Good news has not been as plentiful as I hoped when Maasai representatives (the wonderful Noorkishili Nakero Naing’isa from Ololosokwan, Nengai Kilusu Laizer from Oloirobi, and advocate Joseph Oleshangai from Endulen) spoke truth to power in the EU parliament on 31st May and the councillors rejected the draft district land use plan for crime legitimation. Though on the anniversary of the military attack on Loliondo, several people spoke to media and the seizing of livestock seems to have stopped for a while (and then resumed …), at least in Ololosokwan, even if the stolen land, which is the biggest part of grazing land in Loliondo can only be accessed by its legitimate owners as thieves at night. The Germans are digging in their heels in their defence of their funding and facilitating of crime legitimation and in Joseph Parsambei the Loliondo land rights struggle has got its worst traitor ever.
For several weeks now Tanzanian
online discussions have been totally consumed with a Tanzania-Dubai Inter-Governmental
Agreement that has recently been ratified by parliament. The bone of contention
in the heated discussions is a deal with the Dubai state-owned company DP World
to control Dar es Salaam port, other mainland ports, inland container depots
ports, and related logistical corridor. The contract is indefinite, or
unspecified, and Tanzania shall not, without prior consent of DP World,
undertake any development project upon any of the said ports. Critics of this
deal are being threatened, harassed and arrested, and everyone is talking about
it. There is a connection to Loliondo, but sadly it seems like it has been
reduced to saying that Loliondo was sold to Dubai, as if we were again in 1992.
Remember that in February a
person who by Ikulu, State House, was referred to as "member of the Dubai
royal family" Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum got a VIP treatment and a
MoU from President Samia, VP Mpango and Minister Chana. Chris Lang of
REDD-Monitor has written about the sheikh’s dubious company that aims to
greenwash the UAE’s massive carbon footprint.
It still feels like a nightmare
that the brutally and illegally demarcated “game reserve”, which the “investor”
OBC for years was lobbying for, does not go away and nobody is punished for abducting
all councillors from affected wards the night before the brutal and lawless
demarcation started and keeping them locked up for over five months, planting beacons
in a rain of teargas and bullets, with beatings, slashings, cuttings, rapes and
arrests. Thousands having to flee to Kenya, hundreds arrested and over sixty charged
with bogus immigration cases that were dismissed – without any attempt at
prosecution - months later, and nobody is held answerable. Destroyed houses,
stolen motorcycles and smartphones, seized and even shot livestock and nobody
is dealt with. Instead, it is celebrated in parliament. Many people are terrifyingly deep in
debt after being illegally fined when their cattle have been seized on the
stolen land for over a year now. Oriais Oleng'iyo – 84-years old at the time - who
was last seen on 10th June 2022, with bullet wounds and held by
security forces, has still not been brought back to his family, and the
enforced disappearance case filed by his son was, as mentioned in last blog
post, dismissed by the judge. There are several ongoing court cases, so many
that it’s hard for me to keep up, but I’m not getting much detail about them.
In Ngorongoro Conservation
Area (Ngorongoro division of Ngorongoro district), that is still mixed up with
Loliondo by too many people, suffocating restrictions and denial of social services
is still the government’s strategy to “convince” the Maasai to relocate to
other people’s land 600 kilometres away in Msomera, Handeni. Though both the
Msomera villagers and the Ngorongoro migrants are increasingly speaking up
about the unsuitability of this relocation. Dehumanizing ranger violence
continues and is sometimes reported. In July, the rangers smashed the teeth of the
child Joshua Olepatorro.
Also areas next to Lake Natron
are under threat, as many times before, and sometimes I’ve written about it,
but now I feel a terrible unease about not keeping up.
This blog post is unacceptably
delayed because of too much and too little information, my lack of focus, and
sadness over the silence.
In this blog
post:
Stolen grazing land and
criminal rangers
Violence in Ngorongoro
Conservation Area (NOT to be mixed up with Loliondo)
The rejected, German
facilitated, fake, and forced land use planning
For a brief reminder of what
the Germans do,
The maliciously misleading and
rejected NDLUFP document, including another Lake Natron threat
Anniversary of the biggest
crime and various people speaking up on the record
A most disgusting budget
speech by Mchengerwa
Amnesty report
Court cases
As always, updates will be
added at the end.
 |
| This rubbish has been rejected. |
Stolen
grazing land and criminal rangers
The loss of livestock and impoverishment
has been steep in Loliondo after most of the grazing land, and particularly dry
season grazing land, was stolen by the government right before the bad dry
season of 2022, expecting the Maasai to just squeeze into remaining areas where
there’re two towns with district headquarters, agricultural areas, forest
reserves, and Thomson Safaris’ ugly land grab. Many people, I don’t think it’s
known exactly how many, have got into terrible debt since first TAWA rangers
and then those from NCAA (after the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” was placed
under their management) have been fining livestock owners a demented 100,000 TShs
per head of cattle and 25,000 per sheep or goat for grazing on their own land.
Since June it has become very difficult to get any details at all about what’s
going on.
It seemed like Serengeti
National Park rangers from Bologonja had stopped their nasty and illegal habit (detailed
in previous blog posts) of seizing livestock in Ololosokwan and taking the
owners to court in Mugumu.
Apparently, the case against
six people from Ololosokwan is still ongoing: Turanda Kedoki, Sanaet Ngirashai,
Odinga Tome, Repes Lukeine, Moseka Ndoinyo, and Ndaskoi Siololo, about an
arrow shot at a criminal ranger of those who were seizing cattle on village
land in the evening of 5th May, but information is not being shared,
and for some reason, those charged are even refusing legal representation.
Several people from
Ololosokwan had said that rangers were no longer seizing cattle, since they
stopped patrolling at night when herders are accessing the illegal game reserve,
like thieves on their own land and with significantly increased risk of problems
with large predators, the owners of the night. Some say that the reason for
this stop was rangers’ fear of the unknown hero with the arrow from 5th
May. That was only one arrow and a light injury. Just let thousands more rain over
the criminal rangers …
However, sadly, the night between
26th and 27th July cattle, belonging to Moniko, Kairrung,
Olepanga and Olereiya were again illegally seized near OBC’s camp in Kirtalo
but taken to Lobo in Serengeti National Park. The rangers were a mix of NCAA
rangers, Serengeti rangers and maybe other security forces. The same night
cattle were seized in Ololosokwan but released after the owners paid the insane
fines of 100,000 TShs per cow. On the 28th I was told that the
cattle owners had gone to Lobo, there was again total silence, but apparently
the cows were released after the owner paid the 100,000 per head of
cattle “fines”.
Earlier (since the latest blog
post) I had only heard that on 3rd June, 87 cattle belonging to
Kerika Tiiye were seized in the Orng'oswa area of Malambo. The cows had strayed
to their former home, from where they were evicted. Since then, there has only
been silence from Malambo.
On 22nd June, there
were reports from Kirtalo about seized cattle belonging to Loita Maasai, but details
were impossible to come by.
Another most disturbing development
is that a gate for the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” is being built
in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan.
Violence
in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NOT to be mixed up with Loliondo)
On 13th July, the young
boy (first reported as 15-year-old, but other ages have been mentioned and he
looks younger) Joshua Olepatorro from Nainokanoka was attacked by NCAA rangers
when returning from having grazed cows in Oltomi crater. The rangers beat Joshua
with the butts of their guns, so that three of his upper front teeth were smashed
out, and then they left him there in the bush. Unlike other cases of violent
assault and torture by rangers at Olmoti, this case has received some limited
media attention. The rangers are saying that Joshua was running and fell by
himself, smashing his teeth on a stone, while they were removing a big herd of
cattle from Olmoti crater. They say that proof of this is that villagers did
not report to the police, but instead shared images online. The officer sharing
this message claims to having held a meeting with village leaders that wanted
access to grazing in Olmoti crater and forest. Grazing in Olmoti is in no way
against the law. Nainokanoka councillor Edward Maura, the village chairman and several
other leaders have spoken to the press, and so has Joshua’s mother. The brutal assault
has been reported to the police (NGO/RB/125/2023), but nobody has been
arrested.
As mentioned in an earlier post,
in Olmoti crater, on 22nd January this year, the NCAA rangers known
as Alais, Baby and Simony, and others that could not be seen (it was
night-time, and they were shooting bullets) assaulted several young herders,
including Daudi Sayanga, Oloturiaki Pello, and others. The rangers broke the
pots the youths were cooking in, burned their food and their clothes, and then
the youths had to sleep in the wild.
In mid-June there were bad
cases of beatings by rangers in Ndutu in which one victim was locked up in
prison, but it was quieted down after out of court arrangements. Though ranger
violence in NCA isn’t new but has been going on for decades. In September 2021
protests, fuelled by two cases of assault and torture by rangers against in
total nine herders in Endulen, were gathering strength when the death of MP
Olenasha cut them short. Those rangers were arrested, but never taken to court.
Legal action has never been taken against any ranger. In September 2022 Letee
Ormunderei’s leg was broken by rangers that assaulted him and three others.
This case was widely reported in social media and there was fundraising for his
surgery. A case that I’d missed was Kiti Lengeju from Alaitole, who has not
received any medical treatment after being deliberately knocked down by a
vehicle on 1st November 2022. His leg was broken as a result.
Investigations, by local researchers,
into terrible violent abuse, including rape, by rangers in collusion with
owners of so-called cultural bomas in Endulen and Olbalbal, against women who
independently sell cultural ornaments in the Golini area have been stopped. Apparently,
leaders decided that silence was preferable.
Then we have the ever-ongoing
violence against Ngorongoro Maasai, inherent in the restrictions against any
kind of cultivation in NCA and they are not allowed to build permanent houses
and suffer all kinds of harassment by NCA rangers that want to restrict
motorbikes, building materials, or demanding permits for just anything,
including demanding ID for the Maasai to pass Loduare gate. This has worsened considerably
since 2021 when permits for already funded social services are being denied. Samia
Suluhu Hassan basically started her presidency by inciting against the Maasai
in April 2021, shortly followed by widespread demolition orders that were withdrawn
after protests. In September the same year, NCAA Chief Conservator Freddy Manongi,
with Deputy Minister Mary Masanja in a video clip that’s still online, said there
was a war between pastoralists and conservationists and that the latter needed
to start cooking conspiracies, like he claimed that the former were doing.
Remember that after the
evictions from Ngorongoro Crater in 1975 and the re-introduction – following
“grave concerns” by UNESCO - of a total cultivation ban in 2009 (lifted in 1992
after first being introduced in 1975), there was a very big blow against the
Ngorongoro Maasai in 2017 when PM Kassim Majaliwa, through order and not
law removed access for the Maasai to the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti, and
Empakaai, which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka,
Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock
in these wards. Replacement salt provided by NCAA has in laboratories shown to
be adulterated and has reportedly led to widespread cattle death.
Further, as mentioned in earlier
blog posts, Endulen hospital has been downgraded with the aim of closing it
down completely. Before that, Ngorongoro headteachers were, by former DED
Mhina, instructed to transfer funds already in school accounts to Handeni
district.
In January 2022, plans for
fast-tracked “voluntary” relocations to Handeni and Kitwai “Game Controlled
Areas” (this always means village land) were revealed. Ethnic hatred and defamation
against the Maasai reached insane levels in the press and in a whole
parliamentary debate on 9th February 2022. The journalists most dedicated
to the hate campaign were/are Habib Mchange, Maulid Kitenge, Deodatus Balile,
and OBC’s own Manyerere Jackton. These went on to form their own “environmental
organization” MECIRA. Ngorongoro Maasai were organizing protests and prayer
meeting. Then the neighbouring Loliondo Maasai were evicted from most of their
grazing land via a brutal military operation, which increased the fear.
A small percentage of inauthentic,
compromised or naïve among the Ngorongoro Maasai relocated to Msomera village
in Handeni, which received enormous media coverage. Eventually, around January
2023, the Msomera (a registered village with its land use plan) villagers
became organized and started speaking up about being informed at gunpoint and
displaced to give room to the Ngorongoro migrants. The government is resorting
to the usual lie that Msomera would have been a “protected area”. The
Ngorongoro migrants, including the government’s poster boy, former MP Kaika Saning’oTelele are increasingly complaining about Msomera’s unsuitability for
pastoralism and unfulfilled promises.
On 8th July, there was a
Ngorongoro division community meeting held at Endulen ward. The main agenda was:
1. Feedback from MP.
2. Resuming all socio-economic
development project with budget allocated but without building permit from NCA.
3. Resuming prayers and
protest.
4. Taking action over
restricted pasture areas like Ormoti, Empakaai and Ndutu.
5. Building toilets in the
schools where the pupils are defecating in the bushes. (Permits are being
denied for the construction of school toilets and everything else.)
On 31st July there are
protests at Ndian Primary School in Nasipooriong', Endulen. The protestors are
demanding permits to renovate, at their own cost, the school that has multiple cracks in the walls from class 2-6,.
Update 1st August: The headteacher has received threats and the Nasipooriong' village chairman and the leader of the Nyangulo age set have been called to report at Endulen police station.
See updates at the end of the blog post!
The
rejected, German facilitated, fake, and forced land use planning
Regarding the draft Ngorongoro
District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043, since last, now old, blog post I
have got hold of the actual document. It makes me angry that sharing something
that basic is so difficult for some people, but such anger is not what this
blog is supposed to deal with. Already on 1st June, the German Embassy
made a post in social media showing that they were digging their heels in defending
their indefensible facilitation of the crime legitimation. Later there was a
rumour that FZS would have done “something”, sacrificing a scapegoat of the
nastier sort, but this was never confirmed in any way and is looking
increasingly unlikely.
It may seem extreme that the Germans
so shamelessly support this crime legitimation, but it’s totally in line with
what they’ve been doing in Tanzania for decades and their partners are always
FZS (this organization is one and the same as “the Germans”) TANAPA and other parts
of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, against people living next to
protected areas, or have had their land turned into a protected area.
This crime legitimation called
Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 was
initiated by team of 40 state security and surveyors that in late
October/November 2022 were sent to re-survey the villages in Loliondo and Sale
using illegitimate or compromised village leaders, while the DC talked about
Wildlife Management Areas! This was done in a very threatening way, and signs
were put up, at least in Ololosokwan, setting aside zones - outside the stolen
land – for exclusive grazing and tourism use. After the legitimate village
chairman has returned from exile on Kenya, most of those signs have been thrown
away.
On 28th February
and 30th March meetings were held at Ngorongoro District Council
Hall in Wasso to legitimize the brutal theft of the 1,500 km2 and
the fake and forced land use planning. The legitimation efforts were led by DC
Raymond Mwangwala, district officials, principally Ngorongoro Land officer and
chairman of the land planning committee, Kelvin Aligaweza, the National Land
Use Commission, and Frankfurt Zoological Society, with its partners TANAPA and
the German Development Bank, KfW. The councillors of wards affected by the
so-called “Pololeti Game Reserve” did not attend the meetings, and on 30th
March the DC publicly threatened them for, as members of the ruling party,
obstructing the project.
On 19th May, all Ngorongoro
councillors who were present - those from NCA who had relocated to Msomera (Kakesio
and Eyasi councillors) were not - in unison rejected the draft Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 and
issued a statement detailing the reason. In short:
-It was brought by the central
government together with conservation organizations like NCAA, FZS and KfW (the
German development bank) to legitimize the alienation of the 1,500 km2.
-It isn’t in the interest of
Ngorongoro residents, since its aim is to legitimize the theft of 70% of their
land.
-Passing the plan is to
legitimize the end of life in Ngorongoro via the loss of housing, cultivation
and grazing areas.
-It’s contempt of court, since
there are four cases in the High Court and three in the East African Court of
Justice, concerning the land.
-It violates several laws,
since it didn’t involve the village assemblies.
While these days the worst
could be feared, it was quite expected for the Maasai councillors (the majority)
to reject the genocidal draft district land use plan, anything else would have
been the deepest treason, but I don’t know why some usually non-supportive
non-pastoralist councillors joined them, and even the hostile district chairman
who’s employed as OBC’s community liaison since many years, and who has written
(or at least put his name to) a foreword to the rejected draft district land
use plan. Though the chairman needs legitimacy after being elected while ten
councillors were illegally locked up in remand prison. However, this chairman,
Mohammed “Marekani” Bayo quickly lost any momentary credibility when he lied to
the press that the plan had been rejected because it was written in English!
As mentioned in earlier posts,
the two local Maasai used by the government at the crime legitimation meetings
were the always questionable Soitsambu village chairman, Marko Lorru, whose nasty
defence of OBC and Thomson Safaris in social media in recent years, but before 2022,
had already been revealing to me, and Joseph Parsambei of the NGO TPCF, who I
years ago thought of as somewhat serious, but about whom I in more recent years
have kept getting more worrying reports. By letting themselves be used in the propaganda
for the fake and forced land use planning to legitimatize the worst crime in
the history of Loliondo, these two have surpassed every boundary of the deepest
treason.
On 1st June, the
day after the magic intervention by Maasai representatives at a public event at
the EU parliament, the German Embassy tweeted, “Yesterday we continued our
open and fruitful #discussions with #HumanRights experts on Massai culture and
living conditions in Loliondo and Ngorongoro.” The photo showed that their human
rights expert was none other than the traitor Parsambei! The following tweet,
showing Parsambei presenting a Power Point said, “Together with @EUinTZ and member
states we discussed the importance of social infrastructure and how WMAs and
Maasai can better benefit from tourism. Conservation shall never outplay human
rights.” Do they still, after the massive, brutal and illegal alienation of
grazing land which they are working hard to legitimize, want to impose WMAs? The
malicious cluelessness of these people has no boundaries, and they are getting
away far, far too lightly …
On 19th July Parsambei
took his stinking treason some steps or leaps further, holding a talk, together
with district land officer Kelvin Aligaweza about "certificates of customary
rights of occupancy" (CCRO) for some elders, some Maasai and some Batemi
(Sonjo) who aren’t affected by the massive land alienation other than as
knock-on effects - and sending a clip all over media to show that there isn't
any conflict in Loliondo and people want to work with the government on land
use planning, which was exactly how it was presented.
-CCROs are a silly concept.
Why would a government that doesn’t respect its own laws or basic human rights,
respect an abbreviation made up by NGOs?
-When talking about such
things while over 70% of the grazing land has been brutally and lawlessly
stolen the stupidity gets truly malicious undertones.
-And when such talks are
presented as that there isn’t any conflict and the Maasai want to work with the
government on land use planning, it all reaches the most stinking levels of
treason.
Sometimes there a slight
tendency among some human rights activists to find excuses for the Germans and
this is based on what they promise in private meetings. Though if keeping to
what they say publicly and what they actually do, nobody can argue for anything
other than having them chased out of the Serengeti ecosystem. Around 19th
June I heard a rumour that FZS would have fired Masegeri Tumbuya Rurai, their
most visible representative during the fake and forced land use planning
to legitimate massive crime. Though I have been totally unable to confirm this information.
Some have mentioned that Masegeri hangs on and some have mentioned that his
sacking could just have been something deputy district council chairman
Emmanuel Tonge said to sound nice (which he needed). Anyway, scapegoating Masegeri
would be unfair since he’s one and the same as FZS and was so even before being
employed by the Germans a decade ago. This individual was District Natural
Resources Officer during the mass arson in 2009. In social media in 2012,
before blocking me, he described the 2009 operation as a consequence of the
Maasai rejecting a WMA, which the government and FZS wanted to impose on them.
Before that he had been giving me somewhat sincere information about how to
visit Loliondo safely (to be accompanied by someone from the district council
and prevented from getting to know anything at all). In 2013 Tumbuya Rurai was
described as the most dangerous person in the district who spent 70 % of his
time working for OBC as their official informer and contact person, who had
allegedly been rewarded with a Nissan Xtrail from their director Mollel.
Tumbuya Rurai was reportedly very helpful preparing the map for the OBC-funded,
rejected in 2011, Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2010-2030.
For
a brief reminder of what the Germans do,
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, and we didn’t know who was telling the truth, but
maybe by now we have more of an idea. While Loliondo was attacked by mass arson
implemented by Serengeti rangers – FZS’s partners - in August 2017, a most
revolting picture was published of ambassador 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.
 |
| March 2017 protest against both Germans and OBC. |
After the 2017 illegal mass
arson operation, the then Ngorongoro MP and the District Council Chairman said
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. 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.
Reporting from a meeting with
diplomats on 25th March 2022, the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Tourism wrote that the German ambassador Regine Hess, supported the
government’s “efforts” in Ngorongoro. In closed meetings with human rights
defenders, the ambassador’s message was “that’s not what I said”, but publicly
she never denied it in any way.
In June 2022, FZS, that never
has said anything about violence for conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem,
seriously rattled by Survival International, 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”. However,
in an interview in a hunters’ newsletter African Indaba back in June 2013 the
late Markus Borner, FZS’s then recently retired long-term head of Africa
programme and resident of Serengeti NP had declared his support for then Minister
Kagasheki’s vociferous threats and lies about the 1,500km2 saying,
“the present proposal seems a good way forward”. Besides showing a surprising ignorance
about almost all basic facts, Borner said that the Maasai should have accepted
a WMA, and that FZS after the land alienation would act as “mediator between
communities and the central government”.
On 6th July 2022, Ambassador
Hess met with Arusha RC John Mongella, one of the main implementors of the
massive crime in Loliondo, and talked about the “cooperation” between the two
countries, and the Germans kept 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.
On 20th December
2022, in a ceremony with the worst perpetrators of the crimes in Loliondo, PM
Kassim Majaliwa and then Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi
Chana, Ambassador Regine 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 COVID-19 facilitated by the German
development bank, KfW and Frankfurt Zoological Society, FZS”. The vehicles
were to be distributed into Serengeti and Nyerere National Parks and Selous
Game Reserve and would 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”.
And as mentioned, the Germans
have shamelessly facilitated the very threatening crime legitimation that’s known
as the draft Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043, which was
rejected by all Ngorongoro councillors in May.
The maliciously
misleading NDLUFP document, including another Lake Natron threat
The rejected draft Ngorongoro
District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 document, which was inexplicably
hard to get hold of, describes the in 2011 rejected Ngorongoro District Land
Use Framework Plan 2010-2030 as “neither approved nor implemented” –
without telling why it was rejected. (It was because it proposed the massive
land alienation for a protected area which was brutally and lawlessly committed
in 2022, in case anyone missed it).
The illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”
is presented as a done deal. Only in one place is it mentioned as something
that came about as recently as 2022, but not one word about that it was done
through a brutal and lawless military operation for demarcation and eviction, followed
by illegal gazettement by government notice first by Minister Chana and then
President Samia.
The draft only covers the wards
in Loliondo and Sale affected by fake and forced surveying in October-November
2022, leaving out the whole of Ngorongoro division (NCA) and the wards of
Engaresero (or Ngaresero), Pinyinyi and Oldonyosambu in Sale division. Still,
some villages in the wards left out appear in the text, apparently due to copy
and paste from elsewhere.
There’s an extremely malicious
pretence that only the areas affected by the fake and forced 2022 surveying,
but excluding the huge areas alienated for the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”,
are governed by the Village Land Act. This is denying the existence of villages
that have been registered, with their land use plans, for decades.
“Pololeti Game Reserve”,
Ngorongoro Conservation Area and some “Lake Natron Game Controlled Area” are
described as reserved areas with 500-metre buffer zones in which no human
activities, except “conservation”, are permitted. In one place is it mentioned that
even when they are reserved areas, are there human livelihood activities in NCA
and Lake Natron GCA. It does of course not detail how human activities (except
as thieves on their own land) were stopped in the illegal “Pololeti Game
Reserve”. Nowhere is it mentioned that NCA is a multiple land use area.
The document does not show the
wards of Engaresero, Pinyinyi and Oldonyosambu in its maps. Instead, they are
divided into an “unsurveyed” area and a larger area called “Lake Natron GCA”,
in the same green colour as the illegal “Pololeti GR” and described as a
reserved area.
The only Lake Natron GCA that
exists covers the whole of Sale division, except for Piyaya and Malambo that
are in Loliondo GCA, and extends into most of the neighbouring vast Longido district
(there’s also a smaller Longido GCA). This is the old Lake Natron GCA that totally
overlaps with village land, not a protected area, but there are several hunting
blocks that operators aggressively compete for. There have through the years
been threats of a protected Lake Natron area. Some 15 years ago there were
talks of an annexation to NCA, which was repeated in the 2019 genocidal MLUM review
proposal for NCA, and in June 2020 there were vociferous threats of a game reserve,
which were met by protests.
 |
| Existing GCAs that are village land, not protected areas. 27/28 are Loliondo GCA and 29 is Lake Natron GCA. |
 |
| The disgusting attempt at legitimation of the massive Loliondo land theft and of committing the same crime at Lake Natron, Ngorongoro side. There are also criminal plans for the Longido side. Unclear what the green colour on NCA means. |
During the budget presentation
in parliament, the horrible Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, made a most confusing
and threatening intervention about Lake Natron in response to a question by
Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai who had asked about why the demarcation of
area B, in Malambo, of the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” includes areas of
Engaresero, which is something mentioned by several people. Instead, Masanja
lectured the Ngorongoro MP about the geography of Engaresero, lied that Lake
Natron would have become a protected area with Wildlife Conservation Act 2009,
and said that it was one of the areas that the government had decided to “upgrade”,
but that there would be “participatory” talks about excluding Engaresero
village from the protected area. Then I saw some confused comments that it
would be a good thing, and now feel very, very bad about not having intervened.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a minister talking about “reducing” a GCA. This
is how they are bluffing all the time, and it means violence and massive land alienation.
I fear that Masanja could have
been referring to Pindi Chana’s budget speech from 3rd June 2022 in
which she besides Loliondo mentioned so many planned protected areas that I
thought, or hoped, that it was just exaggerated empty talk.
 |
| 3rd June 2022 |
Anyway, this draft District
Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 has been rejected and belongs in the rubbish
bin where it must be joined by the two illegal GNs. As the document also
mentions, it was made with funding support from the German development bank KfW
via Frankfurt Zoological Society which implements the Serengeti Ecosystem Development
and Conservation Program (SEDCP). Don’t let the Germans get away with it! Drive
them out of the Serengeti ecosystem!
Anniversary of
the biggest crime and various people speaking up on the record
On 10th June, the, Civil
and Legal Aid organization, CILAO, led by the always helpful Odero Charles
Odero held a press conference in Arusha, marking one year since the start of
the brutal and illegal demarcation. The statement was based on a fact-finding
mission by human rights defenders, that was made at the end of May 2023 to
Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division (Piyaya and Malambo Wards). They
also visited NCA and Msomera, but the statement was about the so-called “Pololeti
Game Reserve”. This statement called for:
1. The government should
cancel its June 2022 notice that turned the area belonging to 14 villages into
Pololeti Game Controlled Area.
2. The government should
cancel its notice of October 2022 that turned the Village Land into the
Pololeti Game Reserve.
3. The Government should
consider the Law and Good Governance in fulfilling its responsibilities to
protect and defend Human Rights as the Constitution states.
The same day, 10th
June, a Zoom press conference was held in Mto Wa Mbu with 40 victims from
Loliondo/Sale and from Ngorongoro division, and ten NGO representatives. Several
of the councillors who were abducted and locked up for almost six months
attended, as did a couple of councillors from Ngorongoro Division. This
conference dealt with both the brutal and illegal demarcation of a “game
reserve” in Loliondo/Sale and of the restrictions and suffocation to make the
Maasai relocate from Ngorongoro division (NCA) to other people’s land 600
kilometres away in Msomera.
Oriais Oleng’iyo’s son and his
youngest wife spoke at the press conference in Mto Wa Mbu. The same day that
others lost so much and were injured, their father and husband was taken away
and they have kept searching for him, always in vain. Oriais had six wives and
his family has lost livestock, their houses and belongings. They are very
bitter.
Joel Clemence Reson,
councillor of Malambo, spoke of how the councillors were summoned to the DC’s
office on 9th June 2022, taken to Chekereni police station in Arusha
(a drive of many hours) at midnight, and held incommunicado there for seven
days, sleeping on cement and buying their own food, since they fortunately had
money in their pockets. Then charged with murder without legal representation
and without being allowed to defend themselves. After many months in remand
prison, they found their people tortured and their cattle confiscated. It
would have been better to stay in prison than seeing the people without land,
cows or peace, the councillor said. Some villagers were unrecognisable.
Parents have had to take their children out of school and even mothers have had
to go to town to search for work.
Kijoolu Kakiya, special seats
councillor from Piyaya, spoke of being arrested on 9th June 2022,
and then shockingly charged with murder, followed by suffering from ill health
in remand prison. She does not understand the government’s motive for treating
CCM leaders as gangsters or terrorists, and to this day it has not been
explained to her who was ”murdered”. As a widow with eight children, she had
192 cows when she was abducted and when the bogus case was finally dismissed
only seven remained. The remaining seven cows were seized, she was fined and is
now in debt and destitute. Kijoolu has no way of making a living and feeding
her children. Kijoolu also spoke up to the press after the Zoom conference in Mto
Wa Mbu, about how restrictions are seriously affecting women and children in
Ngorongoro division (NCA, not Loliondo), who are missing vaccine and die when
not able to reach hospital for childbirth, and she was earlier interviewed by
the fact-finding mission in late May.
Daniel Ngoitiko, councillor of
Soitsambu ward, the only councillor who wasn’t abducted of those from wards
affected by the brutal and illegal demarcation, explained what happened to him.
Soitsambu is the ward in which OBC’s camp is found. Daniel did not attend the party meeting or
the DC’s meeting on 9th June 2022, since a child in his family (his
child?) had died. As soon as he heard of the abduction of all the other
councillors, he got on a motorbike and drove straight to Kenya where he stayed
until the fabricated case against his colleagues was dismissed almost six
months later and they were released. When he fled, he had 230 cows and 40
remained when he returned. Of 400 sheep 125 remained. Further, Daniel’s partner
in livestock business had disappeared to DRC with his money. Almost all grazing
land was gone and people in his ward had become poor. He called on all Maasai
to come together, since the suffering is everywhere and not only in Loliondo,
for allies everywhere to think of how to support them in this terrible
struggle, and for God to help, since it seems like too much for earthly beings.
When Daniel was interviewed by
the fact-finding mission in late May, he made it clear that sending in security
forces and taking the land by force was against the law and not following
procedures. In his ward where 99% depend on livestock for everything, almost
all grazing land was gone after the illegal operation and only small
residential and farming areas were left. Some 30,000 head of livestock have
been lost in the ward and some people died of hunger in 2022. In case she has
been badly advised, Daniel tells the president that she’s been fed poison about
the Maasai.
Robert Kamakia, of the NGO
PALISEP, from Orkiu, spoke of levels of poverty and suffering never seen before
and was sure that the government and OBC were celebrating their success. He
said that it’s important to put on record that absolutely no Maasai has agreed
to give away the land and called on everyone to come together to fight for its
return.
The retired teacher, Ephrahim
(or Ephrem) Kaura, from Mairowa, Ololosokwan, again spoke to the fact-finding
mission in late May. On 10th June 2022, he was badly beaten by
soldiers using sticks, mostly on his knees, one of them stabbed his right leg
with a bayonet, and he was brought to Kenya unconscious, where he spent many
months getting treatment. Now Eprahim is back home. He says that the grazing
land has been taken and now the night, that’s for dangerous wild animals and
thieves, is used for grazing. He used to be able to do farmwork, herding and to
give advice, but now he’s disabled while his children are still young. While in
Kenya, he said that he still had his mind, but now he says it’s gone too.
Lenoi Leitura, member of
Kirtalo village government, when interviewed by the fact-finding mission in
late May spoke of how, because of loss of cattle, women are preparing a wild
herb called mnafu (available after it rained) to eat, without any flour, oil or
salt. She asked the government to return the land if it in any way cares for
the people. During the operation last year, many women from Kirtalo slept in
the bush with their children. Three women who were selling tea were arrested,
including one who had a three-months old child and who was locked up for three
nights. Others were raped and miscarried.
Yohana Toroge, Kirtalo village
chairman, spoke about serious poverty after cattle death and asked the
government to allow grazing in the alienated area. He made it clear that it was
village land and that absolutely nobody had in any way participated or agreed
to the protected area.
Yohana Masiaya, chairman of
the CCM youth wing of Malambo Ward spoke of having been left with very small
and insufficient grazing land after the operation of last year, and that the
inflicted suffering continues to this day with cattle seizures, giving examples
of one old man who had six hundred cows, and had been left with one hundred and
a debt of 20 million shillings that he was forced to get into when fined.
Daniel Rago, councillor of
Maaloni, one of those locked up on bogus charges for almost six months, spoke
about cattle that return to the demarcated area when lost, and about an added
500-metre “buffer zone”. Somewhat weakly, he said that we must sit at one table
with the government that defend “conservation” and us who defend livestock, to
create a safe environment for both sides.
Kerry Purengey, chairman Sero
sub-village of Ololosokwan, spoke of depending on water from Kenya after the
1,500 km2 area was alienated. Mairowa Chini sub-village chairman Mayorr
Saingeu, said that half of Ololosokwan had been cut and now only remained
residential and cultivation land, with almost no land for grazing. Leitura (first
name?), chairman of Empopong sub-village of Kirtalo, too spoke of the cattle
death and poverty caused by the government taking the land, and asked the same
government to see the affected people.
Ndirango Laizer, former CCM
chairman of Ngorongoro District, who was one of those locked up for almost six
months charged with a “murder” committed the day after they were detained,
addressed the press in connection with he Zoom conference in Mto Wa Mbu. He
said that the situation for the Maasai of Loliondo and Ngorongoro is very difficult
indeed. He himself lost 290 cows last year. He made it clear that it’s an
absolute lie that anyone would have agreed to the massive Loliondo land
alienation, or the relocation from NCA, sought by the government via
strangulation of social services, while NCA is earning large sums for national
coffers. They have never sat down at one table with the government, on the
contrary, the PM received their recommendations (on 25th May 2022),
but didn’t act. He finds very hurtful the talk about that the Ngorongoro Maasai
would not be Tanzanians.
Traditional leader Metui Oleshaudo,
Edward Maura, councillor for Nainokanoka, and James Moringe, councillor for
Alaitolei are leaders from Ngorongoro division (NCA) who have lately been
speaking up, about Loliondo, about the suffocating restrictions in NCA, about
the Msomera scam, and about the government’s lies. Maura has stressed that it’s
not only the Maasai of Ngorongoro, but pastoralists all over the country who
are being tortured, like those who were evicted from Mkomazi in the 1980s and
are now being chased away from Morogoro. While being a member of the ruling CCM
party, he thinks that a new constitution is acutely needed.
Later, in a clip published by
Watetezi tv on 27th June, from the fact-finding of late May, the
councillor of Arash, Metthew Siloma, also features, speaking about the very
serious loss of livestock in his ward caused by the massive land theft, and of how
impoverished parents must take their children out of school. Arash village
chairman Mepuki Lemberwa added that the rangers are seizing donkeys used to
collect water from wells dug by the villagers themselves. Ololosokwan councillor,
Moloimet Saing’eu, who 2015-2021 was working for OBC and against the people, spoke
of the loss of livestock for lack of grazing, water and capture by rangers, and
of the astronomical fines.
I’ve missed many who have
spoken up, since they are too many, I’ve not been able to identify some of
them, and have not understood what some were saying. Then, voices that are not
being heard at all are, among others, those that were locked up on bogus murder
charges for almost six months, but who aren’t leaders. I’ve only heard from one
of them. They were badly beaten, tortured, both at Loliondo police station and
in Kisongo remand prison.
A
most disgusting budget speech by Mchengerwa
On 2nd June
Minister Mohamed Mchengerwa, President Samia's son in law, held the 2023-2024 budget speech for the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism. Loliondo isn’t mentioned at all by name. Instead, the
speech celebrates having upgraded "Pololeti” (and Kilombero) to Game Reserves.
The brutal and lawless demarcation of the illegal protected area that OBC have
been lobbying for since many years is described as strengthening protection and
sustainable use of natural resources, stimulating conservation and protection
of water sources, and investment in photographic and hunting tourism.
Mchengerwa said that after having placed “Pololeti GR” under the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority, this authority has sent 43 rangers to increase security.
Further, NCAA together with the National Land Use Commission (the Germans aren’t
mentioned) has surveyed 14 villages “bordering” the so-called game reserve, “solved”
land conflicts in seven villages and facilitated land use plans for 36 villages
(the fake and forced exercise that was rejected by all ward councillors) and
built 112.63 kilometres of road that will be used for the security and development
of the “game reserve”.
In the 2023-2024 budget year,
NCAA will do 38,640 patrol days in the so-called “Pololeti Game Reserve” and
carry out six special operations jointly with other security forces. This is obviously
a violent threat. Further, NCAA will maintain and plant boundary beacons
bordering the “game reserve” and install systems for tracking endangered
animals. NCAA will hold 30 meetings and eight assemblies to “educate” people
about methods of coping with fierce and destructive wildlife. As if there were
any animals more dangerous than the two-legged ones working for the extremely
predatory and destructive government … The NCAA will also plant 460,000 tree
seedlings and provide beekeeping training in 20 villages. Are there really any
villages that haven’t received beekeeping training? It’s a good thing, but it’s
being done everywhere, all the time.
NCAA will employ 80 people to strengthen
the protection of “Pololeti Game Reserve” and buy vehicles for the authority.
The construction of NCAA headquarters
will be completed in the Kemyn area of Karatu district. Regarding Ngorongoro
Conservation Area (not Loliondo where people have already been violently
evicted from the illegally demarcated “game reserve”), NCAA will continue “motivating”
residents of 25 villages to “voluntarily” relocate out of the conservation
area. We already know how that is being done: via restrictions on all normal human
activities and criminal suffocation of social services.
The Ngorongoro member of
parliament, Emmanuel Oleshangai, who sometimes has had good interventions, this
time spoke up in what I found to be a not strong enough way. He put the record straight
that the PM’s claims that the demarcation of the game reserve had been “participatory”
was just very incorrect. We all know that. Then he pleaded for the Loliondo
pastoralists that have lost almost all grazing land and whose livestock keep
getting seized. There isn’t a ministry that makes people cry as much as the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, he said. He asked for whom “conservation”
is being done. Then Shangai mentioned that the “Pololeti” boundary beacons even
enter Engaresero and that livestock have been seized there too, which he had
earlier asked about and which was “misunderstood” by deputy minister Masanja (see
above). He spoke about elephants that destroy crops. He said there was an
imminent threat of further protected areas at Lake Natron. He wanted the government
to come clean about what the plans for NCA are. The MP wanted participatory
talks, but the message should have been that the stolen land must be returned immediately,
and social services returned to NCA.
Amnesty
report
On 6th June, a
report by Amnesty International was released. “The report reveals that
brutal force was used against the Maasai to acquire the 1,500km2 of
village land in Loliondo and highlights grievous defects in the decision-making
process used to justify the forced evictions. It also exposes how the state
continues to exclude, from its conservation plans, community members who have
the right to and are custodians of the land, and instead displaces them from
their traditional grazing lands, restricting their access to resources within
their grazing land and providing no compensation.”
The focus of this report is on
Ololosokwan and on the first days of the brutal and lawless demarcation
exercise of 2022. Other villages are hardly even mentioned, Malambo (Area B of
the illegal game reserve) is not even on the map, which shows the importance of
on the ground reporting. Make video clips with your smartphone, or you don’t
exist! Though someone did record people from Sanjan in Malambo leaving their
homes following the eviction orders on 24th June 2022 … After
widespread arrests, theft of smartphones, and general terror the reporting was
radically reduced, while the victims from Ololosokwan have been much more
accessible than others, since many fled to Kenya where journalism is easier and
less risky than in Tanzania, especially Loliondo. Besides the violence of the
first days in Ololosokwan, the arrests and very lengthy lock-up on bogus
charges that were never investigated until the “murder” case was dismissed
after almost six months, and the almost equally bogus arrests on “illegal
immigration” charges are detailed in Amnesty’s report and put within the
national and international legal framework.
The writing is to some extent
uneven. First it seems like the report is getting into a complete mess of misunderstanding
about Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009, but then this is salvaged as the
report goes on.
What disappoints me is that
it’s in the report repeatedly claimed that there were evictions in Loliondo in
2013. That’s simply not true and it’s an easily avoidable mistake. It seems
like there can’t be a single article or report about Loliondo without this kind
of mistake though, even if the claimed year varies … There were illegal mass
arson evictions in the drought year 2009 when OBC were complaining about “too
many” livestock. In 2013, there were serious threats and lies from Minister
Kagasheki who was defeated when PM Pinda recognized the obvious, that the land
was village land, and told the Maasai – who had garnered support from both
opposition and ruling party - to go on with their lives as before Kagasheki’s
threats. There were certainly no evictions in 2013. Confusion about 2015
is more understandable (but avoided by Amnesty), since there were brutal
evictions, but from an area mostly inside Serengeti National Park where the
Maasai had been living for years with an unofficial agreement. Since there had
to be zero tolerance with the government invading village land, local leaders
said that we could not react to this case in the same way, but still the story
got its own life in international media. This was nowhere near Ololosokwan, but
next to Arash and Maaloni. In 2017, as known, there was a terrible illegal mass
arson operation on village land, which should not have been possible after all
work to prevent that anything like 2009 would ever be repeated. The “reason”
claimed by the DC and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism was that
herders were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”, while Minister
Maghembe was lying Kagasheki-style, pretending that there was no village land. Then,
bomas were in the terrible year of terror 2018 again arsoned, but only in
Kirtalo and Ololosokwan, and in their dozens instead of hundreds like in 2009
and 2017. This crime was committed in November and December by soldiers from
the Tanzania People’s Defence Force that in March the same year had set up camp
in Lopolun, which was later made permanent with funds from NCAA. The crime of
2022 is the worst of all, since it’s still ongoing over a year later. Here I’ve
very briefly mentioned the illegal operations that I’ve written more
extensively about in other posts. Please, contact me with any questions. Don’t
guess and don’t copy from newspaper articles, or even reports by serious
organisations, or researchers.
Unfortunately, the recent
mention by a journalist that the district council would have leased the hunting
block to OBC is copied, when it of course was the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism, Minister Abubakar Mgumia in this case, allegedly quite directly on
behalf of President Mwinyi. The first irregular contract (which soon
was revoked) was in 1992 signed by Ahmed Saeed Abulrahman Alkhateeb on behalf
of Mohammed Abdul Rahim Al Ali, the owner of OBC. The Ngorongoro DC, Col. Leban
Makunenge, signed for the central government while the District Executive
Director signed for of the Ngorongoro District Council. Richard Koillah, then
MP for Ngorongoro, signed the contract on behalf of six villages (Ololosokwan,
Soitsambu, Oloipiri, Olorien-Magaiduru, Loosoito-Maaloni and Arash) without any
involvement or consent by villagers or village leaders. This does not mean that
OBC leased the hunting block from the district council.
The Amnesty report is
important. Even when Loliondo was for some time almost getting spoiled with
support from important international organizations, compared to other areas under attack in Tanzania, more are needed, and
especially those that like Amnesty talk directly to victims. On the other hand,
after over a year, we know what happened, and while every kernel of truth is
needed, the time for putting real pressure on the criminal Tanzanian is long
past. We should not only be making demands for the land back without adding,
“or else”, but who can enforce sanctions? I’ll keep recommending a full tourism
boycott.
Amnesty ends the report by
making a number of relevant detailed recommendations to a long list of authorities,
and including the investigation of the killing (obvious self-defence)of the
police officer Garlus Mwita, which I would not have included, but which
highlights the fact that instead of making any kind of effort to investigate,
this killing was used for locking up innocent people, including those already
detained before the killing, for almost six months using repeated postponements
without prosecution.
Court cases
Miscellaneous
Criminal Application No. 68 of 2022 was dismissed
on 17th May by judge Gwae and the Notice of Appeal has been filed.
Then 84-years old Orias
Oleng'iyo from Ololosokwan has not been seen since 10th June 2022,
at his home in the Engong'u area of Ololosokwan, with bullet wounds and held by
security forces that had been sent in their hundreds to brutally and lawlessly
demarcate 1,500 km2 of village land and very important grazing land,
as the protected area that the “investor” OBC for years has been lobbying for.
Unlike other abducted people from Loliondo, Oriais never appeared on lists of
those who had been detained and was not among those charged with bogus charges
that were dismissed after months of illegal detention and torture. His son
Ndoloi, who last saw his father being taken away by security forces, filed an
habeas corpus case in court.
The plaintiff was applying
for:
1. The Court to order the
defendants to bring before the Court Oriais Pasilange Ng'iyo who has been taken
to an unknown location since he was arrested at his home in Engong'u Nairowa,
Ololosokwan Ward, Loliondo, Ngorongoro District.
2. Court to order the
respondents to set at liberty Oriais Oleng'iyo.
3. The Court to order the
respondents to attend Court to explain the reasons for holding Orias Pasilange
Ng'iyo against the Law.
4. The Court to order the respondents to bring
back the body of Oriais Pasilange Ng'iyo dead or alive.
The "reasons" found
by the judge for dismissing the case were: Oriais Oleng'iyo's son failed to
prove that the respondents arrested his father, they weren't those responsible
for the demarcation exercise (meaning Inspector General of Police, and others,
but not the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism), and there were no other
witnesses. As said, this is being appealed.
Where is Orias Oleng'iyo???
Miscellaneous
Civil Cause No. 21 of 2022, the judicial review challenging
former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana's Government
Notice No.421, of 17th June 2022, declaring the fake and illegal
“Pololeti Game Controlled Area” had the government’s preliminary objections dismissed
was heard on 29th May when it was agreed that it should proceed by
way of written submission. On 31st July there has been a day of “clarifications”
in court and the ruling has been scheduled for 1st September.
The case challenging President
Samia’s Government Notice No.604, gazetting the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game
Reserve” on 14th October 2022 - Miscellaneous Civil Cause No. 178
of 2022 was scheduled for hearing 30th May 2023, but postponed
since the judge was sick.
There was a court hearing of
the leave for judicial review on 23rd June and the ruling will be on
1st August.
In the East African Court of
Justice, the ongoing case against the Tanzanian government’s fake and illegal
“Pololeti Game Reserve” is Reference No.37 of 2022. In late September
2022, the government side responded with some wildly lying objections, but then
I haven’t seen anything scheduled. As mentioned before, the EACJ is not very
speedy …
Appeal No.13
of 2022 East Africa Court of Justice of the strange ruling in
the case about the 2017 mass arson operation (Reference No.10 of 2017) was
heard on 15th May and the date for ruling will be communicated.
Application
No.2 of 2022, a contempt of court application, filed in
January 2022, when RC Mongella started making threats of alienating the 1,500
km2, against which the East African Court of Justice had issued an
injunction in September 2018. An affidavit was filed after every court order,
and everything else, had been violated. This important case was heard in
November in Kampala, and I was told that it was probably scheduled for delivery
of ruling on the Preliminary Objection in June, but still nothing has been
heard.
Reference
No.29 of 2022 in the East African Court of Justice is not
about the brutal Loliondo land theft but challenges the coordinated and
suffocating policies in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Apparently, there’s
still nothing scheduled for this case.
On 28th July there
was a ruling in Criminal Appeal No. 9 of 2023 filed by two cattle
owners, Baraka Moson Kesoi and Raphael Oleruye Oloishiro, from Bulati in
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, who in January were fined the usual extortion of
TShs 100,000 per head of cattle and 25,000 per sheep or goat for grazing in the
Nadengare area that’s shared between Malambo in Sale and some areas in NCA.
This case is challenging:
1. Imposition of TShs 100,000 fines as unfounded
in the law.
2. Jurisdictions of the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area in imposing compounding fees in “Pololeti Game
Reserve”.
The ruling was to be on 28th
June, but postponed to 28th July, since the judge did not attend. On
28th July the ruling had a good part, that the 100,000 TShs fines
are not lawful, and a very bad part, that NCA rangers seizing cattle outside
NCA is indeed lawful. Then I’ve been told that even the first part wasn’t that
good. Tanzanian courts aren’t independent at all and in this case the judge is believed
to have been influenced by the president’s ranting about judges that rule in
favour of pastoralists. I'll return to this ruling when I've understood it better.
The Samia Suluhu Hassan government’s
war against all rural Tanzanian, and particularly the Maasai, continues. This
is being done because of anti-pastoralism and an obsessive tourism cult. A total
tourism boycott would hit this brutal government where it hurts the most.
Though everyone is under
threat. Kalilani fishing village that’s under threat from Mahale Mountains
National Park and is hardly mentioned in any media at all – even when TANAPA rangers
last year opened fire from a boat on the lake, killing one villager - has filed
a court case. After the filing, the Police, the Army, TANAPA and Immigration
were removed from the village. They were there to evict the villagers to
confiscate their land. People had already had to flee to sleep in the forest. Today
31st July the villagers have arrived in Kigoma Town for the case.
FZS are involved in village land use planning in that area as well …
 |
| Kalilani villagers in Kigoma Town. |
I feel bad about not having
published a blog post in two months, even when there is so much to write about,
with incomplete and confused information. I will try never to repeat this
silence.
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
Rangers demolished the tented class room.
Today the NCA rangers have by force been taking young
men’s phones in Endulen ward. Their intention is to identify who have been
sharing photos and clips from the protests demanding a permit to repair Ndian
Primary School in Nasipooriong’.
7th August
Protests continue in Nasipooriong'.
9th August
The protests in Nasipooriong' were covered in a bried radio piece by DW Kiswahili
10th August
The Jamvi la Habari, on its frontpage had news about that Ngorongoro people want the relocation speeded up and to be able to move where they want. It was accompanied by old picture from Loliondo, not NCA, including a close up of Kijoolu Kakiya ...
MP Emmanuel Oleshangai visited the protestors. People were sad and disappointed since they'd been told that high government representatives would come.
On 16th August I published next blog post, mostly about NCA, and particularly Endulen. https://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2023/08/peaceful-protests-at-ndian-primary.html
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