Thursday, 5 May 2022

The Ngorongoro MP Spoke Up in Parliament About the Shocking Transfer to Handeni of Funds for Public Services, in Loliondo the Intimidation of Local Leaders Continues, and The Royal Tour is Used as Expected

 

Rest in peace Anny Daniel Laizer. My condolences to family and friends.

 

In the latest blog post, among several other issues, I mentioned that in addition to decades of other restrictions and harassment, obviously meant to drive the Maasai out of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, since 2021 the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) has been blocking all new, already funded, public service projects. While writing (now long ago), I was asking for more details about what projects were being blocked, and since then such a list has been shared, and later letters were made public in which schools in Ngorongoro Conservation Area were being ordered to send Covid-19 funds already in their accounts to the account of Handeni District Council. On 13th April, the Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai, spoke up in the national assembly, and in a confident way fought off several intervening ministers.


Update: on 6th May, Lendukai Kimaay, who was one of those writing the report on community views to be handed to PM Majaliwa, was arrested in Karatu and then taken to Arusha for interrogation. He was released on the 7th.

Update: On 6th May. the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on the government of Tanzania to immediately cease efforts to evict the Maasai people from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

 

Meanwhile, I’m worried that not enough attention is given to protect the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo that this year has been seriously threatened by both the Arusha RC, the PM and the former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, and as reported in the latest blog post, in a new turn of the Loliondo police state the councillor of Arash was arrested, or abducted, by his own CCM party for speaking up. On Easter Eve the illegal arrests of councillors continued with those from Malambo, Piyaya, and Maaloni. The councillors of Arash and Malambo must keep reporting to the police. The latest I heard is that the Malambo village chairman and a traditional leader are summoned to the Loliondo police tomorrow, 6th May.

 

In President Samia’s own “documentary” The Royal Tour, the words about the Maasai were as if preparing for evictions from Ngorongoro, and in a related interview she now also mentioned Loliondo, trying to engage in the usual anti-Loliondo rhetoric by the MNRT and investors, without getting even that right.  

 

In this blog post:

Blocked public services in Ngorongoro Division

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

NCA developments since 2021

Public services as weapon of war

Intimidation continues, but Loliondo is not back to silence, I hope

Brief reminder about the efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km2 in Loliondo

The Royal Tour

 

First remember that:

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 parliament. This is about Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District.

 

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. This caused illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017. 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. This concerns Loliondo and parts of Sale divisions of Ngorongoro District.

 

The interest in Ngorongoro has reached unprecedented levels nationally and internationally, which is good indeed. Though most articles get at least something wrong, while some old misleading articles are circulating again.


Blocked public services in Ngorongoro Division

During the one-party parliamentary debate on the budget estimates of the Prime Minister’s office, on 13th April, the MP for Ngorongoro brought up the issue of new, already funded public service projects - all of them - being blocked in Ngorongoro division and the money sent to Handeni to where the government want the Maasai to relocate “voluntarily”. One after one, several ministers intervened to say that there are indeed new public service projects in Ngorongoro District (or similar interventions) and Shangai responded with confidence and great patience to their not so innocent ignorance. Those intervening were Innocent Bachungwa, Minister of State in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI), Juma Aweso, Minister of Water and Irrigation, Godwin Mollel, Deputy Minister of Health, and Kundo Methew, Deputy Minister for Communication and Information Technology.

 

There is a long list of public services in water, education and health for which there are funds, but which since last year are being blocked (not given permits) by NCAA. I was mostly in vain asking for examples for my latest blog post, but now there is a list.

photo


On Easter Sunday, two frankly disgusting letters were revealed, one from DED Jumaa Mhina to the headteachers of Endulen, Misigyo, and Essere primary schools, and another one from the same to the Embarway, Nainokanoka, and Ngorongoro Girls secondary schools. These letters, dated 31st March, refer to a letter from the TAMISEMI permanent secretary, Riziki S Shemdoe, ordering Covid-19 funds already in the accounts of the Ngorongoro schools for the construction of classrooms and dormitories to instead be transferred to Handeni District Council! There were instructions with the account number of the Handeni District Council for transferring the money before 5th April.





The lawlessness of the Tanzanian government is apparently without boundaries. Though the good thing with these letters is that it’s unusually strong evidence, unlike when crimes are being committed while the rhetoric is saying the opposite.

 

On 19th April, MP Shangai shared a picture together with the TAMISEMI permanent secretary, as “photo of the day”. Though nothing transpired of what had been said.

 

The dirty war against the Maasai is being fought at all levels. The Controller and Auditor General, Charles Kichere, again, when presenting his report on 19th April, parroted chief conservator Manongi’s anti-Maasai rhetoric about too many people and livestock, permanent infrastructures and motorcycles – yes, motorcycles and not the traffic jams formed by tourist vehicles – while throwing in claims about violation of sections of the NCA Act, totally ignoring the blatant and brutal violation of NCAA’s function, “to safeguard and promote the interests of Masai citizens of the United Republic engaged in cattle ranching and dairy industry within the Conservation Area;” These are issues about which the CAG can’t possible have much knowledge or understanding, and the one-sided copying of the anti-Maasai campaigners is more than obvious.

 

On 24th April, PM Majaliwa was again visiting the hurried construction of houses in Msomera Village in Handeni, while local villagers looked on agape, and nobody knows where the money is coming from, except for what’s openly stolen from Ngorongoro. Deputy Minister Mary Masanja was of course there talking about how dangerous it is to live with wild animals, as if moving to an overpopulated district, infamous for its clashes between pastoralists and cultivators, would be safer. Anti-Maasai people online used to very frequently bring up such clashes, but I haven’t heard them since the Handeni scam was made public, maybe since they’re so enamoured with the idea of moving the Maasai. Masanja also said that the president has provided funds for 400 more houses.

 

There has been some international news coverage of Ngorongoro, often mixing things up with Loliondo, and other misunderstandings. These articles make it sound like evictions are imminent. I hope they are very wrong, even if the government seems determined and united. Perhaps most important is that eight UN Special Rapporteurs wrote to the Tanzanian government, and to the UNESCO World Heritage, IUCN, and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) already in February, about their concern about the threats of evictions and further restrictions against the Maasai of NCA. I didn’t see these letters until the Oakland Institute wrote about them on 11th April. 

 

While the anti-Maasai hate rhetoric has this year been more virulent than ever, the solidarity expressed by Tanzanians from all walks of life, at least online, has also reached levels never previously seen, not even during the most brutal and illegal mass arson operations. Thank you and please keep it up.

 

On 24th-25th April the committee that’s collecting community views about the conflict concerning the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (to hand over to PM Majaliwa) held a press conference to say that they’re finalizing this task. This committee of representatives from Ngorongoro and Loliondo has by some been seen as dancing to the extremely dangerous and manipulative PM’s tune. At the protest meeting in Arash on 19th March it was declared that the report would instead be handed to the president, but in parliament on 13th April the Ngorongoro MP was again mentioning the PM, and so did the committee members at their press conference.

 

The committee’s advice to the government were the following:

1. "We urge the government, through the Prime Minister, to condemn the arbitrary arrests of leaders, including councillors, community members, leaders and human rights defenders who stand up for human rights, as well as to prevent threats against journalists who report information and community views concerning this conflict.”

2. "We urge the government to stop any propaganda against the people of Ngorongoro, especially the Maasai community, and to suspend all ongoing processes to allow for listening to the views of the community in order to provide a peaceful solution to this conflict."

3. "The government should return all development projects and social services that have been blocked in Ngorongoro Division."

 

On 28th April, in the social media app Clubhouse the government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa cried crocodile tears about the Ngorongoro Maasai and wildlife, “crocodile” because all problems are caused by the government itself. Then he said that stakeholders had recommended blocking social services in NCA so that “the problem isn’t increased”. He also said that the removal of the Maasai would be done slowly and educating them about the necessity of doing this. He made it clear that the interest of tourism is to be given precedence.

 

The Minister of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye, on 30th April, in the same social media app, defended the refusal to deliver postcode services to Ngorongoro Division with that it’s for where the government has agreed that there are formal residences, and not where there is conflict. Then he went on to complain about false propaganda about Ngorongoro and blocking of services, asking Tanzanians not to let neighbouring countries stir things up … Nape continued saying that nobody is being prevented from talking to journalists, that there are rules and regulations in Ngorongoro that journalists must follow, and then they will be allowed to do their job, but what’s not acceptable is to engage in activism. He claimed that the government is treating Ngorongoro issues very well, assisting those who want to relocate. Then he said that under the presidency of Samia there is press freedom, but your freedom ends where another person freedom begins.

 

Unfortunately, any Tanzanian minister will say stupid things like this, or worse.

 

On 2nd May, the eve of World Press Freedom Day, Nape forced the Darmpya online news outlet to apologise for not getting the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority’s view before accurately reporting sudden rises in mobile data prices.

 

The Royal Tour film premiered and among the words about the Maasai by President Samia and the reporter Peter Greenberg “primitive tribes” wasn’t the worst (see below for more about The Royal Tour).

 

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

Remember that the Maasai already lost access to over 14,000 km2 when evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, and 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, and in case of conflict the interest of the Maasai would take precedence. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest.

 

Ngorongoro has become Tanzania top source of tourism revenue and many wildlife numbers have increased, with he Maasai living there, in their home.

 

For decades the Maasai have suffered restrictions, more and more purposefully designed to impoverish them and force them out of Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In 1975, after a change in the NCA Act in 1974, they were brutally evicted from residing in Ngorongoro crater and all cultivation was prohibited. The cultivation ban was lifted in 1992, but brought back in 2009, after many “grave concerns” by UNESCO and IUCN. Now not even the smallest kitchen garden is allowed, which together with loss of access to grazing areas has led to malnutrition. They are not allowed to build permanent houses and suffer all kinds of harassment by NCA rangers, that want to restrict motorbikes, building materials, or demanding permits for just anything.

 

In 2017 – by order (not a change in the NCA Act) and after a visit by PM Majaliwa in December 2016 - the Maasai lost access to the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti, and Empakaai, which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards.

 

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) once again visited Ngorongoro in March 2019 and in their report repeated that they wanted the Multiple Land Use Model review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. They did also recommend the State Party to continue to, “promote and encourage voluntary resettlement by communities, consistent with the policies of the Convention and relevant international norms, from within the property to outside by 2028”.

 

In the previous blog post I wrote my reply to UNESCO’s claim that they have never at any time asked for the displacement of the Maasai.

 

In September 2019, chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public a Multiple Land Use Model review report proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. 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, 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. Only 18% of the expanded NCA would remain for people and livestock.


 

Uncountable protest meetings and statements against the MLUM review proposal followed in 2019 and 2020. Several promises were issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to do the exercise afresh in a “participatory” manner, but then the same genocidal proposal kept being brought back.

 

NCA developments since 2021

Shortly after taking office in March 2021, in a speech on 6th April President Samia said that something had to be done about too many people and livestock, or it was “bye, bye Ngorongoro”. Little more than a week later, demolition notices were made public, ordering the demolition within 30 days of over a hundred buildings, private houses, but also those built by the government, like schools, dispensaries, and the Endulen police station. Two churches and a mosque were included. Further, 45 people accused of having returned from Jema to where they were relocated in 2006, were ordered to leave, also within 30 days, and 174 families were listed as “illegal immigrants”. After big protests these demolition and eviction notices were withdrawn until further notice.

 

In May 2021, the NCAA headquarters were abruptly relocated to Karatu. Then, the first days of June, Chief Conservator Manongi and other NCAA representatives held a promotional event on parliament grounds in Dodoma, handing out goodie bags with t-shirts, leaflets, and whatever. On 30th June, deputy minister Mary Masanja flew to Ngorongoro with 35 MPs for domestic tourism.



On 3rd September 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and tourism uploaded a video in which Deputy Minister Mary Masanja complains about having seen livestock, and chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war, that the pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists must “start” developing conspiracies.



On 6th September, under heavy police deployment and with several arrests to prevent any kind of protest, President Samia came to Ngorongoro to film the documentary The Royal Tour. She has still not met with Ngorongoro people.

 

In August and September 2021, NCAA rangers assaulted several young herders and killed four sheep with a vehicle, which led to protests on 23rd September, which lasted for several days. An uprising seemed to be on the way, but then everything was put on hold when MP Olenasha sadly passed away on 27th September.

 

Also in September 2021, the Stefan Oswald, Head of the Africa Department at Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany was having a nice time in Serengeti with deputy minister Mary Masanja and the Germans were – again - giving away millions for sustainable natural resource and ecological sustainability development in the Serengeti ecosystem. Grzimek and Nyerere were “present” in spirit and as cut out figures.


 

On 17th October President Samia held a speech in Arusha talking about how important Ngorongoro is for tourism and that “we” can’t continue considering people’s interests while destroying it. She was accompanied and supported by the imposter Lekisongo from Monduli, who pretended to represent the Ngorongoro Maasai while supporting relocations. Several protest statements were issued by Ngorongoro Maasai against this individual.

 


2022 started with a leaked plan – apparently written on New Year’s Eve - for “voluntary” evictions from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to be fully prepared to begin in February.

 

Then, as mentioned above, on 11th January RC Mongella visited Loliondo and issued a land alienation threat that made even the biggest traitors speak up, but contrary what had been feared, he didn’t make any announcement about NCA.

 

Habib Mchange’s Jamvi la Habari paper, that focuses on fabrications and slander of opposition politicians, initiated a hate campaign against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social media, was joined by crazed sports presenters, Maulid Kitenge and friends, and then the old anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper with Deusdatus Balile and Manyerere Jackton. These “journalists” started an organization with its sole focus on evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro and were treated as serious actors by other media. Though Tanzanians in social media who had earlier not paid much attention to Ngorongoro saw what was going on, were appalled, and started speaking up.

 

On 3rd February, six journalists were detained and harassed after having attended a community rally in Nainokanoka.

 

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 (all Maasai) 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 to its Instagram account some of the worst clips of MPs. 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 13th February, the new anti-Maasai organisation, formed by “journalists”, held a loathsome press conference, adding to their many crazed and dehumanizing “theories” one saying that there were no graves in Ngorongoro, which had earlier been heard in parliament. The Darmpya online news, asked questions, like how come the “allowances” for attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and for what purpose.

 


In NCA many people stopped sleeping and started praying incessantly at combined prayer and protest meetings.

 

On 17th February Majaliwa held a brief agenda-driven meeting at the NCA hall, 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. The local people who were locked out stayed outside the hall singing.

 

On 5th March, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to Ngorongoro, to celebrate tourism, CCM, or supposedly International Women’s Day. Meanwhile Maasai women climbed Mount Makarot to pray for their land.

 


On 10th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai from other areas, without any connection to Ngorongoro, led by the denounced fraudster Lekisongo. The PM was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. All had already left the district years ago and are apparently now looking for compensation money. The following day the PM boasted about this meeting in parliament, and on the 12th real traditional leaders from Ngorongoro held a press conference to denounce the fraud, but journalist didn’t want to cover it after having been advised otherwise by Majaliwa.

 

On 13th March, Majaliwa made a much-publicised visit to Msomera Village in Handeni where houses are hurriedly being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro, without consulting them, and apparently without consulting people from Msomera that’s a legally registered village, with its land use plan (I hope to soon have more information about Msomera, which some people are working at). Majaliwa was to visit Ngorongoro on the 15th, but it was postponed.

 

NCAA informers are reportedly moving around trying to convince people to register to be relocated. Most (all in the first list that was made public) who are doing so have already left and are now looking for compensation money.

 

On 25th March Damas Ndumbaro, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and his ministry reported that the German ambassador supported the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, which has still not been publicly denied by any German representative.

 

On the 31st President Samia replaced Ndumbaro with Pindi Chana who within a few days was off to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo, without meeting with residents.

 

On 3rd April, the NCAA had found some real traitors to show off, unlike the previous imposters from other places than Ngorongoro, even if long-gone people are still looking for a compensation deal. And they are of course not traitors for wanting to relocate, but for lending themselves to the dirty war against their own people. These few, and very dubious, people keep being paraded in media.

 

Some evidence emerged about how blocked funds for social services in Ngorongoro division are being transferred to Handeni and on 13th April the Ngorongoro MP denounced this in parliament.

 

And as mentioned, a committee will hand over community views to PM Majaliwa, as if he would care.

 


Public services as weapon of war

In the previous blog post I wrote about how development projects, often basic social services have always been used as a weapon, but I forgot one way in which it has been done.

 

The projects are always used as a CCM party event, and the president is personally thanked in the most embarrassing way. In Loliondo people have been humiliated and forced to receive social services as charity from the violent anti-land rights investors – OBC and Thomson Safaris – who use it in their propaganda. Because of this, Mondorosi Village was refusing charity from Thomson for years, and the chairman was severely harassed, arrest included, until he “changed”. Similar used to happen earlier in NCA where chief conservator Manongi could compromise anyone with development money. In 2017, Minister Jumanne Maghembe said that German development funds would only be released on condition of turning the 1,500 km2 into a protected area, which led to protests against receiving this money, but then it was revealed that the district council chairman had done so anyway.  After two years of German silence, representatives of the development bank denied any such conditions. The funds, or any other, have still not been used in the 1,500 km2 though. Lately PM Majaliwa has used water projects in other areas of Loliondo as an argument for alienating the 1,500 km2, while pretending not to know that people live there or that it’s essential grazing land.

 

Social services were one of the weapons strategically used to – with 100 % success - bring back opposition councillors to CCM in 2017-2018, including removing planned for projects in opposition wards.

 

Now, as seen, social services 600 kilometres away in Handeni are much trumpeted as a benefit for Ngorongoro Maasai, while the same in Ngorongoro Division is not only being blocked, but the funds are, in some cases openly, redirected to Handeni.

 

Intimidation continues, but Loliondo is not back to silence, I hope

Even if in large part caused by outspoken threats by national leaders – the Arusha RC, PM Majaliwa, and former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Ndumbaro - against the 1,500 km2 that the government so many times have tried to rob the Maasai of, this year has in many ways seen a remarkable change for the better with big protests in January and then again in March. As reported in the previous blog post, on 19th March, the since 2017 painfully disappointing councillor of Arash, who was district council chair 2015-2020, spoke up with great seriousness describing PM Majaliwa as a liar (which is well-known by most Tanzanians) and declaring that the Maasai would never cooperate with anyone who wants to demarcate the 1,500 km2 with beacons, which is what the PM had ordered.

 

On 23rd March Methew Siloma and the councillor of Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, were summoned to the CCM ethics committee at the party’s office in Loliondo, after which the police entered and Siloma was arrested – or abducted – and taken to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service), which TISS do not have a mandate to do. On 25th March, Siloma was released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police. Later Siloma has in social media said that he was locked up, interrogated and threatened in an unknown building, not at the police station.

 

On Easter Eve, 16th April, the councillor of Malambo was arrested and so were the councillors of Piyaya and Maaloni. They were released the following day, but Joel Reson from Malambo was told to report to the police in Arusha, which he did on 22nd April and then he was locked up at Arusha central police station, interrogated, released on bail the following day, and told to continue reporting to the police.

 

The silence achieved by the Loliondo police state continues and there’s a very noticeable difference between how Maasai from Loliondo and NCA are speaking up in social media, but I’m happy to say that the councillors from Arash and Malambo reportedly appear to be in high spirits and even participated online with NCA people, sharing what they were interrogated about (somewhat old school Loliondo police state, but now done in Arusha). All focus was apparently laid on making them stop defending the land and “confess” to having received millions from the Kenyan Senator for Narok County, Ledama Olekina and that this would be the reason that they were speaking up against any plans of turning the 1,500 km2 of vitally important grazing land into a “protected area”.

 

I doubt it’s by chance that the latest article by OBC’s “journalist” Manyerere Jackton had a focus on “Kenyans”, in a re-hash of some of his over 60 articles viciously inciting against the Loliondo Maasai, and that he’s active again with his anti-Loliondo hate campaign after lying low since OBC’s director had a long stay in remand prison accused of “economic sabotage” in 2019.


 

These recent arrests differ from the illegal arrests of 2015-2019 in that CCM councillors are targeted and not so much NGO staff (now silenced, but still two of them have been arrested this year and must keep reporting to the police) or real or assumed activists (they now apparently only exist in NCA). Councillors and village chairs have been targeted before, but not as those worst hit, and have been somewhat protected by the party. Siloma and Reson were lured to the CCM ethical committee. It’s suspected that the recent arrests have been ordered by the Arusha RC, John Mongella, and another change is that those arrested are taken to Arusha for interrogation instead of being held in Loliondo. The recent illegal arrests are not as prolonged as the earlier ones that used to last for over a week.

 

The Loliondo local police state never ends, and after years of almost complete silence following the terror of 2018 when extreme abuse was taking place and not one single leader spoke up, I fear silence and can never assume that it means that nothing is happening. It’s painful to know that anyone can be silenced, and that too many can be compromised. That’s why just a few confident words by those harassed mean so much.

 

Then in an interview with Peter Greenberg of The Royal Tour (see below), published on 30th April, President Samia when asked to define “sustainable tourism” tried to repeat the anti-Loliondo rhetoric, but mixing it up with the Mara River.

 

The Malambo village chairman Moitiko Risanda and the traditional leader Simon Ndare are summoned to Loliondo police station on 6th May.

 

Brief reminder about the efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km2 in Loliondo

Since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km2 Loliondo hunting blocks (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate scandal covered by Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, and agricultural areas, so OBC have lobbied to have it reduced to their core hunting area bordering Serengeti National Park, and to make it a protected area, which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

 

In 2008, then Ngorongoro DC Jowika Kasunga coerced local leaders into signing 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 draft district land use plan that proposed turning the village land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united, and the draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

 

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 ugly 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’s threats.

 

After the unity, efforts 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 signed any MoU.

 

The investors (OBC and Thomson Safaris) had for years used 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 there were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with 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 proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad compromise that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

 

Maybe since the Maasai showed such weakness, 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 loudly. 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 about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.



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, 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.

 

In June 2018, the OCCID and local police 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 – a year after the illegal operation - the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated. In November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun 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 toned 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 after a while back to work, reportedly due to plea bargaining. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Bernard Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

 

In September 2019, 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 was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

 

2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working 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, Arusha RC John 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, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, 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.



On 14th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected, because of the crazy anti-Maasai hate campaign, and parliamentarians calling for tanks to be sent to Ngorongoro.

 

Three days later, on 17th February in NCA, not Loliondo, 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 in an interview with DW Kiswahili, 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, contempt of court, and only serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. Any attempt must be dealt with without delay!

 

On 31st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993. On 27th April when visiting Arusha, Kinana was dress up in a kind of Maasai outfit. This is something that the enemies of the Maasai have been doing since forever, but it appears to have become a trend that’s irresistible to all the worst of the worst.



 

On 6th April, the new minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo.

 

Then as mentioned, CCM councillors that have spoken up against plans of robbing the Maasai of the 1,500 km2 osero are, after a protest meeting in Arash on 19th March being intimidated, arrested, and summoned to be “interrogated” in Arusha. Currently the councillors of Arash and Malambo must keep reporting to the police, and a laigwanani together with the village chairman of Malambo have been summoned to the Loliondo police.

 

The committee has maybe already handed over their compilation of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km2 osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa. I do hope - and expect - that they’ve learnt not to dance to Majaliwa’s tune. In 2017, the results of doing so were catastrophic.

 

The Royal Tour

President Samia travelled to the USA for 10 days for the premier of The Royal Tour, the “documentary” in which reporter Peter Greenberg travels a country with the head of state as his tour guide, and even better -it seems - if this is an authoritarian leader with no regard for human rights. The researcher Alex Dukalskis in his book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship describes President Kagame of Rwanda’s use of The Royal Tour as “authoritarian image management”, recommended by consultants who specialize in this. Who recommended Samia to do the same? How was it funded? Who are the Tanzania Forward Foundation? What has been established is that Tanzania paid for it, allegedly via the private sector, and that Peter Greenberg has the copyright (since he’s used it against at least one Youtube account that uploaded it), but that’s not what this blog is about.



On 28th April, The Royal Tour was shown in Arusha in an exaggeratedly spruced up venue.

 

When the president in September 2021 was to film the part showing Ngorongoro, there was heavy police deployment, and nobody was allowed near, while in other areas, like Moshi and Karatu, Samia addressed the public from atop her vehicle. Three staff members of the NGO Pastoral Women’s Council, together with the ward councillor and special sets councillor of Piyaya, and two people who were being given a lift, were detained until the evening, suspected of having planned to make protest signs out of a flip chart, and then they had present themselves to the police for further investigation.

 

During the president’s US visit some members of the Tanzanian diaspora held a manifestation outside the Tanzanian embassy to demand constitutional reform. This is safe to do in the USA, but still they were very few. One of them was the woman who for years, together with her American husband, was employed by Thomson Safaris as their very aggressive PR person for their neo-colonial land grab, a participant in the local police state, in charge of Thomson’s charitable branch and of compromising councillors. Years after having left Thomson, she appeared in social media as a moderate fence sitter and friend of the most crazed Magufuli supporters. Then she got another account and reinvented herself as a freedom fighter, which is a commendable thing to do. However, she and other participants in the manifestation were wearing t-shirt against Maasai eviction from Ngorongoro, which is taking hypocrisy too far, when she’s still excusing Thomson with that there was conflict since Tanzania Breweries used the land (and then almost two decades later fraudulently got a right of occupancy that they sold to Thomson), and that they would have wanted to switch it for another area, as if there were empty land lying around for a “private nature refuge”. Thomson Safaris worsened the situation a thousand times or more, and copied OBC’s use of the local police state, with even worse repression of their critics.

 

The Maasai, who in Ngorongoro are threatened by cultural genocide by Samia´s government, are shown off in The Royal Tour as a tourist attraction for four minutes. No other tribe or group of people are shown this interest. The president says that the Maasai are the “newest arrivals” in Tanzania, migrating from the “Nile valley” in the 1700s. Greenberg says, “At lower attitude it was fascinating to see this primitive tribes still holding on to their traditional values. But at higher attitude, a different perspective, it was fascinating to see how many villages they were”. “Many” compared to where? Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, or any rural area? The first sentence is to attract tourists, even if most will cringe at exactly that racist sounding choice of word, and the second one to attract support for evictions. The use of the word “primitive” has led to somewhat widespread negative reactions online. Later Greenberg mentions that “it is not uncommon for a Maasai man to have 18-20 children”. Anyone who’s spent some time online encountering discussions about any kind of African issue will have encountered non-Africans whose final argument or response to everything is that “they” have too many children, so we’re doomed. Greenberg says that the government has tried to turn the Maasai into farmers or ranchers, but that they have clinged on to their “ancient ways”. Now they may be forced to change, he adds, without explaining that he’s making a propaganda film about the person who wants to force them, not to change, which they have always done, but to extinguish their culture via mass evictions. President Samia uses the word “genocide” earlier in the film, but then she’s referring to elephants …

 


On 30th April, Greenberg published a radio interview with President Samia. Greenberg mentions “overtourism” and asks the president for her definition of “sustainable tourism”. The only thing she can think of is to try to repeat the anti-Loliondo rhetoric of the worst of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and investors. Samia says that we must come up with strategies to protect the whole ecosystem, so that tourist attractions last for a longer time, and gives the example of Loliondo that’s bordering Serengeti, claiming that Loliondo is close to the Mara River (it’s not) and that we can’t allow the river to dry up, since there will not be the migration and Serengeti will not be the same.

 

Then,

The claim by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, that the German ambassador supports the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, has still not been publicly denied by any German representative.

 

A brightly shining rising defender of Ngorongoro is lost forever.



 

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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