The Worst Year Ever in Loliondo is Ending Without any Hope on the Horizon

 

This year has been the worst year ever. With extreme brutality, breaking every law, the Tanzanian government has turned 1,500 km² of important grazing land, legally registered village land in Loliondo and Sale divisions of Ngorongoro district, into a fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”.

 

This is not just a violent operation that took place in June – when mzee Oriais Oleng'iyo was last seen wounded by bullets and held by security forces. It is an ongoing brutal crime that continues, in a most deadly way, until the illegal boundary beacons are uprooted and the lawless Government Notice No.604, issued by the president, thrown into the waste bin.

 

The land has been stolen, the grass has been stolen, livestock keep being stolen and ransom fees demanded, everybody’s mental health is stolen, all leaders – they had some moments of usefulness early this year - have become useless cowards through terror. This terror has been caused by the locking up of all councillors from affected wards on bogus murder charges for over five months, reporting has almost stopped through confiscation of smartphones, arrests, and additions to the murder charges.

 

This crime is significantly worse than the illegal evictions with mass arson in 2009 and 2017. Those attacks had a start and an end when the Maasai could rebuild, while the current brutality goes on and on.

 

In Ngorongoro Conservation Area, not to be confused with Loliondo, restrictions have worsened and hate propaganda in the press and in parliament have gone mouth-frothingly insane in this year. It looked like it was there that the government’s violence would explode, but instead, it did in Loliondo.

 

However, it is not only Ngorongoro district. Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government is waging a war against pastoralists all over Tanzania. The repression and lawlessness of the Magufuli era have been kept while a crazy tourist cult has become state religion. A cheesy travel show is the gospel and there is a promise of 5 million tourists by 2025. Tanzania is a perfect candidate for a total tourism boycott. 

Let's hope that we will meet 2024 without these two, at least not in their capacity as head of state/emirate.

In this blog post:

The government’s continued war against land and livestock

The dropped bogus murder case

Fake and forced land use plans

The war against livestock

The chief criminal Samia and her German donors

Thomson Safaris

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Court cases

Brief Loliondo hunting block background

Briefly about 2022 threats leading up to the brutal illegal demarcation

Briefly about the brutal and illegal demarcation of a fake game reserve

 

The government’s continued war against land and livestock

The dropped bogus murder case

As mentioned in the previous (now old) blog post, on 22^nd November seven councillors of wards affected by the brutal and illegal land theft, two special seat councillors and the CCM district chairman, were released from over five months in remand prison on “murder” charges. They were then driven directly to an internal CCM ruling party election to vote for confidantes of the appointed main enforcer of the massive human rights crimes, who with all probability ordered their illegal arrests, Arusha Regional Commissioner (RC) John Mongella. Since, none of the councillors, who early this year vocally opposed the increased land alienation threat, have said one word about the unbelievably cruel crimes that have been committed during their imprisonment, and continue being committed. This very much adds to the sense of hopelessness. In the past I avoided party politics in this blog, but the CCM ruling party is like a terrible sect destroying everything, not least everyone’s mental health. In Tanzania, the death penalty is the mandatory sentence for murder. People keep being sentenced and put on death row, but no executions have been carried out since 1995. Still “murder” charges were found to be a suitable “joke”.

 

I have heard from one of the apparently very random people who were arrested for spreading information and then added to the councillors’ bogus murder charges and locked up for over five months. I had earlier not had any communication at all with this person who says that those charged, while tortured were questioned about how I was helping them. His impression seemed to be that I’m hardly helping anything at all. The torture was not only committed at Loliondo police station, which isn’t surprising to anyone, but also at Kisongo remand prison.

 

This malicious imprisonment was solely committed to kill all the spirit of resistance. It’s more than obvious that nobody made any kind of attempt at prosecuting those charged. The councillors were charged with the “murder” of a policeman who was killed the day after they were abducted when lured to a meeting by District Commissioner (DC) Raymond Mwangwala. At each court mention, the prosecution asked for and was given more time for “investigation”, until the Director of Public Prosecution decided to drop the charges, supposedly after the evil mission had been accomplished.

 

Now, there are not any alternative suspects for the supposed murder of Cpl. Garlus Mwita. He was buried, but we only have RC Mongella’s word for what happened. Before the casket was transported home, there was a requiem mass in Loliondo, which Mongella used to stir up more support for the brutal land theft. He did that while swearing that those who killed the policeman with poison-arrowshot (as if that could be done by more than one person) would be hunted down, and Mwangwala with much emotion threatened anyone sharing information online. If the cause indeed was arrowshot, it was obviously self-defence and not murder. Anyway, Garlus Mwita’s life was not important enough for authorities to engage in any kind of real investigation, and if you are 36 years old, your profession is anti-riot, and you are sent with hundreds of colleagues to Loliondo for land demarcation, you know that you are sent to commit a crime.

 

The day that the charges were dropped, in the courtroom there were all kinds of leaders who had earlier not shown any support. There was a deal, and it keeps looking more and more horrible.

 

Fake and forced land use plans

As reported in the previous blog post, when everyone has been beaten into silence, the government moved forward to impose fake land use plans on the villages, often using imposed and compromised acting chairmen, but it is very difficult to ascertain if there is any kind of meaningful resistance at all. There is a mix-up between “solving” land conflict between villages in Ngorongoro district (one may wonder why it has not been done long ago if it is so easy) and the most dangerous threat of further land alienations via the imposition of Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). Any kind of new land use plans in the villages that have lost massive land to the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”, a crime contested by several court cases, is of course not legal.

 

One example is Ololosokwan where signs have been put up re-zone areas, outside the brutal and illegal demarcation, for tourism and grazing only. Altough “grazing” seems to have been added to the signs a later point and is a trick used against pastoralists. Once the land is for tourism and grazing only, authorities will say that it is “empty” and steal it for a protected area.

 

Salangat Mako is a small-scale commercial cultivator of vegetables and fruits for years, appreciated by almost everyone, and a “hustler” in the East African meaning of the word. He was summoned to the Ngorongoro Officer Commanding District (OCD) in Loliondo town where he was arrested and charged with:

-Agitating against the land use plan.

-Agitating people not to move from the area set aside.

-Cultivating near a water source.

 

Sadly, it was Ololoskwan village under the leadership of acting chairman Cosmas Olderika Leitura that had sued Salangat. His farm is one kilometre away from the river source and 110 metres from the riverbed. He never received any notice and had not had any complaints in the past. Salangat was released on bail after a one-night arrest at Loliondo police station, and then had to return to the OCD the following week when the harassment was delayed for yet one week. Charges against Salangat were dropped on 16^th December following the legitimate village chairman, John Kambaley Pyando’s return from exile after the bogus murder case had been dropped. This is the only indication of any beneficial activity at all by any leader of affected wards and villages, and sadly it seems like nothing more of that has later been seen.

 

Reportedly, it is the OBC camp supervisor William Parmwat who is lobbying for zoning to prepare for a Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Both the “conservator” for the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”, one Pius Rwiza, and DC Raymond Mwangala have been seen in media talking about WMA, and such areas were, besides the alienation of the 1,500 km² Osero, also in the OBC-funded draft district land use plan that was successfully rejected in 2011.

 

The war against livestock

The relentless and purposefully poverty creating seizure of cattle this year, together with the massive land theft, and not least the created cowardice, forms the darkest chapter of the history of the Loliondo Maasai, and similar attacks are being committed against pastoralists all over Tanzania. It is now raining, but in nearby areas, like Longido, the drought has been catastrophic. I do not know if anyone in Loliondo is counting the losses of a bad dry season combined with security forces keeping cattle out of a huge and important dry season area.

 

Some pastoralist and human rights organizations on 20^th December made a press statement denouncing the attacks against pastoralists all over the country, and on the 21st there was another press conference in which the need for relief food for Loliondo and Sale was brought up.

 

In the most lawless way, cattle are still being seized on village land that illegally has been demarcated as a “game reserve”, but also technically legally in Serengeti National Park, that was not appropriated with free, informed and prior consent, but over 60 years ago and not contested in court (not yet). It is important to keep those two issues separated – so that allies may properly understand the court cases - even if the national park seizures are being done in a cruel way and not following procedures.

 

I fear I have only been informed about a fraction of cattle seizures since the latest blog post that was posted on 24th November.

 

I am having some problems finding out exactly who the rangers are, after the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” was placed under Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, NCAA. Some say that they are all the same, so it doesn’t matter, but apparently Tanzania Wildlife Authority, TAWA, left, and some security personnel trained for NCAA are committing the crimes. They are assisted by anti-riot Field Force Unit, FFU, teams from different parts of Tanzania. In Ololosokwan a team from Tanga was seen but has left. Then came teams from Shinyanga and from Njombe, that is in the far south of the country.

 

On 26^th November the 60 cows of Sarkay Tiiyee from Malambo were seized at a water point, outside the illegally demarcated area. He had 100 cows, but 40 had already died due to drought and theft of grazing land. It is the rangers stationed at the Orng'oswa area that used to be part of Sanjan village in Malambo who are committing the crimes.

 

On 27^th November, also in Malambo, 167 goats belonging to Kimani Taretoy Tiiyee were seized. The rangers demanded 60,000 per goat and slaughtered 27 of them. They can do absolutely anything since there is no one to hold them accountable.

 

On 2^nd December there was a terrible hunt for cattle from the villages of Ormanie, Mbuken and Arash. Cattle found in Serengeti National Park were impounded at Eng’oswa (inside the park, not to be confused with Orng’oswa in Sanjan, Malambo) and it was reported that authorities wanted to auction them off. There were mentions that cattle had also been seized in Ingarroi (Arash) on village land, but I have not been able to confirm this. When there were auctions of cattle seized in Serengeti in 2017, it was talked about as something previously unthinkable in a district with pastoralist majority. Everything has deteriorated very much and on 14^th December the lowest point ever was reached. The cattle were sold as unclaimed property, since the owners were too afraid to present themselves in court, even when there were lawyers supporting them. In 2018, when 163 heads of livestock belonging to Neromboi ole Lindi were auctioned by Serengeti National Park, Arash people got together and managed to raise money among themselves that was submitted to the CCM chair and the Council Chairperson/Arash ward councillor, to go to Serengeti to buy the cows. The reason for this was the fact that it was a disgrace to let the family lose their cattle and it could damage the image of the Loita for other subtribes, it would be seen as weakness, the family would live in abject poverty. Now disgrace is everywhere.

 

Livestock were lost in the evening of 14^th December in the Endepesi area of the Ndutu seasonal pastures at Nasipooriong' village in Endulen ward (Ngorongoro Conservation Area). On 15^th December, the owners reported the cows as missing and found that they had been taken into the park and held at Naabi Gate of Serengeti National Park. Park authorities told them to go to the court to claim their cows because they would not accept fines. The owners did not file a court claim, and the cattle were sold. One lost 212 cows and the other lost 83 cows and 14 donkeys. There are further heart-breaking details to this case that I may write about in the future.

 

On 15^th December some 1,500 (number not confirmed) cattle were unlawfully seized in the Orkimbai area of Kirtalo, which is village land with the illegal “game reserve” on it. The cattle were released after extortion fees were paid.

 

On 17^th December, 600 sheep belonging to Malee Risando Lekitony, brother of the Malambo village chairman, were seized almost inside his boma, not even in the illegally demarcated area. Since the lawlessness is complete, the owner made sure to pay 2 million Tanzanian shillings to get his sheep back. Local leaders neither held any meeting about this shameless crime nor did they mention it anywhere in social media.

 

On 19^th December over 300 cows belonging to four families: Parmwat, Parmware Reyia, Odinga Tome, and Maambuya Rotiken were seized at Oloosek, Ololosokwan - in the fake and illegal game reserve brutally created in OBC's preferred area of the Loliondo hunting block - and taken to Klein’s gate. The extortion fee of 100,000 shillings per head was paid.

 

On 22^nd December 400 cows from Arash, belonging to youths from the bomas of Sangok and Losekenja, were seized on village land that has been illegally declared a game reserve. On Christmas Eve, the livestock owners tried to inquire about the procedure to get the cattle back and found that all the cows had been sold and were being loaded onto trucks.

 

On 27^th December, 4 cows belonging to Tumate Parmwat were illegally seized in Ololosokwan and the owner was looking for money for the extortion fees. I have not yet found out if he succeeded. 

 

100,000 shillings per head of livestock has been the going rate for fines in Serengeti National Park for years but has no support in the law that fines people grazing livestock in the park, not cows. Imposing a fine of even one shilling on herders on legally registered village land that illegally has been gazetted as a “game reserve” is a very cruel crime, but rangers are lawlessly copying the 100,000 per head of livestock fine from national parks. In a legal game reserve, the fine would be no less than 100,000, but not exceeding 500,000 for a person grazing livestock, not for cows.

 

Chief criminal Samia and her German donors

As known, and many times reported with more detail in this blog, shortly after coming into office, Samia Suluhu Hassan held a speech complaining about the Maasai of Ngorongoro. Such complaints have become her trademark together with her participation in the Royal Tour – a travel show described as “authoritarian image management” by the researcher Alex Dukalskis and in which further insults were thrown at the Maasai. Government supporters as an act of faith must describe this travel show as the reason for recovered tourism arrivals after the pandemic.

 

Under Samia’s rule, the land rights and human rights situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse, not only in Loliondo and Ngorongoro, but for pastoralists all over Tanzania. This Christmas over 3,000 cattle have been seized and will be auctioned in Tarangire National Park.

 

The coalition of “journalists” – Habib Mchange, Maulid Kitenge, Deodatus Balile, and OBC’s own Manyerere Jackton – that was formed early this year to literally engage in hate speech against the Ngorongoro Maasai, has been organizing spectacles with Vice President Philip Mpango to incite against the always threatened pastoralists of Mbarali. Eight Maasai villages around Kilimanjaro International Airport have had their land brutally and illegally demarcated for this airport. In Morogoro on Christmas Eve the horrible PM Majaliwa was threatening pastoralists in the Kilombero valley. And so on, and so on.

 

The crimes by the Tanzanian government are, and have always been, supported by Germany. I wonder how many Germans have a clue about this and if anything can be done to sue the Bundesrepublik for facilitating human rights violations. In a ceremony with the worst perpetrators of the crimes in Loliondo, PM Kassim Majaliwa and Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana, the German Ambassador to Tanzania Regina Hess handed over 51 vehicles that – as reported by the embassy - are part of the 20 million euros (approx. 49.4 billion shillings) committed funds by Germany for emergency funding and recovery for biodiversity in response of COVID19 facilitated by the German development bank, KfW and Frankfurt Zoological Society, FZS. The vehicles will be distributed into Serengeti and Nyerere National Parks and Selous Game Reserve and will have a great impact on supporting “operations”. In the ceremony Majaliwa mentioned poachers and encroaching livestock as the objectives of those “operations”. The following day, in a creepily gleeful way, the German Embassy tweeted that during the vehicle handover ceremony Chana announced that one rhino calf had been named Majaliwa after the PM and a second female calf Regine after Ambassador Hess, “in appreciation of their efforts in supporting conservation in Tanzania”.

 

Germany has for decades been lending support for the Tanzanian government’s efforts to deprive the Maasai of the Serengeti ecosystem of their land, and as seen – again and again - the Germans are not taking any step back, regardless of information they receive about the crimes. Reporting from a meeting with diplomats on 25^th March, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism wrote that the German ambassador Regina Hess, supported the government’s “efforts” in Ngorongoro. Meanwhile in Ngorongoro Conservation Area this involves a well-orchestrated scheme to strangle the Maasai in every aspect to enforce a relocation agenda. This support has not been publicly denied in any way by the ambassador who – after the brutal and illegal demarcation of the 1,500 km² was launched – went on meeting and smiling with some of the main responsible for the crimes in Loliondo, like RC Mongella on 6th July, and talk about the “cooperation” between the two countries, and the Germans keep showering the brutal and lawless Tanzanian government with money. In August 2022, Bärbel Kofler, German Deputy Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development visited Tanzania for more of the same.

 

In March 2017, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Jumanne Maghembe and Serengeti chief park warden William Mwakilema (current head of Tanzania National Parks Authority, 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. In Loliondo 600 women demonstrated against accepting the German money. These conditions for releasing funds were not 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. The picture showed 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.

 

After the 2017 illegal mass arson operation, the MP and the District Council Chairman said that there was not any risk at all with accepting German funds, since they were meant for the whole of Loliondo and Sale, not excluding the 1,500km².  However there haven’t been any projects at all in the now brutally and 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, in June 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, and German funds keep being showered to prop of the crimes against pastoralists committed Ministry of Natural Resource and Tourism and its parastatals in close cooperation with Frankfurt Zoological Society.

 

The Germans are well-aware about the human rights violations, but gleefully and defiantly show that they do not give a damn. Please, can anyone help finding out how to stop them and punish them?

 

Thomson Safaris

As reported in many blog posts before almost total silence started to reign, 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. However, 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 works for Thomson, and so have I. Maybe OBC have been learning from Thomson as well. As reported earlier, inspired by the general brutality and lawlessness, Thomson planted beacons demarcating their fraudulently and violently claimed very private nature refuge.

 

In early October there were reports that they were invading people’s farms and lokeri with road construction. In Sukenya ole Musa was being invaded by this ugly land grabber, and in Mondorosi, ole Nanyoi (Irmasiling) and ole Orgeso (Enadooshoke) were under attack.

 

As reported in the previous blog post, on 23^rd October there was another exhibition of charity as a weapon of war at Sukenya dispensary with Judi Wineland and DC Raymond Mwangwala.

 

On Saturday 3^rd December Thomson Safaris staff were chasing away cows with the excuse that they were having tourists in camp. One cow belonging to mzee ole Orgeso was killed when hit by a vehicle and Thomson’s guards were beating children.

 

When will a new court case be filed against these ruthless hypocrites, after the court of appeal killed the old one using Magufuli era legislation that was younger than the case itself?

 

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Don’t mix up with Loliondo!

2022 started with leaked “voluntary” relocations plans for NCA and the most demented hate propaganda in the press and in parliament. The always present restrictions have worsened, and already granted COVID-19 funds for Ngorongoro have been transferred to Handeni. Some of the inauthentic, the compromised and the naïve have relocated to Msomera. What the NCAA in its plans had missed was a village with its land use plan and villagers that weren’t consulted. Msomera villagers keep reaching out for support to sue the people who invaded their land.

 

Court cases

The ongoing court cases against the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” are Reference No.37 of 2022 in the East African Court of Justice and Miscellaneous Cause No.09 of 2022 (Application for Judicial Review) in the High Court of Tanzania.

 

After the applicants were granted leave by the court on 16^th November, the very substantial Judicial Review Application was filed on 29^th November.

 

Another Application for leave to file Judicial Review against the president’s declaration of “Pololeti Game Reserve” was filed in the High Court.

 

Then, since Reference No.10 of 2017 was inexplicably dismissed in the East African Court of Justice, there is now Appeal No.12 of 2022 East Africa Court of Justice. Remember that, unlike what some media, notably Agence France-Presse, have misreported, the ruling did not uphold any decision to cordon off land. The ruling was that the Maasai had failed to prove that the mass arson operation in 2017 took place on village land and not in Serengeti National Park.

 

Application No.2 of 2022 is a contempt of court application filed in January this year against RC Mongella’s threats to invade and partition the 1,500 km². An affidavit was added after the criminal threat was implemented.

 

Then we have Reference No.29 of 2022 in the East African Court of Justice. This case is not about Loliondo, but to challenge the coordinated and suffocating policies in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

 

Brief Loliondo hunting block background

The 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) since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992). They got the hunting block in the Loliondo gate scandal covered by the reporter Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns – Wasso and Loliondo - 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 (sadly illegally gazetted this year 2022 …) which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

 

In 2008, the 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. As a result, the village land in the 1,500 km2 Osero – now fake and illegal “game reserve” - 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.

 

In 2013, then Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Khamis 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 huge lie and 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 Mizengo Kayanza Peter 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. There were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 – after OBC had written a report complaining about the Maasai and engaged the press - it was so bad that PM Majaliwa could enter the stage with a select non-participatory committee, set up by then Arusha RC Mrisho 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 (a WMA) 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 13^th 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 NCAA rangers and those from OBC, 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. Meanwhile 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 Hamisi 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 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about, through a legal bill, creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (Manyerere Jackton in the Jamhuri). Implementation was delayed, still no legal bill has been seen, and it would of course have been contempt of court.

 

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to what he thought was the 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 25^th 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 2018, 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 (until the current horror) 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. However, the local police state was not dealt with and following a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out, and after a while he went 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 District Executive and he started working to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash v the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continued before the EACJ until it was dismissed in September 2022. 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.

 

Briefly about 2022 threats leading up to the brutal illegal demarcation

On 11^th 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 14^th February, Majaliwa came and was not 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 17^th 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 was NOT a trick! Now we know what the intention was.

 

Then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Damas Ndumbaro on 8^th March re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with DW Kiswahili, and on the 11^th 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 19^th 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 cannot be trusted.

 

On 31^st 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 25^th May a committee handed over their reports of “community recommendations” on both NCA and the 1,500 km² Osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa who said that he was going to work on the recommendations. The Loliondo/Sale report recommended a stop to any plans of alienating the 1,500 km², investigations into human rights violations, and the removal of OBC. That was what Majaliwa had to work with, but instead he stole the land, committed atrocities, and OBC is still there.

 

On 3^rd 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. That did not sound believable or realistic in any way, and there was hardly any reaction, except for an intervention by Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai.

 

Briefly about the brutal and illegal demarcation of a fake game reserve

On 8^th June 2022, Wasso town was overflowing with security forces that went on to set up camps on the 90 km stretch from Ololosokwan to Piyaya, and in Malambo. Almost every Tanzania Regional Police Commissioner vehicle was seen in Loliondo on the day. The Maasai held prayers and deliberations, and in Kirtalo on the 9^th a video clip with the message that they were ready to die for their land was prepared for Majaliwa. A coordinated threat with vicious propaganda, and the old lie from 2013, was issued primarily by Arusha RC John Mongella and PM Kassim Majaliwa, assisted by speaker of parliament Tulia Ackson, and soon joined by too many government representatives.

 

All councillors from affected wards – except the Soitsambu councillor who managed to flee - were on 9^th June lured to a meeting by DC Raymond Mwangwala, they were abducted, bundled in two cars and driven to Arusha overnight. The following day illegal land demarcation - which is what Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, for years has lobbied for - began in a rain of teargas and live bullets. Many Maasai were injured, and thousands fled across the border where many of them continue as refugees, with their cattle. The approximately 80 years old Oriais Oleng'iyo was last seen on 10^th June with bullet wounds and detained by the Field Force Unit few metres away from his home where security forces were firing fireworks. According to the RC, a police officer was killed by arrowshot.

 

Refugees in Kenya.

There was a hunt for anyone who could have shared pictures of the crimes (which effectively has been done by everyone with a smartphone) and ten people, later joined by seven more, were illegally arrested, eventually, together with the councillors, charged with a bogus “murder”. The trial kept being postponed for inexistent “investigation”, and they continued locked up in remand prison for well over five months. Three were released for reasons of health and studies. The flow of information was almost completely cut after the in initial arrests.

As mentioned in several earlier blog posts, on 15^th June, Deputy Permanent Representative to the Tanzanian Mission to the UN in Geneva, Hoyce Temu, in a widely shared clip, denied any state violence, parroting the malicious and obvious government lie about a “protected area” that had been “encroached” and about “peaceful talks” with local residents. The councillors from affected wards were still abducted at unknown location, and their whereabouts were only known the following day when they were charged with “murder”. (Added 3^rd January since Temu is in the news for other reasons.)

 

Government representatives made multiple military style visits landing in helicopter to pose with beacons, tell lies, and issue threats.

 

Minster Pindi Chana without following any law or procedure declared the illegally demarcated land as “Pololeti Game Controlled Area” (GN No.421, 2022), which was announced in a zoom meeting.

 

Spineless diplomats applauded Minister Ndumbaro’s obvious lies about what was happening. Though many international organisations condemned the government’s actions.

 

Mary Masanja, Damas Ndumbaro UAE ambassador Khalifa Abdul Rahman Al Marzouqi.

Director of Wildlife Maurus Msuha busy lying

The much-expected court ruling in the case filed during the mass arson in 2017, and scheduled for 22^nd June, was the last minute shockingly postponed to September.

 

Houses were demolished or razed. TAWA illegally seized livestock and demanded extortionate “fines”. The dry season deepened without access to the most important grazing area. In Ormanie, Arash ward, on 27^th June, cows, donkeys, calves, and other livestock were shot by the security forces. There were mass arrests of people accused of being “Kenyan”.

 

On 28^th September Minister Chana announced that the illegally demarcated 1,500 km² in Loliondo had been placed under the management of the NCAA.

 

On 30^th September the East African Court of Justice dismissed Reference No.10 of 2017 on the grounds that the Maasai had failed to prove that the mass arson of 2017 was committed on village land and not in Serengeti National Park.

 

TAWA, at the height of the dry season, continued illegal seizures of livestock and extortion of huge fines, 100,000 shillings per cow and 25,000 per sheep or goat. NCAA rangers were reportedly trained and set up camp. In Malambo, on 8^th November, the head of the NCAA camp announced that TAWA had left, and the boundaries were being guarded by the Field Force Unit.

 

On 31^st October, or 1^st November, it was announced that President Samia had on 14^th October declared a Pololeti Game Reserve (GN No.604, 2022). It came as a nasty surprise for the lawyers that on 1^st November were in court for the mention of Miscellaneous Cause No.09 of 2022, even if it seems like it was also on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation the previous evening.

 

Three court cases have been filed to stop the brutal, fake and illegal protected area: one in the High Court and two in the East African Court of Justice, the ruling in the case filed in 2017 has been appealed, and there’s a contempt of court application.

 

On 1^st November, in an NCA advertorial in the extreme anti-Maasai newspaper the Jamhuri, a “conservator” for the fake and illegal game reserve – Pius Rwiza - spoke of how calm and wonderful everything is after the demarcation. He says that the Maasai understand the demarcation but must keep a further 500 metres away from it! And he wanted them to create WMAs, outside the illegally demarcated 1,500 km2, which is another kind of land alienation that also was included in the OBC-funded draft district land use plan that was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

 

Towards the end of October, there were reports of a notice issued by the DC about redrawing of village boundaries with new village land use plans, and some 40 state security and surveyors on the ground. Through intimidation and government installed traitors, it was said that the land use plan had been passed, but that would of course not be legal in any way.

 

Between 14^th-17^th November, nine immigration cases against 62 people who still had such cases pending after the mass arrests in June and July were discharged for want of prosecution.

 

On 22^nd November, it was announced that the Director of Public Prosecution had no intention to continue with the ridiculous “murder” case against 24 people, including ten CCM political leaders. The leaders were whisked off to CCM internal elections to vote for candidates close to RC Mongella. They still haven’t said one word about the atrocities committed during their over five months in remand prison.

 

Livestock keep being seized destroying everyone’s livelihood and mental health.

 

It’s time for radical measures! I don’t know how, but the Tanzanian government must be stopped, and the land returned to the villages.

 

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (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:

6^th January

In the evening cattle belonging to Marco Parmwat (28 cows) and the ole Nkinyoti family (don’t know how many) were seized on village land illegally declared a game reserve and held at Klein’s gate. The extortionate “fines” were paid the following day and the livestock will be released on the 8^th.

 

At night and in the morning of the 7^th, Noel Jackson and Leyian Rotiken were brutalized by JWTZ soldiers in Ololosokwan. Such brutality has been committed constantly since June.

14th January

A zoom seminar was held with some of the worst of the worst, including Pindi Chana, Freddy Manongi, Eblate Mjingo of TAWIRI, Christine Mwakatobe of KADCO (KIA), Mabula Nyanda of TAWA, the Tanzanian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ali Jabir Mwadini and OBC’s managing director Isaack (Isaya Lesion) Mollel.

19th January

Yesterday 123 goats, 44 calves and 1 cow belonging to members of the Tiiyee family were illegally seized by NCAA rangers in Malambo. The calves were seized at Sanjan river and the goats when on their way back tp Orng'oswa that’s their old home. Extortion money has been paid, which is the same as buying back their own livestock from the criminals (government). 

20th January

Reports that over 100 sheep belonging to the Ngoya family were seized in Ololosokwan. The extortion fees were paid and the sheep released. 

On 23^rd – 27^th January a mission of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, visits Tanzania to, among other issues, probe evictions of citizens from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo. There are widespread fears of co-option by the government.

The fears were confirmed on the 24th in Ngorongoro, 25th in Loliondo, and 26th in Msomera. In Loliondo the commission was prevented from seeing any victims at all. They were waiting in vain.

A clip of Salangat Mako who had waited in vain and had a message for the Commission was widely shared. On 27th January he received threats and had to flee to Kenya. 

On 28th January Salangat's words were published in this blog. https://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2023/01/guest-blogger-words-of-salangat-ole.html

I must publish a new blog post very soon!