and as such, the government (the respondent) has no
interest in the Appeal.
The same prayer was brought to
the East Africa Court of Justice in Application no 15 of 2017 (arising from Reference
No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney
General of the United Republic of Tanzania) and was overruled. Unlike the East
African Court, the Court of Appeal of Tanzania without affording the appellants
the right to be heard, dismissed the appeal
This was based on legislation
introduced under Magufuli to do away with all separation of power, so that
local governments can’t sue the central government, but it should not be
possible to use this on a case filed before the law came into operation. Still,
the court ruled that there wasn’t a case, and the lawyers to the villages
weren’t even added to the records. Now a new case must be filed. The ruthless
hypocrites must be forced to move their very private nature refuge to Boston,
USA.
There’s too much to write
about, I have probably missed something important, and everyone’s too busy. I hope it’s because those who want to rob the Maasai of their land will soon 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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