Peaceful
protests erupted and continued for over a week in Nasipooriong’ village in Endulen
ward to demand a permit to repair Ndian Primary School. This is not about seeking
funds but just to obtain a permit. No such permits have been granted since 2021
and this is a very calculated strategy in the Tanzanian government’s war
against the Maasai. I’ve tried to provide a brief background to what’s going in
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is not to be confused with Loliondo where
the government uses other war strategies. As this blog post kept getting
delayed, Maasai warriors in Endulen provided some justice to “journalists” who
have been employed in a campaign of ethnic hatred since early 2022.
On 22nd
July it was ten years since Moringe Parkipuny passed away to soon, and I forgot
… I’m glad that he did not have to see this decade of escalating horror, but
maybe he could now be proud of some people in Endulen.
In this blog
post:
Protests at Ndian Primary
School
The government press
Action taken at Endulen market
Joshua Olepatorro whose teeth were smashed out by NCAA rangers
The Germans again boasting of
their support for human rights criminals
Background to the government’s
cruel relocation drive
UNESCO and the horrible Dr
Malebo
Don’t mix up Loliondo and NCA!
The Royal Tour
As reported in the previous blog
post, on 31st July people had gathered at the Ndian Primary School,
in the sub-village of the same name in Nasipooriong’ village, Endulen Ward in
Ngorongoro Division (not to be confused with Loliondo/Sale Divisions), which is
the same as Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Ngorongoro District. They were
there to demand permits to repair the school with walls so heavily cracked that
it’s unsafe for schoolchildren to stay there during heavy rains. The Maasai
were demanding this even at their own cost, since their problem is that the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), in its cruel UNESCO-instigated,
and tourism-cult fuelled efforts to make them “relocate”, since 2021 is refusing
to grant any permits for building or renovation.
The following day, 1st
August, the headteacher, Ibrahim Mtunguja, received threats while the
Nasipooriong’ village chairman, Kunaay Nakuta, and Endulen laigwanani of the
Nyangulo age set (current warriors), Koising'et Olekoika, got calls summoning
them to Endulen police station. At Endulen market on 2nd August the
police attempted to capture the chairman, which led to a people’s march to the
police station to free him, which was successful, and the police ran away! On
the 3rd there was a meeting with people sent from the district
council who were informed that the protests would continue until there was a
permit, so protests continued at Nasipooriong’ Primary School with the message,
“We aren’t moving, without a permit” and video clips and photos were
being widely shared in social media, which had been done every day since the
protests started on 31st July. The police were there, but without
acting violent or intimidating anyone. On the 4th the protests continued,
people marched to block the Endulen-Ndutu road and there were songs of prayer.
The placards held at the protests
clearly show that the issue is not only the permit for the Ndian Primary School
but the government’s planned suffocation for “voluntarily” relocation that
targets the whole of Ngorongoro division, all schools and all health centres.
There are messages such as, “DC, DED Ngorongoro and Arusha RC stop your evil
plans over the people of Ngorongoro Division.”, “We are waiting for mass
burial for our Ndian Primary School pupils if we don't take action as
soon as possible.”, “NCAA why are you denying us building permits
while government VIPs are building 5-star hotels at the Crater Rim?”,
“CCM, you have betrayed people of Ngorongoro for such a long time that you have
no space here”, “If you grant permits for development projects, how many
animals will get killed?”, “There is no voluntary relocation from Ngorongoro,” “Hotel
owners, tour guides, and company owners can’t decide anything about us in
Ngorongoro.”.
James Moringe, councillor of Alaitolei,
attended the protests on 2nd and 3rd August. Endulen is
without a ward councillor since Emmanuel Oleshangai became Ngorongoro MP in
February 2022, after William Olenasha’s untimely death in September 2021.
On the 5th the
Maasai protestors started building a tented classroom for class seven, while
waiting for the permit. However, the following day criminal NCA rangers
demolished the tented classroom and were by force taking young men’s phones in
Endulen ward. Their intention was to identify who had been sharing photos and
clips from the protests demanding a permit to repair the primary school.
On Monday 7th August,
the protests resumed and the following day Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai made
a visit. Though people were sad and disappointed, since they had been promised
that high government representatives would come. The Arusha RC and Ngorongoro DC
– human rights criminals Mongella and Mwangwala - are reportedly refusing to listen
to the protestors’ complaints. The MP promised to provide feedback about the
permit on 18th August, and the protesters decided to wait for that.
On 11th August
there were reports of a mason, sent by unknown people, doing renovation
evaluation at Ndian Primary School. This mason didn’t talk to anyone but was
checking the whole school building.
Examples from other schools:
Endulen Primary School toilet
for 1,926 pupils. NCAA refuse to grant a permit for building new toilets.
Misigiyo Primary School – the
roof of class one blew off in heavy wind in 2021. NCAA provided TShs 2,780,000
for rebuilding and deposited money in the school account but later refused to
grant a building permit.
Tundu Lissu, survivor of a many-bullets
assassination attempt, CHADEMA presidential candidate in the 2020 “elections”, and
ally of the Ngorongoro Maasai since long before that, on 4th August tweeted,
“The Ngorongoro Maasai in open protests to demand restoration of their
ancestral lands & residency rights; & restoration of the social service
programs illegally diverted as part of the starve-them-out-of-Ngorongoro
strategy of the Samia regime. I STAND WITH THE NGORONGORO MAASAI!”
Most Tanzanians on social
media were in support of the Maasai, with the usual exceptions.
The government
press
In Tanzania there are “journalists”
that are directly contracted to produce ethnic hatred propaganda against the Maasai.
It’s obvious and everyone knows it, but still other media, very knowingly, use
their material as if it were normal reporting. Following the authoritarian turn
of recent years, with sharply increased repression, all regular Tanzanian media
can be labelled as government press.
On 5th August,
instead of reporting about the protest in Nasipooriong’, the rotten Tanzanian
media reported about three individuals who wanted the government to speed up
relocations out of Ngorongoro (“journalists” had obviously, as so many times
before, been sent to Ngorongoro with NCAA instructions). The three are among
some people who have registered to relocate and sold all their belongings, but
then the government does not have the promised houses for them in Msomera,
which perhaps is a calculated strategy. Such people are then being used against
the efforts to stop suffocating restrictions and illegal blocking of social
services in Ngorongoro.
Online media like Mwanzo tv
and Watetezi tv did report on the Ndian protests, and on 9th August
there was a brief, but good, radio piece on DW Kiswahili.
On the front page of the fabrications
and slander paper Jamvi la Habari on 10th August it was reported that
the Ngorongoro Maasai wanted the relocation speeded up, but to be able to move
to a place of their choice. This was accompanied by old pictures of protests in
Loliondo, making it seem like there would be big gatherings of people wanting
to be relocated, including a headshot of Kijoolu Kakiya, special seats
councillor from Piyaya in Sale – not even NCA/Ngorongoro division – who was
abducted for over five months when massive land was brutally and illegally stolen
in Loliondo. Kijoolu usually speaks up for land rights and has also spoken up
against the restrictions in NCA, particularly about life-threatening effects on
women and children who are missing vaccines and die when not able to reach
hospital for childbirth. I hope she’ll sue the paper.
On 13th August, the
rotten Tanzanian press was again engaging in the message of Ngorongoro Maasai
who thank the government for the opportunity to move to Msomera where there,
unlike Ngorongoro, are social services and agriculture. This is so perverse
when it is the government that very purposefully is maintaining restrictions
and accelerating illegal blocking of services to make the Maasai leave. On the
14th, the Habari Leo, the Daily News and many others were reporting about
placard carrying people from Kapenjiro, of those who have registered to move, but
are stuck because of the government’s unfulfilled promises. Though these people
were of course not against the government, but against those speaking up for a
stop to the suffocating restrictions and illegal blocking of social services,
and who aren’t stopping anyone from moving anywhere ... My name was on at least
one placard, which is strange. I’m a world authority on Loliondo, where I’ve
met many people and have friends and enemies, and even that is now long ago,
but I am just one of many people writing about NCA. I got a greeting in
Messenger from one of the nastier friends of the Loliondo investors in the
middle of the night of the 13th. Then Tanzanian media reported about
a woman who was attacked by a hyena in 2018 and wanted to relocate. Quick
googling will find news about people being attacked by hyenas in Handeni.
Action taken against
extreme provocation at Endulen market
Without having announced
anything to village authorities, in the afternoon of 15th August,
the anti-Maasai campaigner Habib Mchange was at Endulen market, in front of
children, using a government vehicle and loudspeakers, in the company of “government
employees” and other “journalists” haranguing people about moving out of
Ngorongoro. In a beautiful act of justice, the criminals were chased away and
injured by Maasai warriors. Maybe the worm has finally turned.
Habib Mchange of the fabrications
and defamation newspaper Jamvi la Habari is since early 2022 engaged in a
campaign of extreme ethnic hatred against the Ngorongoro Maasai, and for relocation.
He has together with other likeminded “journalists” formed an organization
called MECIRA that lends its services to the government’s war against
pastoralists. According to a statement issued by the NCAA the same evening as
he was chased away by Maasai warriors, Mchange was at Endulen market “providing
education to those who have registered to relocate” (he was advocating for
everyone to leave) when he and his colleagues – together with “government
employees” - were attacked and injured by some 200 Maasai warriors with
traditional weapons. Some have wondered from
where the inciters of ethnic hatred and relentless advocates for relocation are
getting their apparently substantial funding, and few have doubted the
involvement of NCAA. The NCAA statement about “providing education” is a
confession that this is in no way a case of journalistic work. The NCAA
statement said that “in collaboration with the police, the Ngorongoro
Conservation Authority is looking for all those involved in this incident and
legal action will be taken against them”. Even when the NCAA openly say that
Mchange was there to advocate for relocation, other media, always incapable of calling
a spade a spade, still pretend that the criminals were doing journalistic work.
The injured criminals are reportedly
Habib Mchange himself, Ferdinand Shayo from ITV, the freelancer Denis Msacky,
and a translator. The other “journalists” involved in the anti-Maasai campaign were
unfortunately not at Endulen market, particularly Manyerere Jackton, Deusdatus Balile
and Maulid Kitenge (see below, and previous blog posts, for more about these criminals).
The injured were taken to Karatu, not Endulen hospital.
On 16th August the
frontpage of the Jamvi la Habari said, “The Ngorongoro MP plans murder strategies”.
To the sports presenter-cum-genocidal
inciter Maulid Kitenge of Wasafi tv, the Ngorongoro DC, human rights criminal
Raymond Mwangwala, kept to the message of the NCAA statement and added that
everything was peaceful, with no disturbance to tourism.
The government's main enforcer
of the war against the Maasai of Ngorongoro, and Loliondo, Arusha RC John Mongella,
made a hospital visit to check on his genocidal inciters. At the same time, he
ordered the Arusha Regional Police to hunt down and arrest everyone involved in
the incident.
Now the government target is
to arrest local leaders. There are some 30 vehicles at the Endulen NCAA zonal
office, including FFU anti-riot police. The police have today, 16th
August, searched the homes of the Endulen village chairman, Thomas Oltwati, and
CCM ward chairman, Moses Oleseki, but they could not find these leaders. At 4:30pm
Endulen police officers arrested a young man named Larasha Olenginina in his
shop and took him to the Endulen NCAA office, instead of taking him to Endulen
police station. Alaitole ward councillor, James Moring, has been summoned to
report at Ngorongoro police station tomorrow at 8:00am, but the
reason for this is unclear.
This – like all of Mchange’s
Ngorongoro activity - is the work of a government sponsored fascist campaigner,
and not a “journalist”. He got away far too lightly. Still, the action taken in
Endulen is admirable.
I will post further updates at the end of the blog post.
In short:
The government/NCAA
responded to protests over the blocking of renovation permits by escalating
disinformation in media, and sending a provocateur, since early 2022 contracted
to incite ethnic hatred, right into the market of the least timid village.
Those who reacted are now being hunted.
Joshua
Olepatorro whose teeth were smashed out by NCAA rangers
Reportedly, Joshua Olepatorro
is doing well. He got help with his hospital stay but will need help to fix his
teeth (any readers who can help with this?) and the ranger who smashed them out
has been identified as Elibariki Israel Namungu. A court case has been filed
and hopefully for the first time a criminal NCAA ranger will be prosecuted. On
13th July, 15-year old (he looks younger) Joshua from Nainokanoka was attacked
by NCAA rangers when returning from having grazed cows in Olmoti 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.
This year there has been
several cases of ranger violence in NCA reported, unreported, or silenced.
The
Germans again boasting of their support for human rights criminals
On 3rd August,
during the protests in Nasipooriong’, the clueless, or probably very evil
Embassy of Germany in Tanzania, on Twitter continued the habit of boasting
about funding human rights criminals. Dr. Katrin Bornemann the Head of
Cooperation at the German Embassy together with the Permanent Secretary Dr.
Hassan Abbas from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) co-chaired
the steering committee. As the biggest bilateral donor in the sector, showering
the criminals with 120 million euros to keep making people cry in “mainly the
regions Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Selous and Nyerere as well as Katavi Mahale
National Parks and Corridor and Ruvuma Region.”
As far as I know, they (Frankfurt
Zoological Society) have only a rhino project in NCA but have shamelessly
funded the – rejected by all Ngorongoro councillors - draft Ngorongoro District
Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043, the main object of which was to legitimize
the massive brutal illegal demarcation, lobbied for by OBC that organizes hunting
for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, of a “Pololeti Game Reserve” in Loliondo and
Malambo/Piyaya in Sale. With great brutality, abducting councillors from all
affected wards for over five months, other illegal arrests and malicious charges
without prosecution, shooting, beating, slashing, raping, destroying, stealing,
disappearing Orias Oleng’iyo who has not been seen since 10th June
2022, to take away most grazing land and squeeze the Maasai into residential
and agricultural areas, leaving them to grazing at night as thieves on their
own land exposed to large predators that are much more difficult to handle at nighttime,
extorting them with huge fines on their livestock, leading to terrible debt.
The rejected plan does not say
much about NCA, but shows the whole area in the same colour, calling it a “reserved
area”, and only once mentioning that there are human livelihood activities. (More about this in the previous blog post, and those before that one.) A decades long
land rights struggle in Loliondo – even with a local police state where anyone criticising
certain “investors” gets into trouble, and mass arson operations in 2009 and
2017 - has had the aim of avoiding something like the restricted (already
before the current extreme measures) life under the yoke of NCAA.
Background to
the government’s cruel relocation drive
All permits for construction
or renovation of schools or health facilities in the 25 villages of NCA, even
those already with government funds in their accounts, or third-party
donations, have since 2021 been denied by Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Authority and since 2022 there’s a drive to manipulate the in every way
suffocated Maasai to relocate to other people’s land, that in no way can
accommodate pastoralism, 600 kilometres away. Though these are not the first
restrictions or eviction efforts. There’s a population panic – used as an
excuse for any human rights violations - on the part of the government and some
international organizations, even when Ngorongoro is less densely populated than
most areas of Tanzania and has become a huge tourism money-maker for government
coffers and deep pockets, with the Maasai living there, in their land.
The Maasai already lost access
to over 14,000 km2 when evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the
colonial government – accompanied by Bernhard Grzimek’s rallying cry, “Serengeti
Shall Not Die” (this Nazi-party member also wanted the Maasai out of Ngorongoro
and is still revered by the German embassy in Tanzania) - and as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed
the right to continue occupying the 8,292 km² Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a
multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural
resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard
for wildlife, and in case of conflict the interest of the Maasai would take
precedence. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue, as seen again and
again, has turned into the paramount interest, with restrictions for the
Ngorongoro Maasai.
In 1975, after a change in the
NCA Act in 1974, the Maasai were brutally evicted from residing in Ngorongoro Crater
and all cultivation was prohibited. The cultivation ban was lifted in 1992, but
brought back in 2009 (or 2008), to the whole of NCA, after many “grave concerns” in the
recommendations by UNESCO and IUCN. Now not even the smallest kitchen garden is
allowed, which together with loss of access to grazing areas has led to
malnutrition. The Maaai are not allowed to build permanent houses and suffer
all kinds of harassment by NCA rangers, that want to restrict motorbikes,
building materials, and demanding permits for just anything, including
demanding ID for the Maasai to pass Loduare gate.
In 2006, there were
relocations to Jema in Oldonyosambu ward of Maasai deemed not to be original inhabitants
of NCA. It’s said that most of these people have returned - and in April 2021
they were threatened with eviction.
After a visit by PM Majaliwa
in December 2016, the Maasai lost access to the three craters Ngorongoro,
Olmoti, and Empakaai, which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for
Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks
for livestock in these wards. This was done through order and not any change in
the law. Replacement salt donated by the NCAA was found to be substandard, adulterated,
and lead to the death of many cows.
In September 2019, the notorious
chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public a Multiple Land Use Model review
proposal, which was so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai
livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. Only 18% of the expanded NCA
would remain for people and livestock. This genocidal zoning proposal included
the annexation of the now brutally and illegally demarcated areas in Loliondo and
Sale divisions that then Minister Pindi Chana indeed illegally declared annexed
to NCA on 28th September 2022. The 2019 announcement was followed by
so many protest statements – by NCA Maasai - that I lost count, while those in
Loliondo almost pretended that nothing was happening, until the threats against
Loliondo were issued on the ground by Arusha RC Mongella in early 2022.
On Election Day, 28th
October 2020, non-party affiliated 23-year Salula Ngorisiolo was shot to death
when NCAA rangers and police opened fire at unarmed voters who were protesting
open and shameless election fraud at Oloirobi polling station in Ngorongoro
ward. No Ngorongoro leaders at all have denounced this murder.
The ogress
enters
Shortly after having come into
office in 2021, Samia Suluhu Hassan started bringing up the need to “save”
Ngorongoro from the Maasai, in an explicit way not used by any previous
president. A week after her first of many speeches of this kind there was on 12th
April 2021 demolition orders for private houses, primary schools, dispensaries,
Endulen police station, churches, and a mosque, which after protests was
stopped until further notice. This was accompanied with eviction orders against
hundreds of individuals seen as “illegal immigrants” or having returned from
Jema.
Also in 2021, in May, the NCAA
headquarters were hastily relocated to Karatu, promotional spectacles headed by
the infamous chief conservator Freddy Manongi were held on parliamentary
grounds, and in September 2021 a clip was uploaded in which Deputy Minister Mary
Masanja complains about having seen cattle on a trip with MPs and Manongi talks
about a war, that pastoralists have many conspiracies and that conservationists
must start cooking their own conspiracies. NCAA rangers assaulted several
herders in August and September 2021. Protests were brewing but were cut short
when MP Olenasha passed away on 27th September.
On 17th October
2021, Samia held a speech in Arusha talking about how important Ngorongoro is
for tourism and that “we” can’t continue considering people’s interests while
destroying it. She was accompanied and supported by the imposter Lekisongo from
Monduli, who pretended to represent the Ngorongoro Maasai while supporting
relocations. Several protest statements were issued by Ngorongoro Maasai
against this individual, which didn’t deter him from later showing up acting as
an imposter at spectacles together with PM Majaliwa and RC Mongella. In March
2022, Lekisongo was cursed by the Maasai of Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Sale.
Chief Conservator Freddy Manongi
was supposed to retire in November 2021, but President Samia renewed his
appointment for two more years. In multiple statements the Maasai have been
calling for the removal of Manongi who apparently has deep personal anti-Maasai
sentiments that he’s acting on all the time.
The year of
horror 2022, a year that wont end
2022 started with a leaked fast-tracked
plan for “voluntary” relocations of Ngorongoro Maasai. In the plan the Kitwai
and Handeni GCAs are named as the areas for relocation and misleadingly
described as protected areas that will be declassified. On the ground in
Msomera, Handeni, there was of course a registered village with its land use plan
and bewildered villagers looking on as houses were speedily being built for
Ngorongoro Maasai. Arusha RC John Mongella was the recommended overseer of the
project, and that’s what he become for the whole of the war against the Maasai in
both NCA and Loliondo/Sale. The plan recommended seeking permission to use
COVID-19 money allocated for the development projects to fund the eviction of
Ngorongoro Maasai - and then on 31st March then DED Mhina sent
letters to Ngorongoro headteachers ordering them to transfer COVID-19 funds for
Ngorongoro schools to Handeni District council.
Towards late January 2022,
Habib Mchange’s Jamvi la Habari newspaper, that focuses on fabrications and
slander of opposition politicians, jumped into and accelerated a hate campaign
against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social media, was
joined by crazed sports presenters Maulid Kitenge and his friends. The old
anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper with Deusdatus Balile and Manyerere Jackton who in
over 60 articles has incited against the Maasai of Loliondo, soon joined in,
and the “journalists” started an organization, MECIRA, with its sole focus on
evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro (have since moved on to also inciting against
pastoralists elsewhere) - and were treated as serious actors by other media.
Though many Tanzanians in social media who had earlier not paid much attention
to Ngorongoro saw what was going on, were appalled, and started speaking up. On
13th February 2022, the new anti-Maasai organisation held a press
conference sharing dehumanizing theories about the Ngorongoro Maasai. The
Darmpya online news, asked questions, like how come the “allowances” for
attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and
for what purpose.
On 3rd February
2022, journalists who had covered a community rally in Nainokanoka were detained
by NCAA rangers and local police, released, and then detained again and
searched without warrant, then interrogated, harassed and verbally insulted at
Lodoare access gate to NCAA. They were finally released on condition that they
see Elibariki Bajuta, then head of NCAA’s protection division in Karatu, now
deputy conservator. The journalists met Bajuta at midnight when he intimidated
them and warned them about ever again entering NCA without accreditation from
the authority (Manongi).
On 9th February
2022, parliamentarians competed in being wilfully or genuinely ignorant, hateful,and calling for evictions from Ngorongoro (Loliondo was mentioned, but mostly
NCA). The Mtwara MP screamed that tanks were needed, there was much laughter
and table banging, while only three MPs (all Maasai) spoke up for the Maasai.
The arguments, besides the old population panic, ranged from dehumanizing
colonial fantasies to crocodile tears about poverty and backwardness, to lies
that rich people not from Ngorongoro, but from town or the neighbouring
country, would own the livestock in NCA, to blaming Kenya for being behind the
anti-eviction resistance with the aim of sabotaging tourism in Tanzania.
Majaliwa said that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act would be reviewed, but
first there was to be a seminar for the MPs and he would meet with people in
Ngorongoro and Loliondo. On 12th February 2022, a one-sided
“seminar” about Ngorongoro was held for the MPs who continued their hateful and
defamatory incitement against the Maasai. At this seminar, one non-Maasai MP
supported the Ngorongoro Maasai: Professor Kitila Mkumbo, MP for Ubungo.
In NCA many people stopped
sleeping and started praying incessantly at combined prayer and protest
meetings.
On 17th February
2022, Majaliwa held a brief agenda-driven meeting at the NCA hall, for leaders
and closed to the public. There was confusion and thorough registering of the
attendants. Two journalists were arrested and released later the same day. The
local people who were locked out stayed outside the hall singing.
On 5th March 2022,
Deputy Minister Mary Masanja brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling
vehicles to Ngorongoro, squirting champagne, to celebrate tourism, CCM, or
supposedly International Women’s Day. Meanwhile Maasai women climbed Mount
Makarot to pray for their land. In early June, a similar tasteless, wasteful,
and reckless spectacle was held by the CCM youth wing, UVCCM.
On 10th March 2022 in
Arusha, Majaliwa held a fake meeting about Ngorongoro with Maasai from other
areas, without any connection to Ngorongoro, led by the fraudster Lekisongo. At
a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19th March, about both Loliondo
and NCA, Lekisongo was officially cursed.
On 13th March 2022,
Majaliwa made a much-publicised visit to Msomera Village in Handeni where
houses were hurriedly being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro, without
consulting them, and without consulting residents of Msomera that’s a legally
registered village.
On 25th March 2022,
Damas Ndumbaro, a horrible liar, then still Minister for Natural Resources and
Tourism, met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and
Loliondo, and his ministry reported that the German ambassador supported the
government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, which has still not been publicly denied by
any German representative.
On 3rd April 2022,
the NCAA had found some real traitors to show off, unlike the previous
imposters from other places than Ngorongoro, but mostly those who had already
left long ago, like those that had worked in Ngorongoro for a while and were
looking for a compensation deal. There were also some traitors, not for wanting
to relocate, but for lending themselves to the dirty war against their own
people. Then several groups – but still a very tiny minority - of in-authentic,
compromised, or naïve Maasai registered to be relocated to Msomera and much
paraded in media, with former MP Kaika Saning’o Telele (who in 2023 started complaining)
as the worst example.
On 6th May 2022,
the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on the
government of Tanzania to immediately cease efforts to evict the Maasai people
from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Then the president, at
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition’s own 10-year anniversary, expressed
her displeasure with human rights defenders defending Ngorongoro Maasai and not
her genocidal plans.
On 25th May 2022, a
60-member committee handed over reports on community recommendations to PM Kassim
Majaliwa, which is what he had asked for. There was one report on NCA and one
on Loliondo/Sale. The report writers weren’t shy to tell the truth and Majaliwa
said that he would work on the recommendations. Majaliwa was known as a truly dangerous
liar, to the extent of informing the public that the dying, or already dead,
president Magufuli was hard at work with stacks on folders on his desk, and the
PM would very soon get even worse, but dancing to his tune was seen as
preferably anyway, when it included the opportunity to hand over reports telling
the truth. Not sure what the PM had expected, or if he ever read the reports.
In June 2022 and ongoing, Loliondo
was brutally and lawlessly attacked by security forces, demarcating and then evicting
everyone from a fake and illegal “game reserve” (that was illegally gazetted months
later). All councillors from affected wards were abducted and locked up for
over 5 months, there were shootings, beatings, slashings with bayonets, rape, theft
of motorbikes and telephones, destruction of houses, illegal arrests and trumped
up charges, even shooting of cows, thousands fled to Kenya, everyone was
supposed to squeeze into residential and agricultural areas with very insufficient
grazing areas left, having to enter their own land as thieves at night for
grazing, seizing and huge “fines” (extortion) on livestock that continue.
Besides that this increased fear in NCA, some Maasai from Alailelai and Naiyobi
wards in NCA share the Nadengare grazing area, now patrolled as a “game reserve”,
with Malambo (area B of the fake GR) and have been extorted 100,000 TSh per
head of cattle or 25,000 per sheep or goat. Two of them - Baraka Moson Kesoi
and Raphael Oleruye Oloishiro, from Bulati – filed a criminal appeal to contest
this abuse.
As the worst-case scenario
became the reality in Loliondo I did not keep up with the “voluntary”
relocations from NCA to other people’s land in Msomera that started in June 2022,
with much celebratory Tanzanian media coverage. Hard enough was to tell people that
it didn’t have anything to do with Loliondo.
On 1st July 2022,
the councillor of Ngorongoro ward, Simon Saitoti, was arrested and joined to
the murder charges against the Loliondo councillors that were abducted on 9th
June, the eve of the brutal and illegal demarcation of a “game reserve”. They
were charged, but never prosecuted, only locked up for over five months, for a killing
that took place the day after they were abducted. First it was thought that Simon
was arrested for being supportive of the Loliondo councillors, but then it has
been revealed that he was only interrogated about investigations into hazardous
replacement salt provided by NCAA.
In September 2022, NCA rangers
attacked and tortured several people, among them Letee Ormunderei who was
seriously injured and needed surgery for which there was fundraising. There were
plans to prosecute the ranger Abraham Akyoo who brutalized Letee, but this didn’t
materialize. Some say that he has been transferred to Eyasi.
A meeting was held on 12th
October 2022 between government representatives and Endulen Hospital. The government
plan was announced as to further suffocate key life serving services
downgrading the hospital to a clinic, removing Xray and radiation services,
relocating government employees and all employees above the grade of nurse
assistant, removing ambulance service, delivery and mother and childcare and
emergency facilities, while medical attendants should not exceed two people.
Reportedly, the plan is to eventually demolish the whole hospital. Besides
this, Flying Medical Service are grounded since March 2022, officially due to
technical reasons, which they dispute. The numbers of unvaccinated children are
growing.
On 22nd January
2023, NCAA rangers assaulted several young herders at Olmoti crater. Some of the rangers were identified as Alais,
Baby and Simony, but as far as I know, no legal action has been taken against
them.
In late January 2023, the
African Commission on Human and People’s Rights made a visit to Ngorongoro,
Loliondo and Msomera, and it was totally, ridiculously commandeered by the Tanzanian
government, that controlled every move, and only by accident did some victims of
restrictions and blocked services in Ngorongoro, and some of the Msomera
villagers that had been informed at gunpoint that they had to give way to the Ngorongoro
migrants, get some access to the Commission The Tanga RC could – standing right next to
the passive commissioners - threaten the Msomera villagers as invaders with
less rights than the Ngorongoro migrants. In Loliondo the Commission was
prevented from meeting any victims at all.
On 29th March 2023,
the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Charles Kichere, announced that 2.5%
of Ngorongoro households had been “relocated” at a cost of TShs 24.7 billion.
In a threatening way, he said that the cost for “relocating” the remaining
22,000 households would be TShs 988 billion. The CAG did not disclose where the
money is coming from.
In March 2023 I got reports about
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. This had been going
on since September 2022, and the women had also been locked up at Ngorongoro
Police Station and fines had been extorted from them. Then local leaders decided
to block any investigations into these crimes.
On 18th April, at a
side event to the 22nd session of the UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, Tanzanian activists informed the attendants of the current
state of the Loliondo evictions and the so-called “voluntary” relocations from
Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The Tanzanian government was represented by
Zuleikha Tambwe of the Tanzania Permanent Mission to the United Nations who would
have been a better liar if she’d understood what she was supposed to lie about …
On 21st April, the Tanzanian government issued “A rebuttal of claims
about the so-called indigenous peoples in Tanzania”, and this was presented by
UNESCO’s general secretary in Tanzania the horrible mega liar Dr. Malebo,
together with Zuleikha Tambwe. The lies regarding NCA ranged from the usual
population panic to using the government-created poverty against the Maasai
themselves, to lying that the Msomera scam was designed in consultation with
local community when the truth is that neither the Maasai in Ngorongoro not the
Msomera villagers were even informed before hearing about it in anti-Maasai
media, or in the Msomera case being overrun by government delegations
demarcating their land for Ngorongoro migrants. The lies about Loliondo were
even more insane …
In April and May 2023, the
Msomera villagers started to increasingly speak up in the press about being
invaded and having their land at gunpoint demarcated for Ngorongoro migrant. One
of those speaking up is Sauda Kimweri who was arrested with a three-month old
child for trying to prevent a Ngorongoro migrant from planting on her farm. The
retired Msomera village chairman, William Kanyinge, has explained how
Msomera, after having been a sub-village where people had lived since before
colonial days, was registered as a full village in 1992, and how villagers had
got title deeds to their own plots. In January 2022, a long caravan of
vehicles, with armed escort and high government representatives, including
Arusha RC, John Mongella, set up camp and started demarcation on people’s land
in a very threatening way and in February 2022 Prison Services moved in to
build houses for migrants from Ngorongoro.
Complaints from Ngorongoro
migrants started being voiced, concerning unfulfilled promises about houses,
and Msomera’s unsuitability for pastoralism. One of those who has voiced complaints
is the government’s poster boy, former MP Telele.
On 17th May 2023,
Vice President Philip Mpango visit Ngorongoro District to inaugurate various
projects (in Loliondo and Sale divisions), mostly the Wasso-Sale road. Several
youths from NCA handed over protest placards against the suffocation of social
services in Ngorongoro division to the VP who picked them up and
read some of them. There were reports that these youths were receiving threats.
On 19th May 2023,
the Ngorongoro councillors voted in unison to reject Ngorongoro District Land
Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 (prepared, with staunch German support, to justify
the massive, brutal and illegal land grab in Loliondo) and in support of a
motion against the suffocation of social services in NCA, presented by Shutuk
Kitamwas, councillor of Alailelai.
31st May 2023
turned into a magic evening when Noorkishili Nakero Naing’isa from Ololosokwan
(Loliondo), Nengai Kilusu Laizer from Oloirobi, and advocate Joseph Oleshangai
from Endulen for once could respond, there at the same venue, to the very, very
malicious government lies spewed by Jestas Abouk Nyamanga, Tanzanian ambassador
to Belgium, Luxembourg, and European Union Commission, and the horrible Dr. Malebo,
UNESCO’s general secretary in Tanzania.
In his budget speech of early
June 2023, the new Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mohamed
Mchengerwa, President Samia’s son in law, boasted about that 3,010 people from
Ngorongoro had been voluntarily relocated to Msomera, to give way for “conservation”,
with 15,321 heads of livestock and of how the government is showering them with
houses, land and social services, including degazetting Handeni GCA so that they
can take possession of the land. When the truth is that Msomera has been a
registered village for decades, a sub-village before that, and its villagers informed
at gunpoint that they must give way to the Ngorongoro migrants. Mchengerwa
promised that there will be no turning back, no surrender, in completing this
exercise which will continue to be done with “professionalism and speed”. “Let’s
meet in Msomera”, he concluded.
UNESCO
and the horrible Dr Malebo
As mentioned in several blog
posts, on 21st March 2022, UNESCO issued a statement regarding
Ngorongoro saying, “UNESCO has never at any time asked for the displacement
of the Maasai people.” This was not and is not true. The Tanzanian
government has through the years used UNESCO’s threats of delisting Ngorongoro
Conservation Area as a World Heritage Site, its repeated population panic, and
distaste for agriculture of any kind, or “modern” buildings, as an excuse to
worsen the human rights situation. The most rabidly anti-Maasai press enjoy
reporting about UNESCO’s support for eviction plans. UNESCO’s general secretary
in Tanzania, Hamisi M. Malebo, not only supports relocation of the Maasai out
of Ngorongoro Conservation Area but has in a shameless and loud way voiced
support for the extremely violent and illegal demarcation of 1,500 km2
of essential grazing land in Loliondo and Sale for a “game reserve”. He is repeatedly
used as the Tanzanian government’s “expert” in front of international
organizations, and I have not seen any kind of indication that UNESCO would
distance themselves from this individual. I’ve been informed that, while UNESCO
is obviously a criminal organisation it has no legal relationship with the
national UNESCO commission of Tanzania. Malebo though is having a great time
using the name UNESCO and the organization has never objected.
When the genocidal Multiple
Land Use Model review proposal was presented in September 2019, the UNESCO
World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had once again
visited Ngorongoro in March the same year and in their report repeated that
they wanted the MLUM review completed to see the results and offer advice,
while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern”
houses, and so on. They also recommended the State Party to continue to, “promote
and encourage voluntary resettlement by communities, consistent with the
policies of the Convention and relevant international norms, from within the
property to outside by 2028”. As
known, unlike recommendations about too many vehicles (the presence of which
instead is loudly celebrated), the MNRT loves this kind of recommendation, and
the resulting MLUM review proposal was so destructive that it would lead to the
end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District, and as seen, the
genocidal plan for Loliondo, including the annexation to NCA of the illegally
demarcated land, has been brutally and lawlessly implemented.
As mentioned, the MLUM review
report proposed to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core
conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA
this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters
Ngorongoro, Olmoti and Empakaai where grazing these past few years has been
banned through order by PM Kassim Majaliwa, not law. This has led to losing 90%
of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100%
loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards. The proposal is to do
the same with Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake
Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal was for NCAA to
annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts,
like Selela forest and Engaruka historical site) and the 1,500 km2
in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be no-go
zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many villages
and are important grazing areas, the loss of which will have disastrous
knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The in June 2022 implemented
alienation and annexation of the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo caters almost
perfectly to the wishes of OBC. Only 18% of NCA would remain for people and
livestock. Is there any sincere person who would dare to say that this can be
achieved through “voluntary” relocations? In Loliondo extreme violence was used
and in NCA the brutality of restrictions keeps worsening to make the Maasai
leave “voluntarily”.
Another example of the
instigation by UNESCO is the decision about Ngorongoro in the 4 session of the
“Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage World Heritage Committee” from July 2021, UNESCO is still requesting
the State Party to provide information about “the status of agricultural
activities in the property” when even the smallest kitchen garden had been
banned since 2009, because of UNESCO’s repeated “deep concern” which has led to
malnourishment. They continued being concerned with, “challenges resulting
from the significant increase in the number of people residing in the property
since its inscription”.
UNESCO has never
expressed any concern, deep or otherwise, about that the MLUM review proposes a
cultural genocide. Their partner in incitement, the IUCN, did issue a statement
against the violent land alienation in Loliondo – maybe as damage control for
the trophy hunting industry that the IUCN appears to be close to – but not one
word from UNESCO. When you keep inciting an authoritarian government that
values tourism revenue above human rights, is prone to violence and
lawlessness, and full of pathological liars, to do something about too many
people, you’re complicit to crime, however much you keep mentioning
consultations with stakeholders and rightsholders, and international norms.
UNESCO’s
general secretary in Tanzania, Dr Hamisi M. Malebo, on 28th
February 2022, in a zoom meeting about developments in the tourism sector with
one year of Samia Suluhu Hassan as president, explained that children in
Ngorongoro can’t go to school and mothers can’t fetch firewood safely for the
risk of being snatched by wild animals like lions, leopards and hyenas (in the
spoken Zoom seminar he mentioned cheetahs as well!), so UNESCO’s recommendation
to the government is to find the Maasai other places to live to avoid these
challenges. Malebo did of course not say anything about that NCAA should stop
blocking social services. This stupid crocodile-tears exaggeration has later
been picked up by several government representatives and anti-Maasai journalists
(again now in August 2023) while lying and inciting against Ngorongoro. So
called human-wildlife conflict is not unique to Ngorongoro, which is not even
the worst place, but occurs in many areas of Tanzania, not least Handeni district,
besides that Ngorongoro is less deadly in many other regards, like traffic. At
a public event in the European parliament on 31st May 2023, Noorkishili
Nakero Naing’isa asked if people were killed by vehicles in Brussels, should
everyone be relocated somewhere else?
On 28th January
this year 2023, in front of the shamefully government commanded AfricanCommission for Human and People’s Rights Malebo continued in this vein
defending the relocations of the Maasai to areas where they will be able to
pursue economic activities “which are not permitted in the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area due to its reserve status.” While at the same time denying
any kind of unequal treatment of the Maasai in NCA who are obviously strangled
by restrictions. Regarding Loliondo, not only did Malebo pretend that the land
was not legally registered village land but lied that that it “had never been
inhabited” and claimed that the government reached an “amicable decision” to
leave the 1,500km2 as a wildlife corridor. So “amicable” that all
councillors from affected wards were abducted the eve of the brutal and illegal
demarcation!
On 21st April 2023,
the Tanzanian government again used Malebo as their main liar and inciter when
presenting the rather crazed “A rebuttal of claims about the so-called
indigenous peoples in Tanzania”, to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues. Then again, on 31st May 2023, Malebo lied on behalf of the government
at a public event in the European parliament. Though this was a magic event in
which Maasai representatives got to respond to the lies. In May, I wrote about these two events.
 |
| Ambassador Nyamanga and the horrible Dr. Malebo. |
Don’t mix up
Loliondo and NCA!
Loliondo hunting
block: Loliondo division plus Malambo and Piyaya wards in Sale
division of Ngorongoro District. A local police state at the service of OBC –
that has had the hunting block (4,000 km2) covering the whole of
Loliondo and part of Sale, since 1993 - and the American Thomson Safaris that
claim a private nature refuge. For many years a constant threat of robbing the
Maasai of 1,500 km2 of vitally important grazing land, expecting
them and their livestock to squeeze into the remaining land. Major illegal and
extremely violent operations in 2009, 2017, and then the worst (and ongoing) in
2022 when the 1,500 km2 were brutally and lawlessly demarcated as protected
area, evicting the Maasai. Vicious hate campaign by the reporter Manyerere
Jackton since around 2010.
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area (NCA): Ngorongoro division of Ngorongoro
District. Harsh restrictions on every aspect of life under the rule of the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and its chief conservator Freddy
Manongi, instigated by UNESCO and IUCN. Blocking of funds for social services
since 2021. Illegal transfer of COVID-19 funds to Msomera in Handeni to where
the Maasai are supposed to relocate “voluntarily”, displacing the Msomera
villagers. In 2022, a vicious hate campaign in media and in parliament. In
September 2022, the management of the stolen 1,500 km2 in Loliondo was placed
under the NCAA, which had been an open threat since 2019.
The Royal
Tour
In Tanzania it’s still a
required act of faith to attribute tourism arrivals to a cheesy travel documentary
in which President Samia starred, and which can hardly have been seen by many
people outside Tanzania at all. I still haven’t found anyone. This tourism cult
illustrates the ideology behind sharply increased anti-Maasai violence since
Samia Suluhu Hassan came into office. On 5th August, at the Africa
tourism conference held in Mauritius, the Permanent Secretary to the MNRT,
Hassan Abbas, was again engaging in this cult. A day later the president said
that a sports bag from the Simba football club, placed on Kilimanjaro, was
advertising Tanzania and joining hands with her documentary The Royal Tour. Still,
several times a week Tanzanian media, full of praise, refers to The Royal Tour.
When the president in
September 2021 was to film the part showing Ngorongoro, there was heavy police
deployment, and nobody was allowed near, while in other areas, like Moshi and
Karatu, Samia addressed the public from atop her vehicle. Three staff members
of the NGO Pastoral Women’s Council, together with the ward councillor and
special sets councillor of Piyaya, and two people who were being given a lift,
were detained until the evening, suspected of having planned to make protest
signs out of a flip chart, and then they had present themselves to the police
for further investigation.
President Samia travelled to
the USA for 10 days for the premier of The Royal Tour, a “documentary” in which
reporter Peter Greenberg travels a country with the head of state as his tour
guide, often an authoritarian leader with no regard for human rights. The
researcher Alex Dukalskis in his book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship
describes President Kagame of Rwanda’s use of The Royal Tour as “authoritarian
image management”, recommended by consultants who specialize in this.
The Maasai are shown off in
The Royal Tour as a tourist attraction for four minutes. No other tribe or
group of people are shown this interest. Greenberg mentions being fascinated by
how “many villages” there are, which is a strange thing to say. Compared to
where? Then it’s mentioned that, “it is not uncommon for a Maasai man to have
18-20 children”, obviously to further drive home the population panic. The
Maasai are described as stubbornly clinging on to their ancient ways, but that
they will be forced to change. The president calls the Maasai “newest
arrivals”. Greenberg uses the word “primitive” about the Maasai. Similarly out
of touch is a kind of joke about Maasai women being impressed by Greenberg
jumping. President Samia uses the word “genocide” earlier in the film, but then
she’s referring to elephants …
Don’t forget to read Denis
Oleshangay’s article CONSERVATION RACISM IN NGORONGORO: A TRAGIC LOSS OF COMMONSENSE AND LEADERSHIP.
Meanwhile, there’s a terrible
silence in Loliondo. Judging by earlier silences, this does not mean that
nothing is happening, and much less that everything is good.
I can’t think of any better international
action against the President Samia’s war on the Maasai than a total tourism boycott.
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
1. Daniel Olewanga,
was just released from hospital with TB.
2. Sadira Taretoi.
Has a mental health issue.
3. Ng'oisa Kuya
4. Napajara
Mondo
5. Lenanu Kerika
7. Kisheyan
Kerika
8. Mbekure Nagol
9. Mebeli Longwari
10. Poopei
Sumulek
11. Rocky
Kuchuru
12. Denis
13. Kipuyo
Simion
14. Goddy
Polla
15. Augustino
Hayuma
16. Mbalelo
Mungaya
17. Larasha
Olenginina
18.Benjamin
Philimon
Those "arrested" are NOT taken to the police.
Terrible silence continue in Loliondo, but Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) in their statement on the dodgy DP World deal mentioned Loliondo.
Mzee Peter Parsais, CCM chairman of Naiyobi ward was
abducted while herding cattle and taken to unknown location.
20th August
Some boys were rounded-up while tending their livestock, some were on the way from Oldupai to buy basic necessities in Endulen and were arrested and donkey with basic need has been lost.
Emmanuel Oleshangai, MP for Ngorongoro, posted a letter saying that his life and the life of his family were in danger, and those to be held accountable are the Ngorongoro DC and Arusha RC.
Odero Odero of Civil and Legal Aid issued a press
statement.
In the midst of extreme government lawlessness, the high court
has ruled that the case challenging the president’s cruel and illegal GN No.604
of October 2022, turning 1,500km2 of important village land, since June 2022
invaded by security forces into a “Pololeti Game Reserve” can proceed, and
prohibits operation of the GN until determination of the case (substantial application)!
I need more details.
23rd August
A habeas corpus was filed in the High Court.
Ngorongoro residents held a press conference.
Lawyers explained what was going on.
In the evening the MP was released on bail.
Denis Peshut was abducted in the morning and found at
Karatu police station at noon, then denied bail since police can't interfere
with NCAA intelligence unit! Interrogated about protests at Ndian Primary
School, chasing of government provocateurs, and women's protest during the
paramilitary hunt of any man in Endulen not fast enough.
Some people from Kapenjiro or Msomera, led by Ndwala Ngoishiye, who had acted as Mchange’s translator, ask for forgivness on the part of Maasai from Endulen, without disclosing who they were! And were again so thankful for relocation to Msomera.
In Engusersambu, a stupid spectacle with the councillor and the Naan village chairman thanking KwF and Mama Samia for projects part of the Serengeti Ecosystem Development and Conservation Program.
30th August
NCAA bought a high number of journalists to Ngorongoro.
Some of the NCA vehicles involved were:
01 JU 0121
01 JU 0122
01 JU 0112
01 JU 0097
In yet another one of her frequent cabinet reshuffles, the president transferred her son in law Mchengerwa to become Minister of State in the President's Office in charge of Local Governments. New Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism is Angellah Kariuki. Mary Masanja was removed as deputy minister. It's not yet known if she's transferred anywhere. Dunstan Luka Kitandula is new deputy minister.
1st September
The night leading to 1st September, rangers and police went to Nasipooriong’ village, Endulen, broke the doors of several houses, beating women and stole 400 Kg of honey.
Then they wanted to arrest Ormekeke sub-village chairman/alaigwanani whose house they also invaded, but did not find.
They arrested Alaitole Ward Councilor (James Moringe), and Petei Olekitaika
(Alaigwanani).
They were taken to Karatu and released on bail in the afternoon.
4th September
Traditional leader Zakayo Ponja was arrested/abducted from his work at a tourist camp in Serenget NP, but people in a white Landcruiser 383DPG.
1. Ngakenya Olenjorio, CCM Secretary Endulen Ward
2. Moses Oleseki CCM Ward Chairman
3. Thomas Oltwati Endulen Village Chairman
4. Zakayo Ponja Nyangulo alaigwanani
The Tanzanian government denies entry to EU
parliamentarians 24 hours before departure to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo.
5th September
The four who were arrested on 4th September were released on bail.
10th September
Lissu and large part of the Chadema leadership were arrested in Karatu.
Heavy police presence with FFU in Endulen. Glory Julius and Noonguta Peshut were arrested.
The Ngorongoro councillors again rejected the German funded and facilitated draft district land use plan to legitimize the massive land theft in Loliondo. This time the Swahili version.
In the evening those arrested were released on bail.
11th September
A terrible picture was shared by the accounts of the DC and the district council, saying that Ololosokwan village council members, community development experts and conservationists from NCAA and the district council had done training on development projects and conservation benefitting from "Pololeti Game Reserve". The councillor Moloimet Saing'eu is in the picture. Some say that the village council members deny having agreed to anything at all.
The same day information reached me that Moloimet and the Ololosokwan sub-village chairman, Cosmas Olderika Leitura were again working to impose the fake and forced land use plan on the village and to force Salangat Mako away from his farm.
12th September
People summoned to Karatu police station just get a new sate in an obvious effort to make them lose time and money.
Today police and rangers were seen approaching the Maasai elderly women asking them to bless them after the curse they were given on 10th September (beating them with irkilani), the highest level of curse, which can't be taken away by any means when given out. They got this curse when beating and insulting the women. The results are supposed to be: turning crazy or dying a natural death.
14th September
Esupat Moses, born and bred in Endulen, was on arrested and locked up for 9 hours, accused of not being a resident of Ngorongoro.
New blog post: https://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2023/09/manhunt-in-endulen-abducted-mp-tundu.html
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