I needed to write a briefer, clearer blog post about the brutal and lawless land demarcation – robbing the Maasai of Loliondo of vitally important grazing land - committed by the entire blood-soaked and illegitimate Tanzanian government, and about the terrible (but not as terrible as reported in parts of the press) and partly inexplicable ruling by the EACJ on the 2017 mass arson. But the horrors just keep accumulating and I’m overwhelmed. State security and surveyors have been to Loliondo to redraw village boundaries and impose land use plans with heavy intimidation, and reportedly corrupted some people. On 1st November it was announced that President Samia Suluhu Hassan on 14th October had declared the 1,500 km2 a fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”. Then the DC and an individual calling himself conservator of the illegal protected area have been threatening with further land theft, outside the 1,500 km2, via WMAs.
Meanwhile, in
Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCAA, NOT to be mixed up with Loliondo), the
restrictions to squeeze out the Maasai keep tightening.
I miss the
days when I was told that they Maasai of today aren’t the Maasai of 1958,
meaning that they are educated, organized, and there’s no need to worry since
they will stop evil government plans. It’s such a long time ago. Help is
needed. People who can target President Samia in ways that will be very acutely
felt, must help stopping the cruel crimes against the Maasai. Open letters
are much appreciated (see below for new ones) but words are just not enough. “Words
are not enough” applies to me as a blogger as well, but I don’t know what to
do.
When I was
about to publish this blog post there was good news that the Director of Public
Prosecution has dropped the obviously bogus “murder case” against 24 people –
including all councillors from affected wards, except one who fled - who have
been locked up in remand prison for over five months. I hope there isn’t a price
for the release, but that hope is getting fainter by the hour.
Meanwhile, pastoralists
all over Tanzania are under attack. Seven villages around Kilimanjaro International
Airport have suffered illegal planting of beacons, in Mbarali there are evictions
and terrible seizure of cattle, evictions and killed pastoralists in Kilombero,
and violence ordered by an anti-pastoralist councillor in Morogoro has led to
one death and several injuries.
I’ll soon
write a briefer blog, hopefully with answers to some of the questions
that remain.
Where is mzee
Oriais Oleng'iyo?
The horror
Fake and
forced land use plans
Dismissed
immigration cases
Bogus murder
case dropped
The old lie
Court cases
and the government’s brutal and wildly shifting lies
Ruthless
hypocrites Thomson Safaris
The not at
all less threatened Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Updates at the end of the blog post.
