Update 30th September: I will as soon as possible finish a blog post about today’s terrible ruling in the East African Court of Justice. The court ruled that the applicants had failed to prove that the mass arson operation in 2017 was carried out on village land and not in Serengeti National Park as claimed by the government witnesses. This ruling, besides a terrible blow, is stupid in many ways.
The Tanzanian
government’s dirty war against the Maasai in Loliondo, despite of significant support
from international organisations for the Maasai, goes on and on, and sanctions,
instead of just words, are needed. The brutal and lawless government – while violating
all laws and human rights, and hardly even pretending to follow any procedure –
is robbing the Maasai of 1,500 km2 of mostly less densely populated
grazing land - all of it legally registered village land - expecting them to
squeeze into the remaining 2,500 km2 of the 4,000 km2 Loliondo
hunting block where there are towns, agricultural areas, forests, a grabbed
“private nature refuge”, and other land occupation, while shamelessly lying
that this means that out of love they are “giving” the Maasai the 2,500 km2.
Government representatives even lie that this operation would be
“participatory” - when ALL councillors (except one who fled) from
affected wards were arrested the day before the illegal demarcation started and
continue locked up on trumped up charges.
Local leaders
that for the past years have shown weakness, and worse than weakness, have with
the new version of the threat against the 1,500km2 this year made it
very publicly clear that giving away this land for a protected area in any form
is not an option.
For years,
this land alienation has been lobbied for by Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC)
that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. Now, after dissenting
views inside the government were killed, and the always present repression of
activism worsened during the Magufuli regime, the government of Samia Suluhu
Hassan has made tourism into state religion, while anti-Maasai hate speech in
the one-party parliament flouting on blood has reached insane levels. Unlike in
the past, the Maasai don’t have any allies at all in the government and less
than a handful in parliament, and there isn’t anyone around to stop a cultural
genocide, other than independent or opposition voices, when voices are not
enough. Flagrantly violating the injunction in the ongoing case in the East African
Court of Justice apparently doesn’t carry any consequences for the Tanzanian government.
The Maasai
have been shot at, teargassed and beaten. Thousands have become refugees across
the border in Kenya and illegal arrests and malicious prosecution are used for
further intimidation. Houses have been demolished or razed. Tanzania Wildlife
Authority (TAWA) rangers keep seizing livestock on village land illegally
demarcated as a protected area and demanding extortionate fines for their
release. The threat is much worse than during the major illegal mass arson
operations in 2009 and 2017. And there are illegal beacons that must be
uprooted.
Where is
Oriais Oleng'iyo? Last seen injured and “accompanied” by security forces on 10th
June.
My delay in publishing
this blog post is unacceptable. So many crimes are being committed, but due to
a worse than ever coordination and lack of leadership getting confirmed information
is very hard. I fear there are many, many horrors that aren’t being reported in
any way. Like to blog post since the illegal demarcation started, updates will be added at the end.
In this blog post:
The illegal,
brutal and lawless land demarcation, and the government’s lies about it
Crimes
committed to uphold and benefit from the illegal protected area
The bogus
murder case
When will the
Germans be driven out of the Serengeti ecosystem?
Thomson
Safaris – as always, OBC’s copycats in using the Loliondo police state
Summary of
previous efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km2 in Loliondo
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| NEVER share this without making clear how illegal it is! |
The
illegal, brutal and lawless land demarcation, and the government’s lies about
it
Remember that on 8th
June 2022, vehicles from the anti-riot Field Force Unit (FFU) had gathered in
Wasso town in Loliondo and set out to set up camp along the 90-kilometre
stretch from north to south in western Loliondo and Sale divisions and in an
area somewhat more to the east, in the extreme south in Malambo ward. They were
accompanied by Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) rangers, soldiers from the
national army (JWTZ) that since 2018 have been stationed near Wasso, local
police, rangers from Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area,
OBC rangers, and non-identified vehicles. The main implementors of the brutal
and lawless operation that would unfold are the FFU and TAWA.
The Maasai gathered in several
places to pray and to determine what action to take. Information surfaced that
on 2nd and 6th June, the Regional and District Security
Committees held closed-door meetings in Arusha and Karatu. In connection with
this, Arusha RC John Mongella filmed a clip “explaining” the operation.
Mongella’s clip was shared all
over regular and social media on the 8th. The message was a rehash
of Khamis Kagasheki’s old lie from 2013 that the whole 4,000km2
hunting block (all of it legally registered village land) was a
“protected area” that had been “encroached” and that the government out of love
for its people was giving the Maasai 2,500km2, when the actual plan is
to fulfil what OBC had been lobbying for – to rob the Maasai of the 1,500km2
of vitally important grazing land. This deeply malicious and shameless lie
was stopped by PM Mizengo Pinda in 2013, when he confessed that the land
without any doubt was village land. Since then, the lie has been repeated by
some individuals, like Jumanne Maghembe in 2017, and Damas Ndumbaro earlier
this year, but on 8th June, the whole government had decided on
using it again to “explain” the massive crimes that were to take place. To pile
one monumental lie upon another, Mongella added that the decision had been
“participatory”! Since he first appeared in Loliondo in January to announce
hard decisions for “the wider interest of the nation” it had been made clear to
him that nobody would participate in such self-annihilation. And the latest
“participatory” interaction was when PM Kassim Majaliwa on 25th May,
was handed “community recommendations” that he had asked for and said that he
would “work on the recommendations”. These recommendations made it very clear
that the land is village land and under no circumstances will the local Maasai
participate in demarcating any “protected area”. Further recommendations
concerned the removal of OBC.
The Maasai continued holding
meetings and prayers on 9th June, and their worst fears were confirmed
when heavily armed FFU officers interrupted the meetings to inform them that
they had come to demarcate a “game reserve” on 1,500km2 of village
land. Pictures and video clips from these meetings, taken from grass level of
the interrupting FFU officers, were shared in social media, and in Kirtalo
women with pangas and men with bows and arrows made a video clip as a message
to show that they were ready to die for their land.
The same day, 9th June, all councillors from wards affected by the planned illegal demarcation – except the Soitsambu councillor who fled the DC’s trap instead of attending - were after a CCM meeting and then interrogation, first by the District Security Committee and then a special task force that had arrived, arrested or more exactly abducted, and held incommunicado until the 16th when they were charged with “murder”. This says a lot about how “participatory” the operation is.
At night the illegal planting
of concrete boundary beacons began. In Ololosokwan, the beacons were uprooted by
the Maasai who stayed around until the morning of the 10th when the
FFU attacked with teargas and live bullets, seriously injuring at least 31
people. They crossed the border into Kenya for treatment and so did many who
were fleeing the violence.
The attacks were unusually
well-documented with many pictures of the injuries, and a clip showing how
teargas was used and bullets fired.
The
approximately 80 years old Oriais Oleng'iyo was
last seen on 10th June with bullet wounds and detained by the FFU. Where
is he? A habeas corpus was filed.
There were reports that a FFU
officer had been killed in the confrontations.
The same day, 10th
June, PM Kassim Majaliwa (known for his glowing reports on Magufuli’s health
when the late president was probably already dead, and for otherwise lying
all the time) claimed that beacons were being placed to protect the
environment and that the local Maasai would “not be affected”. He warned people
of ill will who are spreading a video with false information, referring to the
clip from Kirtalo, saying that the Maasai weren’t pointing their arrows at any
police, that there wasn’t any confrontation, while missing the point that it
was a message sent to himself. Majaliwa further lied that the land that was to
be demarcated was “far from the villages”. Since he was speaking in Swahili,
I’m not sure who he was trying to mislead. The parliamentarians could hardly
have been unfamiliar with the definition of a Tanzanian village, especially a
village in a pastoralist area. I suppose he was planting the lie for everyone
to tell when addressing foreigners concerned about the human rights crime –
lying that the Maasai are just fine squeezed into village centres with their
cattle. Sadly, some outsiders, not least diplomats, seem to enjoy being
told this kind of lie. Speaker Tulia Ackson, said that the government had
explained the operation, that those spreading false information would be dealt with,
and that Tanzania is in an economic war with other countries.
On 11th June, RC
Mongella arrived in Loliondo with the regional security committee to repeat the
shameless lie that stealing 1,500 km2 is giving away 2,500 km2.
He said that the illegal operation was going just fine, while confirming that
one FFU officer was the previous day killed by arrowshot. There has of course
not been any independent investigation, but if that’s how this policeman died,
the unknown archer was defending his home and his land against very dangerous
invaders. Then Mongella posed in photos planting illegal beacons. He was
followed by a row of government officials making statements from the warfront
against the Maasai, repeating the same lies, issuing threats and posing
with illegal beacons.
On 11th June, at
night the FFU fired shots in all directions in Mairowa in Ololosokwan, outside
the area that was being illegally demarcated. Houses were searched and people
were beaten. The hunt was for those who had participated in protests and those
who had shared photos of the government’s violent crimes. Many ran away into
the bush to hide, and many children were lost in the chaos (and later found).
More people fled to Kenya. Some were arrested, accused of having reported and
shared pictures.
The reporting
and sharing of pictures became much scarcer, maybe because of the general
terror, that the hunt was specifically for those sharing pictures, and because
so many people had become refugees in Narok. The illegal
planting of beacons, in clouds of teargas accompanied by live bullets continued
on the 12th , in Ololosokwan and elsewhere. In Malambo Parit Nchorro
Makesen (I’ve only got his name now, after spending over two months asking for
it) was killed when hit by a FFU vehicle. In the Oltulelei area of Maaloni,
people were arrested and beaten, and the FFU set fire to motorbikes. The destruction
of motorbikes has been a constant in earlier illegal operations and has
continued in several locations during this brutal and illegal demarcation. The
FFU opened fire at the market in Oltulelei on 15th June, causing
fear and panic. In Malambo as well were they firing shots into the air, and
they beat up a motorbike rider whom they thought was following them.
On 12th June, at
the funeral of the FFU officer, Ngorongoro DC, Raymond Mwangwala, told media
that those talking online, instigating things that aren't true, will be found
wherever they are. Head of police operations, Liberatus Sabas, declared that
anyone involved in the killing of the police who died from arrowshot will be
hunted down day and night.
On 13th June, MP Emmanuel Oleshangai confirmed that at least 31 people had been seriously injured in the demarcation exercise on village land, and that they are being treated in Kenya after being denied treatment in Tanzania for lacking the required PF3 form. He explained that the injured were his voters and not Kenyans. Further, the MP demanded the release of the detained leaders, and made it clear that the operation is most definitely not "participatory" since even he had not been informed, despite sitting in the same parliament as the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism. The following day, he was summoned to the police, questioned and released.
In Loliondo on 13th
June, Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro (now ambassador to Zimbabwe) made his contribution to the
illegal demarcation, accompanied by RC Mongella. Sirro too said that the
demarcation operation was going just fine, but there are some people,
politicians included, who are stirring things up, using the Maasai for their
own benefit.
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| Sirro with illegal beacon. |
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| Sirro with land demarcation workers. |
On 15th June, the
Minister of Home Affairs, Hamad Masauni, arrived in military helicopter to make
a statement directing Immigration to strengthen border security to prevent
illegal entry by foreigners and so avoid incitement activities. He also ordered
NGOs to be investigated to make sure they operate within the law and don’t
engage in breach of peace.
Immigration Commissioner for
Border Control and Administration, Samwel Mahirane, arrived in Loliondo on 18th
June to, like all government officials, pose with beacons, and threaten people
who are sabotaging the exercise and have fled. He said they are known and will
all be dealt with. Then he threw in some threats against NGOs.
Also on 15th June,
Deputy Permanent Representative to the Tanzania Mission to the UN in Geneva,
Hoyce Temu, in a widely shared clip, denied any state violence, repeating the
government lie about a “protected area” that had been “encroached” and about “peaceful
talks” with local residents that agreed with the government “keeping” 1,500 km2 as a protected area, that
a minority against the exercise made recordings while posing threateningly and
combined this with unrelated pictures, that the government has called on anyone
alleging to have been attacked to come forward for the law to take its course
and for treatment, but that nobody has come forward. The ambassador will
block absolutely everyone who in social media confronts her about her hideous
lies and involvement in this crime.
Kenyan Maasai held solidarity
demonstrations in Nairobi and Namanga.
On 17th June, the
Tanzanian government organized its own demonstration using supposed Maasai
without any relation to Loliondo, or Ngorongoro, to demonstrate outside the
Kenyan high commission in Dar es Salaam
thanking the government for dividing Loliondo so that the Maasai have a place
to live(!), and accusing Kenyans and NGOs of inciting conflict. Later it was
found that people had been told that 150 Maasai were needed to go and sing for
some white people at Dar Free Market Mall and would get 20,000 shillings each.
Some Parakuyo Maasai gathered, but most fled when they saw what was being
cooked. Authentic Maasai youths in Dar es Salaam issued a statement to denounce
the fake demonstration, which was not covered by any of the regular press.
As mentioned before, Deputy
Minister Mary Masanja, Minister of Constitution and Legal Affairs Damas Ndumbaro,
Director of Wildlife, Maurus Msuha, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Liberata Mulamula
on 21st June, stood in front of spineless diplomats telling their
blood-soaked, easy to debunk, lies about Loliondo, and about Ngorongoro
Conservation Area. In a clip shared by the Tanzanian government, Ndumbaro
totally manipulates the diplomats (not shown but heard) making them stand up in
silence for the slain FFU officer, clap, and giggle. He lectures them that
there aren’t any indigenous people in Tanzania, that nobody owns land, and that
human rights aren’t the same in Africa as in Europe, since there are “human and
people’s rights”, which would logically mean more rights, but to Ndumbaro it
justifies human rights crimes. He talks about a conflict between environmental
interests and grazing, when it’s obvious that if had the Maasai used their land
in some other way, less compatible with wildlife, they would not now be
suffering all this abuse. Ndumbaro shamelessly directs himself to the British
high commissioner, thanking the British for having made Loliondo into a
protected area that lasts until today – which is the big lie – and the
diplomats just laugh and clap. Though maybe this time they had asked not to
feature in photos, to avoid situations like in March, when the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Tourism declared that the German ambassador supported
their “efforts” in Ngorongoro (still not publicly denied by the ambassador).
The ministry did however show off the UAE ambassador, and the following day the
French ambassador lent himself to a most deplorable spectacle (see below).
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Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mary Masanja, Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Damas Ndumbaro and UAE ambassador Khalifa Abdul Rahman
Al Marzouqi |
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| Masanja explained how OBC win the auction for the hunting block every year. |
In a Zoom meeting on 22nd
June, in which government representatives kept repeating the same lies,
Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana, claimed to on 17th
June having gazetted the 1,500 km2 into a “Pololeti Game Controlled
Area” – after a week of war against the Maasai, with local leaders illegally
arrested, charged with murder for a death the day after they were
arrested, and others in hiding. Until then, the government had been talking
about a Game Reserve, but finally decided to create a GCA on another GCA, since
their lie is that Loliondo Game Controlled Area still exists and is a
protected area. The French ambassador participated making some pointless
comments about France. Not sure what he thought he was doing.
In parliament, MP Emmanuel
Oleshangai made it clear that land in Loliondo is village land, that when we
talk about land we talk about people’s lives, and that what's being done in
Loliondo is a land grab that no person or village government has agreed to. He
rejected several interventions by maliciously ignorant parliamentarians. I
don’t know how the MP can keep calm and smiling in a house so full of evil.
"I know there are people laughing here, but I am talking about the
lives of my people, my grandparents, my fathers, my brothers and my younger
siblings. It is their land”, he said.
Commissioner General of
Immigration, Anna Makakala, arrived in Loliondo to add her statement from the
warfront against the Maasai, announcing that there would be 10 days of flushing
out illegal immigrants.
In Malambo the invading
security forces were counting the bomas found inside their illegal demarcation.
On 23rd June, PM
Majaliwa arrived in Loliondo in military helicopter to celebrate the success in
the dirty war against the Maasai, with a big delegation including the Arusha RC,
Ngorongoro DC and DED, Minister Chana, Immigration Commissioner Makakala,
Awesso, Minister of Waters, and other criminals. It was a military celebration,
with the attendants clapping to the songs of stupidly crawling soldiers.
Majaliwa and the other attendants continued telling their lies and the PM
thanked the useless Tanzanian press for their assistance. He stressed that the protection of the illegally
demarcated protected area would continue.
Crimes
committed to uphold and benefit from the illegal protected area
Then followed displacement,
illegal demolishment of houses, illegal seizure of cattle with heavy extortion,
further mass arrests, a road was cleared along the illegal demarcation, and there
was sickening violence.
Around 24th June, a
video called “Serengeti and Ngorongoro shall never die: the truth about the
Loliondo situation” (paraphrasing Bernhard Grzimek) was shared, with a
plead to international conservation organisations to support the Tanzanian
government’s war against the Maasai. It claims that the survival of the
Serengeti ecosystem is at stake, describes any talk about forced evictions as
lies, repeats the monumental lie about the status of the land, and boasts about
that Tanzania has allocated 32% of its area for conservation. It must feel
unfair to the government that the organisations and conservation researchers that
have created the ideology and the promises of tourism revenue that inevitably
lead to violence then refuse to express any public support for this violence.
They haven’t got any public support at all from outside Tanzania, not even from
their most natural allies, except for from an insignificant South African
reporter working for the trophy hunting industry, and less publicly, but very
dangerously, from Germany. Inside Tanzania, on the other hand, government
supporters apparently love this dirty war.
On 25th July an
open letter from law professor Issa Shivji to Samia Suluhu Hassan was
published, setting the record straight about the frequent claim – in parliament
and elsewhere – that all land in Tanzania would belong to the public, to the
government, or even to the president (as once claimed by Ndumbaro – Minister of
Constitutional and Legal Affairs … - in parliament). Further, Shivji explained
that, “the inhabitants of Ngorongoro and Loliondo, especially pastoral
communities, cannot be evicted from their land without adhering to legal
procedures and for a specific reason which ought to be publicly known and
discussed”. There are no signs at all that the president was listening.
On 24th June,
reportedly (I haven’t heard from anyone who was there, and the criminals
haven’t written anything) village and ward executive officers were instructed
to tell people to leave the illegally demarcated area within 24 hours, or their
livestock would be confiscated. In the evening, there were pictures, video
clips, and reports from Sanjan in Malambo ward of how the Maasai, under
fear and panic, were loading their belongings on donkeys. Then came reports
that the same was happening in Arash, Oltulelei in Oloirien, and everywhere.
Shots were being fired and people were being beaten, reportedly by both the FFU
and soldiers from the national army.
For days, refugees from Sanjan
were moving to an area called Olepombo, and to Musurmuny, that's supposed to be
for young and sick livestock. They put up makeshift shelters and were in need
of everything, including food and water, even if good Samaritans offered some
assistance. Some people have continued on the move, with their donkeys, looking
for somewhere to live.
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Besides the two areas mentioned,
cattle from Malambo have been moved to Olbalbal in NCA. Many have been
illegally seized on village land that’s been “declared” a fake and illegal protected
area and the owners have been forced to pay the same extortionate “fines” as
for cattle seized in Serengeti National Park to TAWA, that’s working as a mafia.
The ransom fee is 100,000 TShs per cow and 25,000 TShs per sheep or goat.
Hungry cows have returned to known areas on what’s to everyone, except the
brutal and lawless government, legal village land. TAWA have been particularly
active in cattle extortion in the Ndinyika sub-village. Some TAWA invoices for
the extortion of cattle owners from Malambo have been publicly shared.
There has been widespread illegal demolishment of houses – both traditional and modern (that need more machinery) - in Malambo, by local police and TAWA, which has only been partially reported.
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| On Tuesday 5th July, the home of 71-year-old pastor and nursery school teacher William Risando, was demolished in Sanjan, Malambo. |
At least seven people from Serng'etuny sub-village in Piyaya and ten from Ndinyika, Malambo were on 29th June, arrested and taken to Loliondo police station. Those in Piyaya were reportedly arrested in connection with uprooting beacons.
Thousands of Maasai from
Loliondo live as refugees in Narok County in Kenya, assisted by private
Kenyans, churches and organisations, but not so much Kenyan authorities. UNHCR
from Geneva on 27th June visited the refugees from Loliondo who have
fled to Kenya in Olpusimoru, Naikarra and other areas where the families are
hosted. They stayed for three days and saw the wounded and the County
Commissioner in Narok. Reportedly, the UNHCR handed over a report to the Kenyan
government, which was forgotten in the election frenzy, but the work from the
Kenyan side will now be taken up again, I hope.
In Ololosokwan the
security forces were saying that they would never leave and threatening to
revenge the death of the FFU officer by killing 15 people. Many livestock have
been moved across the border to Kenya and others are held in village centre
areas. Hundreds of livestock have been illegally seized by TAWA with their
extortion that’s the same as demanding ransom fees. The night to 2nd
July, 30 people were arrested in Njoroi and 11 in Oloika sub-village, in
Ololosokwan ward. They were accused of being "Kenyan”. Houses have been
demolished by the security forces in Engong'u in Ololosokwan. On 6th
August, 130 cows belonging to the Oloinyo family were seized by TAWA at
Eng'ongu and held at Klein's gate. The extortionate and illegal fines were paid
on the 9th and the cows released. On 26th August, cattle belonging
to Cosmas Leitura and Elisha Sananka were seized in Ololosokwan.
Early on, ten people were
apparently randomly arrested, then seven more from different areas, and after
having been interrogated, tortured, and starved about spreading pictures, they
were added to the bogus murder charges.
In Olosirwa sub-village of Kirtalo
six people were arrested on 6th July, including a primary school
teacher when police in four vehicles invaded the school. On 25th July
over 700 cattle were illegally seized by TAWA on village land in the Leken area
of Kirtalo, and the owners had to pay the very heavy ransom fees to get them
back.
I got a compilation of those arrested
– and charged - by Immigration: 40 people from Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Mondorosi
and Njoroi and 21 people from Enguserosambu, Naan, Ilutulele, Ng’arwa and
Orkiu, with different charges. All of them are Tanzanian. This doesn’t include
those arrested in Arash, Malambo, and Piyaya.
Most shockingly, in Ormanie, Arash
ward, on 27th June, donkeys, calves, and other livestock belonging
to Parkimalo Lupa were shot by the security forces when on the way to
the river. Children accompanying the livestock were severely beaten by the
security forces.
In the afternoon of 2nd
July, the security forces started burning seasonal bomas (ronjos) in the
Oldoinyo Orok area of Arash. They had caught and tortured a young herder,
forcing him to show them the location. Six ronjos were burned to the ground. At
least four more ronjos were burned in the nearby Sindin area. Then an unknown
number of permanent bomas have been burned in Ormanie, among them the boma of mzee
Oltinayio that was first immortalized in a picture with an illegal beacon.
On 4th July, the
security forces seized cows and sheep from over five bomas in Ildupa
sub-village of Ormanie, and drove them to Engutoto sub-village in Arash. They
went on to extort 100,000 TShs per cow and 25,000 per sheep from the owners. On
7th July, according to an eyewitness, in the evening, four vehicles
arrived in Arash and took two youths who were wearing clothes with the Kenyan
flag. The youths were all from Arash. Reportedly people were detained in Piyaya
as well. On 15th August several herds of livestock were illegally
seized by TAWA in Olembuya, Arash, and kept at Eng'oswa. I suppose the
extortion fees were paid, but I still haven’t got proper updates.
On 18th August,
there were reports that almost 3,000 sheep and 200 cows had been seized by TAWA
in Piyaya.
While all councillors from
affected wards, except one who’s gone into hiding, in Loliondo and Sale, two
special seats councillors, and the district CCM chairman were locked up on
bogus murder charges, Mohammed “Marekani” Bayo, OBC’s community liaison officer
for many years, was on 5th July - as the sole candidate, instead of
the usual three - “unanimously elected” as district council chairman.
The Tanzanian government again
brought an imposter, as they like to do even when traitors can sadly be
found, or bought, in Loliondo. In the press on the 12th and on 13th
July in a video clip Amani ole Silonga Torongei was posing as a traditional
leader from Ololosokwan saying that the leaders were agreeing with the illegal
demarcation process. This individual is from Monduli and has no connection to
Ololoskwan, or Loliondo at all. He’s even a somewhat well-known character who
was Monduli chairman of CHADEMA, but defected to CCM. He’s also a preacher.
Sadly, two real traitors were standing next to the imposter – Boni Masago and
Mungasio Ketuta. Masago is known as unethical, but Ketuta is reportedly a
mystery. The chairman of Ololosokwan, John Pyando, on 15th July,
read a statement setting the record straight and giving the imposter, Amani ole
Silonga Torongei, five days to apologize. Though this shameless individual
treats it all as big joke, doesn’t mind being a known imposter, and keeps
parroting government lies, while sharing bible citations.
It was announced everywhere in social media that on 15th July in Geneva, Ndumbaro – who as Minister of
Constitutional and Legal Affairs has been just as involved in this crime as
when he was Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism - held talks with Michelle Bachelet, outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “to
exchange ideas on human rights issues, including clarifying allegations about
the Loliondo GCA and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.” Further, the
message from the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs was that
Bachelet, "thanked and congratulated the way in which the United
Republic of Tanzania implements human rights issues under the Government of
Samia Suluhu Hassan."
The Kenyan pastor and radio
presenter Julius Kuyioni was detained on 7th July when entering
Loliondo for a "crusade" and on a missionary visa, was taken to
Arusha and illegally detained without charges until 5th August when
the police apparently had got tired of this bogus case and handed it over to
Immigration. Reportedly, Kuyioni was for almost a month accused – without any
evidence or charges – of “espionage”. Finally, Kuyioni paid a fine for having
entered on the wrong kind of visa – even when he had exactly the right kind,
like on many previous occasions when preaching in Tanzania.
There were reports that on 6th August, a
convoy of the Arusha RC, TAWA, NCAA and deputy minister Mary Masanja were in
Loliondo to hand over the management of the fake and illegal protected area to the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. Though I
haven’t heard from any eyewitness and nothing at all has been mentioned online
by the MNRT or NCAA, so it just can’t be verified. This plan for
the 1,500 km2 Osero was part of the genocidal Multiple Land Use
Model review report that was presented by NCA chief conservator Manongi in
September 2019.
On 19th August, at
a function sending off “voluntary” families from NCA to Msomera in Handeni
(another huge and terrifying issue that I must get back to writing about) Majaliwa
spoke mockingly about Loliondo saying that the 2,500km2 (with towns,
agricultural areas, and an American land grabber) are enough for the Maasai,
but not for livestock from other areas. As he was saying this, Tanzanian
Maasai and Tanzanian livestock are in exile in Kenya, depending on the
solidarity of Kenyans, while TAWA keep illegally seizing Tanzanian livestock on
the 1,500 km2 of legally registered village land.
OBC’s camp has been set up for
guests, and planes from the UAE Air Force have landed in Loliondo, but Sheikh
Mohammed, or his crown prince, have reportedly not been sighted. Instead, they
have gone hunting grouse in Yorkshire in England.
As mentioned, on 9th
June, the day before the illegal demarcation started, the councillors of
Ololosokwan, Oloipiri, Oloirien, Maaloni, Arash, Piyaya, Malambo, and two
women’s special seats councillors, Kijoolu Kakiya and Taleng’o Leshoko were
arrested, as was the district CCM chairman, Ndirango Laizer. After a CCM
meeting they were interrogated by the District Security Committee, and then a
special task force arrived to interrogate them individually. The Soitsambu
councillor escaped the DC’s trap, avoided attending the meeting, and is now
hiding somewhere. At midnight the leaders were put in a vehicle and driven to
an unknown destination that upon arrival was identified as a smaller police
station in Arusha town, Chekereni, where they were interrogated regarding
sedition - and not murder.
Nothing was known of the
whereabouts of those illegally arrested/abducted until 16th June
when they were sneaked to court without any legal representation and then
locked up in Kisongo remand prison. The following day it was revealed that they,
and ten other arrested people from Loliondo, had been charged with murder
contrary to Section 196 of the Penal Code [Cap 16 R:E 2019] in the preliminary
inquiry case No 11 of 2022. The murder concerned a FFU officer who was killed
the day after the local leaders were arrested. Later seventeen more
people were added to the charges. The second group of ten were arrested on the
10th, not allowed to contact anyone and held for four days without
being fed. They were tortured and accused of reporting about violence in
Loliondo, interrogated on suspicion of spreading false information, but later
they were told a murder charge had been found and they were re-interrogated for
murder. The case was up for mention in court on 30th June, but then
it was postponed to 14th July for further “investigation”. One new
charge was added: “conspiracy to murder”. Hearings were postponed to the 28th
when charges against three of the 27 accused of murder and conspiracy to murder
were dropped. Lekerenga Koyee, who's elderly and sick, Simel Parmwat who's a
young student, and Fred Ledidi who's district natural resources officer and a
PhD student. On 5th August, the court overruled a submission by the
defence of separating murder and conspiracy charges, and the hearings were
postponed to 17th August, when MP Oleshangai attended court, and
there was a postponement to 30th August, when it was postponed to 13th
September ...
It’s obvious that nobody
believes that those accused have been involved in any murder. Dropping charges
for sick people or students clearly show that it’s all about negotiations
around political prisoners.
Those arrested are obviously political
prisoners, but it’s possible to keep two (or more) thoughts at the same time,
and this doesn’t mean that the political leaders among them would be angels. They
all belong to the ruling CCM party and came into power through the shambolic,
blood soaked 2020 “elections”. None of them have spoken up about the killing of
Salula Ngorisiolo. Even worse, at least two of them were for years on the side
of OBC against the people. Still, they have certainly not been involved in any
murder, and nobody, not even those claiming to be investigating it, believe it.
This year, most of them have clearly spoken up against any land grabbing plans
by the government. Those accused who aren’t political leaders seem to have been
unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This bogus case serves to
increase terror, silencing activists, and divert attention from illegal
demarcation, extortion and violence.
Next hearing is on 13th
September.
When
will the Germans be driven out of the Serengeti ecosystem?
Germany has for many decades
been offering steady support for the Tanzanian government’s efforts to deprive
the Maasai of the Serengeti ecosystem of their land, and the Germans are not
taking any step back now when the threat has worsened considerably. Reporting
from a meeting with diplomats on 25th March, the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism, wrote that the German ambassador Regina Hess, supported
the government’s “efforts” in Ngorongoro – while in NCA this involves a
well-orchestrated scheme to strangle the Maasai in every aspect to enforce a relocation
agenda.
Still, this support has not
been publicly denied in any way by the ambassador who – after the illegal demarcation
of the 1,500 km2 was launched - has gone on meeting and smiling with
some of the main responsible for the crimes in Loliondo, like RC Mongella, to
talk about the “cooperation” between the two countries, and the Germans keep
showering the brutal and lawless Tanzanian government with money. Now in August
2022, Bärbel Kofler German Deputy Minister of Economic Cooperation and
Development visited Tanzania for more of the same.
In March 2017, former minister
Maghembe and Serengeti chief park warden Mwakilema (current head of TANAPA)
told a parliamentary committee (and very much the press) that German funds would
only be released on condition of turning the 1,500 km2 into a
protected area, which wasn’t denied by the Germans until two years later by representatives
of the development bank in an interview with Chris Lang. Then, while Loliondo
was attacked by mass arson implemented by Serengeti rangers in August 2017, a
most revolting picture was published of Hess’s predecessor Detlef Wächter
smilingly handing over buildings for park staff in Fort Ikoma, in Serengeti
National Park, to an equally smiling Minister Maghembe, while commenting on the
long and successful partnership between Germany and Tanzania in protecting the
Serengeti.
 |
| From the article that was published in the Daily News on 9th March 2017 and in the Dunia Leo (and other articles in Swahili). No longer online, but fortunately I had saved one. |
After the 2017 illegal mass
arson operation, the MP and the district council chairman were saying that
there wasn’t any risk at all with accepting German funds, since they were meant
for the whole of Loliondo and Sale, not excluding the 1,500km2, but there
haven’t been any projects at all in the now illegally demarcated area, while
water projects outside it have been heavily used in government rhetoric for
land alienation.
German funded development
projects in the Serengeti ecosystem are implemented by Frankfurt Zoological
Society (FZS) and TANAPA through the Serengeti Ecosystem Development and
Conservation Project (SEDCP). TAWA is supported by German funds and advice. However,
this time even FZS, that never has said anything about violence for
conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem, seriously rattled by Survival
International, has expressed shock about the violence in Loliondo and distanced
itself from any involvement in the land demarcation, but still claiming that
the land status would be “uncertain”.
Through the decades, FZS, the
Tanzanian government, and OBC share the same narrative about the Maasai. In
October 2021, the two countries signed agreements that include 20 million Euros
to help Tanzania’s protected areas keep threats at bay and build back better
and more resilient following the COVID-19 pandemic. “After that, the
Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), the Tanzania Wildlife Management
Authority (TAWA) and the Frankfurt Zoological Society can begin implementing
the funds, for the benefit of people and protected areas.”, FZS reported. TAWA
is very much involved in the brutal land demarcation and is, now like a mafia, extorting
herders in the illegally demarcated area.
 |
Stefan Oswald, Head of the Africa Department at Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and notorious Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, Serengeti, September 2021.
Thomson
Safaris – as always, OBC’s copycats in using the Loliondo police state
The American Thomson Safaris,
owned by Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland, have again copied OBC’s use of the
Loliondo police state - now planting their own beacons. This safari company 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 first-hand
how this local police state work for Thomson, and so have I. Maybe OBC have been learning from Thomson as well.
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. Then this case has continued in the court of appeal. Since
around 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.
As mentioned in earlier posts,
in 2021 the new DED Jumaa 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 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.
On 3rd July there
were reports that Thomson and the Loliondo police (working for them as usual)
were chasing away livestock, seven vehicles were going from boma to boma and a
church service was invaded. Five people, a pastor included, were arrested and
later released.
On 27th July, Thomson
Safaris had started planting their own beacon, working with DED Mhina,
reportedly with strong support from the Arusha RC.
Summary
of previous efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km2 in Loliondo
Since 1993 (first contract
signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, owned by Mohammed Abdul Rahim Al
Ali, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km2
Loliondo hunting block (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate
scandal covered by the reporter Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two
towns, district headquarters, agricultural areas, and Thomson Safaris’ land
grab, 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. 7-year old Nashipai Gume was lost in the chaos and never found, ever since.
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.
 |
| This picture is from the protests against Gambo's committee in March 2017. It NOT from now and it wouldn't be possible to take this kind of picture during an illegal operation. |
In
March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself
to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince), and in April the same year, 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. 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 was 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. The case against Thomson Safaris in the Tanzanian court of appeal,
however, was in 2022 killed using a law that was introduced after the case was
filed.
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. 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.
At a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19th
March, several leaders spoke up in defence of the land, among them the Arash
ward councillor Methew Siloma spoke up very clearly and strongly. The message
from this meeting was:
-PM
Majaliwa is a liar.
-The
Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.
-They
request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.
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.
CCM
councillors that had spoken up against plans of robbing the Maasai of the 1,500
km2 osero were being intimidated, arrested, and summoned to be
“interrogated” in Arusha. The councillors of Arash and Malambo had to keep
reporting to the police.
On
25th May a committee handed over their reports of “community views”
on both NCA and the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa who
said that he’s work on the recommendations.
On
3rd June, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana in
her budget speech announced that her ministry expected to upgrade Loliondo to a
Game Reserve, but she did this while listing huge areas of Tanzania for the
same expectation, which didn’t make it sound believable or realistic in any
way, and there was hardly any reaction, except for an intervention by Ngorongoro
MP Emmanuel Oleshangai.
Now the illegal beacons must be uprooted, houses rebuilt, extortion money for illegally seized livestock returned, political prisoners released, refugees guaranteed safety to return, Oriais Oleng'iyo brought back to his family, and every single person involved in the illegal demarcation and massive human rights crimes must be punished! This may require several legal battles and heavy sanctions against the Tanzanian government.
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
Updates:
There are reports that in Ololosokwan the criminals have extended the illegal demarcation by digging a road 500 metres further into village land.
6th September
Jestas Nyamanga, Ambassador of Tanzania to
Belgium, Luxembourg and the European
Union parroted the Tanzanian government’s terrible lies about Loliondo and
Ngorongoro to EU parliamentarians. Fortunately, Joseph Oleshangay and representatives
from Survival International attended digitally. The ambassador was stupid
enough to claim that nobody had liv in Loliondo since before colonialism …
9th September
On 19th September in the Alayenai area,
NCAA rangers attacked Nakedo Simango, Laambaashini Orkitok, Lebatiri Kimaay, two
Barabaig who were going to buy livestock in Nainokanoka and one other person. Laambaashini
Orkitok was injured by the rangers. It’s reported that the rangers asked their
victims if they had registered to relocate to Handeni. Lebatiri Kimaay was
ordered to crawl on his stomach and jump like a frog.
There are also reports that last week seasonal homes (ironjooi) were arsoned in the Orbo area.
25th September
Mwanzo TV aired the first of a series of documentaries. The first one covering the violence in Loliondo on 10th June. https://youtu.be/UMM2cGvPWHQ
26th September
Further reports that TAWA are leaving and that the illegally demarcated land will be placed under NCAA. Though there isn't any official information about this at all.
27th September
The bogus murder case was again postponed ... Now to 11th October.
28th September
At the inauguration of the NCAA board, Pindi Chana announced that the illegally demarcated 1,500km2 had been placed under the management of the NCAA.
She also stressed how important it is to boost tourism traffic to 5 million by 2025.
30th September
After two inexplicable postponements, the East African Court of Justice delivered its ruling.
I will as soon as
possible finish a blog post about this terrible ruling. The court ruled that the applicants had failed to prove that
the mass arson operation in 2017 was carried out on village land and not in
Serengeti National Park as claimed by the government witnesses. Besides a terrible blow, the ruling is stupid in many ways.
2 comments:
May God protect you and give you strength to fight for justice of your fellow human who are oppressed in the darkness.
Thank you!
Thank you, anonymous.
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