As so many times before, much of the focus (now obscured by needing to write about multiple other issues) of this horribly delayed blog post is to explain what a game controlled area is. This is important, since the government’s lies are so much centred on creating confusion around what such an area is. Now a government notice deregistering all wards, villages, and sub-villages in Ngorongoro division (not Loliondo/Sale) has been found, the government keeps spiralling into total insanity and I must publish this blog post and write a new one about Ngorongoro Conservation Area and massive manifestations since 18th August (to some extent also covered in this post).
The crime by the Tanzanian government against the Maasai continues in Loliondo with almost all dry season grazing land in 2022 brutally stolen to create a game reserve lobbied for by OBC that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. While operation of the illegal game reserve is suspended by the High Court until determination of the case, the government continues in contempt of court. The most dangerous enemies of the Loliondo Maasai (after the Tanzanian government), namely UAE and Germany, keep using charity as a weapon of war.
In Ngorongoro
Conservation Area – not to be confused with Loliondo/Sale - the
restrictions, denial of permits, withholding of funds for social services, and
harassment, including not allowing opposition party meetings – all with the aim
of making the Maasai relocate far away to other people’s land, while applying
terra nullius/GCA lies to the people supposed to accommodate the Ngorongoro
Maasai. Some of the Msomera villagers suffering this invasion have again spoken
up.
It's been revealed that all voters register update/polling stations have been removed from Ngorongoro division (Ngorongoro Conservation Area, not to be confused with Loliondo/Sale), and Ngorongoro residents find themselves registered in Msomera village in Handeni.
Now former Minister
Kairuki did not want anyone to talk about the leaked presentation proposing four
new game reserves, just in the northern zone, so I must remind about that
horror. Meanwhile, there’s more imminent land alienation all over Tanzania.
At least the
European Commission has started to understand what’s going on and removed
Tanzania as eligible for an 18-million-euro project.
The almost
purposefully hidden new case against the horrible land grabber Thomson Safaris is finally
coming along.
A statement
by the Tanzania Tour Operators’ Association combines support for and denial of
the government’s crimes and makes the case for a total tourism boycott clearer
than ever.
On 14th
August, President Samia returned the human rights criminal Pindi Chana to head
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
18th August
dawned with massive manifestations and blocking of the Ngorongoro-Serengeti
road. These protests continue. I hope to very shortly publish a blog post about the disenfranchisement
and protests in NCA (not to be confused with Loliondo/Sale), but it’s
covered in this very lengthy one too.
A new age-set
was introduced on the Ngorongoro Crater floor. Welcome Irmegoliki!
In this blog post:
-In court,
while the government continues its lawlessness
-The
Tanzanian government’s changing stories about Loliondo GCA while attempting to
steal all dry season grazing land within it
-The crime of
2022 that does not end
-The leaked
report to repeat the Loliondo crime in four areas of the northern zone
-European
Commission removes Tanzania for eligibility for conservation funds for northern
zone and tour operators openly defend the government regarding Ruaha
-The stinking
UNESCO and IUCN engaging in GCA lies about the Loliondo land theft
-OBC becoming
more visible
-Amnesty
report about investors in the illegal game reserve in Loliondo
-Article in
the Atlantic months ago
-Disenfranchisement
and massive protest in NCA
-The
president telling the origin story about her hatred for pastoralists
In
court, while the government continues its lawlessness
As reported earlier, the government continues disrespecting court orders after the High Court on 19th September 2023 ruled that in the case regarding the minister’s GN that the “Pololeti Game Controlled Area” is null and void for two reasons: mandatory consultation was lacking, and the president's decision to on 14th October 2022 (when court cases against the minister’s GN had already been filed) declare a “Pololeti Game Reserve” on the same land automatically repealed its status. And the operation of “Pololeti Game Reserve” is since 22nd August 2023, stopped by the court until determination of the case regarding the president’s GN, which means the new and illegal Game Controlled Area is non-existent and operation of the equally illegal Game Reserve has been stayed (suspended) by the Court pending determination of Miscellaneous Civil Causse No.178 of 2022. According to the court, the land is reverted to the old 4,000 km2 Game Controlled Area, which overlaps with village land and does not restrict human activities.
In the High Court, the
contempt of court case - Miscellaneous Civil Application No. 106 of 2023 –
against former DC Mwangwala and four others – directly involved in continued
cattle seizures and a malicious statement claiming that the whole 4,000 km2
Loliondo GCA would have been a protected area - was on 8th April dismissed
for technical reasons. Personal accountability is badly needed, and I thought
it was an excellent idea that those that can be shown to be hands on practising
contempt of court should be dealt with, but apparently the problem was that
they aren’t respondents in Miscellaneous Civil Cause No.178 of 2022, only the
Attorney General is. This is being appealed. Naturally, there are doubts about
how independent a Tanzanian court can be. This case dealing with the
president’s GN No.604 of 2022 was postponed to 24th June, and since
this blog post keeps being terribly delayed, there’s now information that the
hearing was further postponed to 20th August, when it was mentioned and now the ruling will be delivered on 22nd October.
If this all sounds confusing,
it’s because the Tanzanian government with Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 (WCA
2009, which came into effect in 2010) no doubt purposefully introduced
confusion to use while lying and stealing land. Game Controlled Areas (GCAs)
are huge areas over much of Tanzania, almost entirely overlapping with village
land and not restricting grazing or agriculture. Many of them, like in
Loliondo, contain and delineate hunting blocks that also include non-hunting
areas, even towns, while the actual hunting takes place on wildlife-rich
grazing land. In WCA 2009, a GCA was, on the contrary, made into a strictly
protected area, not allowed to overlap with village land, but unlike national
parks allowing hunting, or more exactly, have this activity as their main
purpose. This kind of area already existed under the name game
reserve, which further shows that the intention was land theft with
confusion and lies. According to WCA 2009, within one year of the act coming
into operation the minister should, after consultation with the relevant authorities
(villages and district councils), ascertain which GCAs should continue. This
was not done and to date, except for Loliondo - illegally, with a brutal
military operation and abductions of all ward councillors instead of “consultation”
- and for a brief time before being turned into a game reserve (equally
illegal) – no old unprotected GCA has been turned into the new kind of
protected area called a GCA.
There was a proposal, funded
by OBC, to turn their core hunting area of 1,500 km2 into the new
kind of GCA, but this was in 2011 rejected by the Ngorongoro district council. In
2013 the horrible minister Kagasheki, introduced the current demented lie
of pretending that the 4,000km2 Loliondo GCA – which includes all
district headquarters, the DC’s office and the magistrate court – already was a
protected area that had been “invaded” and that the Maasai would be generously
gifted with the land outside the 1,500 km2. At that time such a
malicious attempt fell on its own absurdity and cruelty when both the ruling
party and the opposition came out in support of the united and protesting
Maasai. After that, any kind of common sense and independent thinking was
rooted out of CCM under Magufuli and with Samia came a president with a messianic
tourism cult and a personal hatred against the Maasai – and the disaster that
should never have been allowed to take place, still did so in 2022.
Meanwhile, the cases in the
East African Court of Justice are paralyzed. Hearings have been cancelled indefinitely
due to budget issues, reflecting badly on the seriousness of the member states.
This affects the re-run of Reference No.10 of 2017 after Appeal No.13 of 2022
was allowed by the court. The ruling in September 2022 (that the Maasai would
have failed to prove that the 2017 mass arson operation took place on village
land, as opposed to Serengeti National Park!) was not only unjust but decidedly
strange, and it was accompanied by what can only be described as judicial
hooliganism, with last second postponements during extreme contempt of court
(the 2022 brutal demarcation not only violated every law and human rights but
also interim orders issued by this court in 2018) and one of the judges was the
son of an infamous grabber of Maasai land in Kenya. Even worse judicial
hooliganism was committed when the judges in the first instance division on 15th
November 2023 dismissed Application No.2 of 2022, the contempt of court
application arising from Application No. 15 of 2017. The applicants’ lawyers
were never given a chance to argue the application in court! The son of a
landgrabber (Charles Nyachae) was involved in this too.
Besides of the re-run of the
2017 case, the cases that are paralyzed in the East African Court of Justice
are Reference No.37 of 2022 Megweri Mako & 5 Others vs. Attorney General
of Tanzania regarding theft of the 1,500km2 in 2022, and Reference
No. 29 of 2022 Thadeus Clamian vs. Attorney General of Tanzania regarding
illegal and suffocating restrictions in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which has
never had any hearing.
As reported in the previous
blog post, for years there’s been deliberate withholding of information about
Thomson Safaris’ disgusting land grab (currently 10,000 acres in Sukenya and
Mondorosi villages). Now at least Misc. Land Application No. 14157 of 2024 was
in court on 23rd July, the state attorney was given 14 days to
respond to the application and on 15th August the court ruled on this
miscellaneous application granting a representative suit. The plaint is to be
filed within 30 days. The case replaces the one filed by the villages in 2013
and the appeal against an unjust ruling. This appeal was killed in February
2022 based on legislation introduced under Magufuli to do away with all
separation of power, so that local governments can’t sue the central
government, and can’t use private lawyers, but it should not have been possible
to use this on a case filed before the law came into operation.
Ngotieti
Kokoyo v. NCAA and 2 Others Criminal Appeal No. 9980 of 2024 is a case
concerning illegal restrictions on livestock from other areas entering
Ngorongoro division. A hearing is set for 4th September. At an
earlier date it was postponed, since the government lawyer was not in court.
The Tanzanian
government’s changing stories about Loliondo GCA while attempting to steal all
dry season grazing land within it
-In the early 2000s, the
Tanzanian government, together with Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), were
pushing the Maasai to establish a Wildlife Management Area (WMA), which can
only be established on village land where much of the management is handed over
to investors, conservation organizations and the government, while the land nominally
stays as village land. The Maasai of Loliondo succeeded in rejecting the WMA.
-During the terrible drought
in 2009, the 1,500 km2 Osero was illegally invaded by the Field
Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle,
and abuse of every kind. 7-year-old Nashipai Gume was lost in the chaos and
never found, ever since. After various strange announcements in the press, in September
the same year an official statement on the arson operation was issued by the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and signed by Minister Mwangunga. This
statement said that the operation was necessary to save wildlife, water sources
and the tourism hunting industry and that it was only conducted in part of the 4,000 km2 Loliondo GCA (as if anyone would have expected the DC’s office to be burnt down
…) The statement blamed a sudden influx of people, particularly “Kenyans”. This
statement warned that with the incoming Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 (WCA 2009), GCA and
village land would be separated.
-In February 2011, the Draft
District Land Use Framework Plan 2010-2030 was revealed. It proposed turning
the 1,500 km2 into the new kind of GCA that’s the same as a game
reserve, which led to immediate protests. This plan was rejected by the
district council. Earlier, in November 2009, Isaack Mollel, director of OBC, had
boasted to the press that the company had donated TShs.156 million to Arusha
Region for land use planning in Loliondo GCA, and the government had then issued
threats of a “wildlife corridor”, which had led to several acts of protest. After
the 2010-2030 plan was rejected, local leaders thought that the government had
been defeated.
-Next attack came in 2013,
when Minister Kagasheki issued disgusting and vociferous lies that the 4,000 km2
Loliondo GCA (including towns, district headquarters, magistrate court,
agricultural areas, forest reserves, etc. etc. …) was a protected area and that
the Maasai were landless people who would be generously gifted with 2,500 km2.
The Maasai, united and more serious than ever before (or after) held mass
protests and sent protest delegations to Dar es Salaam and Dodoma. Both the
opposition and the ruling party came out in support of the Maasai and against
Kagasheki and on 23rd September 2013, PM Pinda in an emotional
speech in Wasso town declared that they should go on with their lives as before
and that Kagasheki would not be allowed to threaten them anymore. Pinda had
already in a letter to the Arusha RC in May the same year, even if not as
strongly supportive, made very clear that the land was village land. (There was of course NOT an evictions operation in 2013).
-For some years, the
government (and OBC) changed its tactics and instead of lies about the status
of the land, worked on divide and rule and increased threats against anyone who
could speak up. The repression worsened sharply with Magufuli in office with
several lengthy arrests and malicious prosecution in 2016. When all local
leaders were suitably terrified, PM Majaliwa declared that there were only two
options for the land: WMA or government protected area (game reserve/new GCA). A
select committee, led by then Arusha RC Gambo was set up to reach a proposal to
hand over to Majaliwa. This committee, that included many local leaders, also those from NGOs, was met with spontaneous protests in village after village,
since at best it would propose a WMA which nobody wanted (and this is
reportedly what was done, even if no written version of this proposal has ever
to this day been shared with me).
-“Unexpectedly”, while
everyone was waiting to hear the PM’s decision, on 13th August 2017
an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and
continued long into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by
Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, TAWA, local
police, and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and
cattle seized. This time the government had two different lies: Minister
Maghembe pretended that the 1,500km2 had been turned into a
protected area (the crime that was committed years later in 2022) that had been
“invaded”, while the DC and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the
1,500 km2, since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but
that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National
Park “too easily”.
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-On 6th December
2017, ending the optimism that followed when the new minister, Kigwangalla,
stopped the illegal and brutal operation and promised that OBC would have to
leave, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about,
through a “legal bill”, creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He
also said that OBC were staying (but still all kinds of people writing
about Loliondo refuse to understand that OBC never left). Fortunately,
such a legal bill was never presented.
-2018 was the year of the most
paralysing fear ever (partly unexplained) and illegal arrests for the sake of
intimidation continued, but in 2019, after OBC director was arrested and
extorted via plea bargaining, leaders in Loliondo again started pretending that
the threat had been averted, and unbelievably they continued with this even
after the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal for NCA was
presented in September the same year. This proposal included the alienation of
the 1,500km2 in two areas (as in 2022 was brutally and illegally
done) and the annexation of the land to Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.
Not much was heard from the government, except for the District Executive
Director’s work to make village leaders withdraw court cases, which failed. The
“legal bill” and the “special authority” seemed totally forgotten.
-With the extremely violent
military attack on Loliondo in 2022 (see below), the government was back to
using the strange and shameless Kagasheki-style lies, and this time every
government representative had been prepared to use the lies loudly in media, when
meeting diplomats, and at every international event. While all councillors
from affected wards were abducted at unknown location, government
representatives like ambassador Hoyce Temu at the UN in Geneva were lying that
a 4,000 km2 reserved area since 1951 (sometimes the lie has been
1891) had been “encroached” and that the government in “peaceful talks with
local residents” had agreed to divide the area and “keep” 1,500 km2
as a protected area, and that a minority against the exercise made recordings
while posing threateningly. Minister Ndumbaro had brought back these lies
already in an interview with Deutsche Welle in March 2022, and on 21st
June, during the military attack, he repeated the lies to stupidly clapping and
laughing foreign diplomats. The nasty and maybe genuinely stupid Professor
Malebo, Tanzanian UNESCO secretary, has shown up at different venues claiming
that the land was uninhabited since time immemorial.
-The government has since kept
to the Kagasheki-style lies, including while committing contempt of court after
the High Court stayed operation of the illegal “game reserve” pending
determination of Misc Civil Cause No. 178 of 2022 (see above). According to this
demented lie, the land reverting back to the old 4,000 km2 Loliondo
Game Controlled Area means that it is still a protected area, and that grazing
is not allowed. This also means that the DC´s office, district headquarters, the
magistrate court, hospital, and all traders in Wasso and Loliondo towns, along
with all in residential and agricultural areas, are trespassing and should be
evicted, but this is of course not happening.
The
crime of 2022 that does not end
As seen, the nightmare
continues. Decades of land rights struggle in Loliondo could not protect the
1,500 km2 Osero - essential for lives and livelihoods - from a
government high on tourist cult and the blood of pastoralists, lobbied by OBC
that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai and that for many years have
wanted their favourite hunting area taken from the Maasai and turned into a
protected area, which has led to extrajudicial mass arson in 2009 and 2017 (not
2013, which is some kind of typo that keeps being copied by reporters and
serious organizations. Just stop it …), and a local police state full of
fear, before the worst nightmare became real in 2022.
On 9th June 2022, after
massive security forces had gathered in Loliondo and set up camps, all
councillors from affected wards were abducted right before the brutal and
lawless demarcation started and locked up for over five months, charged with
“murder” – without any attempt at prosecution, only postponements, until the
case was dropped - together with people arrested for sharing pictures of the
violence, but charged with “murder”, they too detained without fair trial until
the charges were dropped over five months later. Beacons were planted in a rain
of teargas and bullets, security forces were beating, slashing with bayonets,
cutting, raping, and arresting people. Thousands fled to Kenya, hundreds were
arrested and 62 were charged with bogus immigration cases that were dismissed –
without any prosecution - months later. The security forces destroyed houses,
stole motorcycles and smartphones, seized and even shot livestock. 84-year old Oriais
Oleng'iyo 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 on 17th May
2023 dismissed by the judge, on ground that the police were likely not
responsible for the operation but the Minister of Natural Resource and Tourism
who was not sued in this enforced disappearance case.
To further finish off the Maasai, rangers have kept lawlessly seizing, fining, and even auctioning livestock, driving many people into debt or abject poverty. Due to unusually heavy rains (leading to flooding tragedies) and lots of grass everywhere, some on the side payments, and hopefully to some extent thanks to the court cases, the ranger crimes have since December 2023 been less active, at least in Ololosokwan, while seizures have reportedly continued in Arash and Malambo. In Oloipiri some livestock are reportedly entering the illegal game reserve, but not in large numbers, and rangers are still passive.
Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai, who at times has spoken up with seriousness, when the Deputy PM and Minister for Energy, Doto Biteko, visited Loliondo in April, only spoke up at a side event with the press in which he weakly pleaded for grazing to be allowed during the dry season. Though he did pose relevant questions about Ngorongoro division, not Loliondo, during the PM’s budget presentation the same month. Very recent developments in NCA however lead to terrifying questions about what he's doing.
On 23rd June, the
opposition CHADEMA visited Ololosokwan, Wasso and Malambo. Sadly, for some
unknown reason, the great defender of the Maasai, Tundu Lissu didn't come, but Freeman
Mbowe and Godbless Lema. I was unsure of the level of understanding by those
two leaders, but those present said that they spoke up about the land and about
local leaders who must leave the party that so obviously is torturing them. On
8th September 2023, against orders by the Officer Commanding
District, Tundu Lissu held meetings in Ololosokwan and Wasso, with an tremendous, overwhelming reception, particularly in Ololosokwan. The following day he was
stopped from accessing NCA where there were ongoing arrests following peaceful
protests and then arrested, later charged with holding meetings without a
permit in Ololosokwan and Wasso. This time, in June, the police claimed that
intelligence information showed that it is not safe to hold political meetings
in Ngorongoro division, but nothing was said about Loliondo and Sale.
In July, MP Oleshangai was
touring Loliondo and Sale (but not Ngorongoro division). I have not found out
what he was saying about the land, but there’s a clip from Malambo in which he
in the most unbecoming way is lashing out against the CHADEMA politicians that
constantly are speaking up for his people while his own government is engaging
in the worst ethnic hatred and land alienation ever.
Though CHADEMA aren’t perfect either. They never got rid of the horrible Peter Msigwa who in 2022 joined the government’s anti-Maasai rhetoric. Such behaviour should have been an absolute red line. On 27th February, Msigwa toed the party line and walked behind a pro-Maasai banner in Arusha, but on 30th June, he unsurprisingly defected to CCM, smiling sheepishly to a silly song. This happened after Msigwa lost the seat as chairperson of the Nyasa zone.
On 28th July in the
Orkiu Leleisa area of Osero Sopia, Ololosokwan, near beacon number 8, 134 cows
belonging to Ormutendei Peniki Kayiaa were illegally seized. The cows were held
at Klein’s gate by the rangers of the illegal game reserve and released on 31st
July, after the owner paid a negotiated “fine” of 6 million shillings, which
otherwise would have been 100,000 TShs (some 34 euros) per head of cattle. For
some reason, on the receipt the payment was made to the Tanzania Revenue
Authority and labelled as camping fee for a child who’s an East African
resident.
The
leaked report to repeat the Loliondo crime in four areas of the northern zone
I’ve reported earlier about
the in February (reached me in early March) leaked presentation to (now former)
Minister Angellah Kairuki by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism’s
evaluation of game controlled areas in the northern zone, in which the
recommendation was to create no less than four new game reserves in this zone,
which would signify an extreme alienation of grazing land making pastoralist
lives and livelihoods inviable. The areas recommended for alienation and
evictions of people and livestock are a proposed 747km2 “Lolkisale-Simanjiro
Game Reserve”, a 1,501km2 “Mto Wa Mbu Game Reserve”, a 448km2
“Longido Game Reserve”, and a 3,918km2 “Lake Natron Game Reserve”.
Further, there’s a recommendation to “allow” Wildlife Management Areas in
“wildlife corridors” outside the proposed game reserves!
The evaluation is of the old
GCAs of Simanjiro, Lolkisale, Mto Wa Mbu, Longido and Lake Natron. The
presentation does not hide this fact that these GCAs contain 80 villages,
but then goes on to the profoundly malicious and misleading rhetoric
talking about the proposed game reserves as land that will be “kept for
conservation” while the rest of the land will be “given to the villages” – when
what’s being recommended is a radical land alienation, since the GCAs are already
village land and there has never been any restrictions on grazing or
agriculture.
The evaluation was made by a
team of experts from different ministries and authorities who - besides
examining policies, laws, and GNs - met with regional commissioners,
administrative secretaries, district commissioners, executive directors,
village leaders, investors in hunting tourism companies and representatives of
owners of commercial farms. Then they made field visits to examine the
environment and wildlife resources.
In the text and maps of this
evaluation, the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” that with extreme
brutality and lawlessness was demarcated in 2022, is presented as a done deal
when its operation is suspended by the high court pending determination of the
court case.
On 3rd June, during the budget debate for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, the MP for
Simanjiro, Christopher Olesendeka, brought up the leaked document asking for
the government’s position on it. Minister Kairuki said she did not have such a
document on her desk, that it wasn’t official and that Olesendeka was only
causing disquiet by mentioning it. Though she also said something about that
the laws for “declaring GCAs” are known, and that in such case, it’s what’s
will be done. Everyone had already seen the document and it had already caused
disquiet, but the parliamentary confusion was not straightened out.
On 7th April Maasai in Simanjiro issued a statement in defence of their land, on 13th April
Maasai traditional leaders from nine districts issued a statement against the
horrible recommendations of the leaked evaluation and in
March there were protest meetings in Longido.
I remember with horror how in then
(and now again …) Minister Chana’s 2022-2023 budget speech it was announced
that the government expected to upgrade twelve GCAs and two forests to game
reserves, and Loliondo was among them. It seemed like a hugely ambitious evil
wish and that there would be time to stop it – but only a few days later the
brutal attack by security forces on Loliondo was launched. The GCAs “evaluated”
in the leaked document were among those mentioned in the speech. The 2022 speech
was mentioned by Olesendeka in parliament, and it’s also prominently
highlighted in the leaked document itself, which also mentions that the
Ministry’s Strategic Plan 2021/2022 – 2025/2026 says, “The Ministry shall
ensure Fifteen (15) Game Controlled Areas are upgraded to Game Reserves by June,2026;”
As mentioned in an earlier
blog post, on 29th March Olesendeka suffered an assassination
attempt while on his way from Dodoma to Simanjiro when unknown assailants, while
overtaking his car, opened fire causing several bullet holes in the car, but without
injuring the MP or his driver. The assault took place at the Nabolo and Ngilo
villages in Kiteto. The following day, police collected 15 cartridges of
SMG/AK-47 in the place where the shooting took place. At a public meeting in
Simanjiro, Olesendeka explained that the day before the attack, he had met with
high level leaders about the terrible recommendation of turning Maasai land
into game reserves, and all of them rejected such a plan. With emphasis he said
that Samia’s government did not have had anything to do with the assassination
attempt. CCM brings some serious limitations to what you can say, or even think
… The government has both a motive and a proven murderous character. To date
the shooters are unknown and nothing more has been heard about the assassination
attempt. Olesendeka also said that his next intervention in parliament would
not be about the attempt against his life, but about the proposal to take more
Maasai land for protected areas and to explain that if the government takes
even one more kilometre of Maasai land for conservation it will mortgage
pastoralist lives. On 3rd March, Olesendeka was prevented by NCA
rangers from attending the traditional installation of Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel
Oleshangai as laigwanani.
Longido district
(often mixed up with Loliondo division in Tanzanian media) is threatened by two
game reserve proposals: one huge “Lake Natron GR” (also affecting Lake Natron
shore villages in Ngorongoro district) and a substantial “Longido GR”. In one
slide of the presentation there’s a demented claim that currently only 8% of
the district is village land. I wonder what its authors would respond to the
fact that the largest part of the old Longido GCA consists of Enduimet WMA (a
kind of protected area that can only be created on village land), and the towns
of Longido and Namanga, with residential and agricultural areas. The rest,
besides being grazing land, is a hunting block currently held by the president
of the Tanzania Hunting Operators Association, Michel Mantheakis. Not only
grazing land is seen as terra nullius, which is maliciously demented enough, but
as known, the lying in this ministry is indeed boundaryless.
A wildlife management area
(WMA) is so-called “community-based natural resource management” that some villagers
“agree” to under the threat of otherwise totally losing the land as a game
reserve. Still, there’s been brutal evictions and radical suppression of
grazing in WMAs and in the case of Wami Mbiki and Igombe, the existence of a
WMA was even used as an argument to alienate the land for a game reserve. I had
hardly even heard of Igombe before reading an article in the Chanzo (online media) in May that
detailed widespread abuse committed by TAWA rangers, including murder and rape.
The unreported cases could be many around Tanzania.
Supposedly, there’s less
violence and suppression of grazing in Enduimet than other WMAs, but I’m having
a hard time getting detailed information from the ground, other than that the
WMA is generally detested, and common villagers are not getting any benefits
from it, while others say that it’s the investor and not the WMA that’s the
problem. Though in the evening of 21st August an eviction notice was shared on X, in which the WMA management orders an elder to demolish his boma within 90 days. Further, the hunting investor Kilombero North Safaris has schemed with
some corrupt councillors to lease three mountains – Ketumbeine, Gelai, and
Longido - and this has led to such protests that even CCM Longido had to issue
a statement calling for the contract to be scrapped and done anew in a way
that’s friendlier to local residents. This operator is more widely known for
resuming hunting of transborder super tuskers, studied by researchers in Kenya,
after three decades when elephant hunts were avoided in the border areas, which
has led to an international debate conflating with the larger debate for and
against trophy hunting. Kilombero North also has a hunting block in Lake Natron
GCA, as has Green Mile Safari that some years ago caused international protests
when videos of terrible abuse of hunted wildlife were shared online, but this
seems all but forgotten. Not within the scope of this blog, but the pro-trophy
hunting side is in the most dishonest way trying to present the conflict as
between Kenyan and Tanzanian “communities”, while continuously boasting about
the area “protected” by game reserves in Tanzania. Basically, all of them have
blocked me on X (formerly Twitter). The other side isn’t better, but more
numerous and diverse.
Since the horrible budget
speech in early June 2022, besides the illegal “Pololeti GR” in Loliondo, one
more game reserve has been alienated from villagers and that’s the equally
illegal “Kilombero GR” (not in the northern zone) about which silence is quite
compact, since those affected aren’t organized and pastoralists are in
minority. The only news has been from TAWA, boasting about having seized 1,417
heads of cattle.
The lie about GCAs has even
been used by former government spokesperson Mobhare Matinyi regarding the
brutal and illegal evictions from villages with land wanted by Kilimanjaro
International Airport in May this year. And as known, this horrible lie is also
used to paint Msomera villagers as “invaders” of their own registered village
that’s been taken by the government to relocate the Maasai from NCA. Since in
just five GCAs in the north there are 80 villages, there must be hundreds of
villages across Tanzania under the same threat.
It's important to keep eyes
and ears wide open and react strongly as soon as there’s the slightest move to
alienate land for another game reserve!
European
Commission removes Tanzania for eligibility for conservation funds and tour
operators openly defend the government regarding Ruaha
On 7th June, it was
announced that Tanzania has been removed from the EU's NatureAfrica scheme for
which the European Commission had allocated 18 million euros, and only Kenya is
now targeted. There were also new conditions that indigenous and local people's
rights must be respected. It was announced in a “corrigendum” (No.4) that
changed the geographical focus (removing Tanzania) and included additional
content on the human rights-based approach. The deadline for submissions was
also moved forward. This is so much more powerful than statements of concern or
condemnation and – almost – unprecedented. It’s a result of the lobbying by the
Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) that together with Survival
International works with the pastoralist and indigenous NGOs in Tanzania and
last year brought local Maasai activists to Europe. The focus of MISA is on
Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo but will, by more concrete than usual
action against the Tanzanian government’s crime, benefit other Maasai under
threat in northern Tanzania.
 |
| Example from the corrigendum. |
The removal of Tanzania’s
eligibility from the EU project wasn’t covered by the Tanzanian press at all,
but as a reaction – or at least so it seemed to me – around 17th June
the Tanzania Tour Operators Association issued a statement in support of the
government and attacking the Oakland Institute for since 2023 having advocated against
human rights abuse in Ruaha National Park, leading to the announcement that as
of 18th April 2024, the World Bank had with immediate effect
suspended disbursements for REGROW - a US$150 million project that began in
2017 to “improve the management of natural resources and tourism assets"
in southern Tanzania (more about this in the previous blog post). TATO in short
describes reports of human rights abuse as baseless while indulging in the
government’s arguments for such abuse. The brutal evictions of 2006, the huge
and regularly brought up land threat in the form of the illegal and not
implemented GN No.28 of 2008 and widespread human rights abuses, somewhat
habitual murder by rangers included, are documented by researchers,
organisations and Tanzania media, but unlike in the Ngorongoro case
(particularly NCA) there aren’t any strong and organized local voices that will
respond, and that’s why I suspect TATO avoided a statement regarding northern
Tanzania. Anyway, Ngorongoro activists remembered a discussion in a tour
operators’ WhatsApp group, leaked in 2021, “brainstorming” about moving the
Ngorongoro Maasai far away to Kilindi, Tanga or Shinyanga and what kind of
injection could be used to limit the Maasai population.
I wish this could make
everyone understand the necessity of a total tourism boycott on Tanzania. TATO
has some 300 members and none of them have spoken up to distance themselves
from the organization’s statement.
This was followed, as part of
a campaign, by some newspaper articles claiming that villagers were thriving in
five villages that with GN No.754 of 2023 would have been “given” 405 km2
for grazing and agriculture. The result is that a vicious and illegal land
alienation threat (not implemented) from 2008 is now 9,522km2 instead of 9,926km2,
while illegal cattle seizures and theft of agricultural equipment by park
rangers have continued in 2024. One more example of how shamelessly the
Tanzanian government lies and how unprofessional basically all journalists are.
For some time, it seemed like I, who aren’t a Ruaha expert, was the only person
responding (on X) to these lies, but on 16th July Oakland responded.
I’ve heard of one reaction to
the removal of Tanzania from the NaturAfrica project. At a meeting on 8th
July between the Arusha RC (hardcore criminal Paul Makonda), and NGOs from the
region, a representative from Frankfurt Zoological Society (not the notorious
Masegeri Tumbuya Rurai, but a still unidentified individual, even if some say they know his first name, whose physical
appearance was that of a “giant”) said that the government must avoid the NGOs
that provide false information to western organisations and that FZS had missed
the allocation of 18 million that was meant to support conservation of the
Serengeti ecosystem. Though I’ve not been able to obtain more details about
this, since most organisations seem to have avoided the meeting.
It's high time that all donors
suspend their funding of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. There
have been some reports that the worst offender that’s Germany would have
suspended “something”, but there isn’t any public statement or document at all,
and they continue active in Loliondo. Only in a closed meeting with Maasai
activists did German representatives say that they had stopped funding
Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 – the twice rejected plan
to legitimize the massive brutal and illegal land grab of 2022 – but that’s not
such an accomplishment when the plan was no more … The Germans have through the
decades supported the Tanzanian government’s attacks against Maasai land
rights, boasted about being the biggest bilateral donors to the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Tourism, and their ambassadors together with the worst criminals
have celebrated the cooperation between the two countries in the midst of both
the mass arson operation of 2017 and the brutal and illegal land theft of 2022.
There isn’t anything official at all suggesting that they would have changed
their behaviour.
Let’s see if the removal of
Tanzania as eligible for the 18 million euros from the European Commission can
set some precedence.
The
stinking UNESCO and IUCN engaging in GCA lies about the Loliondo land theft
The UNESCO instigation against the Maasai of Ngorongoro is infamous, but as I was about to finally
publish this horribly delayed blog post on 17th August, I discovered the REPORT ON THE JOINTWORLD HERITAGE CENTRE/IUCN REACTIVE MONITORING MISSION TO SERENGETI NATIONALPARK, UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA), FROM 15 TO 19 JANUARY 2024. This report “explains”
the brutal land theft in Loliondo with the well-known malicious lie (see
above) that Loliondo GCA was divided into the 1,500 km2 “Pololeti GCA” and that
the remaining land was “returned” to the villages – when it’s been village land
all along and every Tanzanian law and human right was violated during the 2022 demarcation.
The UNESCO/IUCN mission totally swallowed criminal government lies, adding some
personal misunderstandings, like that it was the 2022 revision of WCA 2009 that
banned settlement, livestock and agriculture in GCAs, when this revision says
the same as the original 2009 Act. Loliondo GCA is also described as 4,500 km2,
instead of the usual 4,000 km2, which I’ve seen before, but don’t
have any way to ascertain (and it’s beside the point). The mission seem to have
missed that the illegal GCA had been turned into an equally illegal game
reserve and that even the High Court had declared the GCA null and void for
lacking the mandatory consultation, and suspended operation of the GR while the
case concerning it is ongoing. In a footnote, the team says, “This
change of status led to the eviction of Maasai families using the area of the
Pololeti GR which was criticized by the UN Rapporteur on Indigenous People and
NGO defending the Maasai interests. This issue is not included in the ToR of this mission and outside the scope of this report.”
The – illegal – change in status came after he brutal evictions. Further, on
another page the mission parrot the common twisted government rhetoric that
Loliondo GCA was “degazetted as the smaller Pololeti GCA”.
Unsurprisingly, the team mostly
met with representatives for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, particularly
TANAPA (SENAPA), and government officials, but of course also FZS that
facilitated the rejected draft district land use plan made to legitimize the
brutal Loliondo land theft, including the notorious Masegeri Tumbuya Rurai. I
also see the name of a Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) conservation officer
(GIS) who committed perjury in the East African Court of Justice …
The report says, “However,
there has been increased pressures on, and near the boundary of, SENAPA from
community owned livestock, especially near the hard boundaries and adjacent to
the Loliondo GCA.” The cruel and bizarre incursions into village land by
Serengeti rangers to illegally seize livestock and using every dirty trick to
have them auctioned in Mugumu is of course not mentioned (see blog posts like this one). Neither is the participation of Serengeti rangers in the
illegal demarcation exercise, and earlier attacks on Loliondo, particularly as main implementors of the 2017 mass arson. I have not yet
read the whole report but would be surprised if Serengeti rangers killing and
disappearing people west of the national park (not Loliondo) is included. What
is included is open – and repeated from previous reports - encouragement of
expanding the national park (evicting people) into the Speke Gulf area. This is a serious land rights struggle for the residents of three villages in Nyatwali ward. Truth,
rule of law, and human rights were obviously not included in the ToR of the
mission and outside the scope of the report.
The mission team consisted of Guy
Debonnet, currently Chief of the Natural Heritage Unit at UNESCO World
Heritage Centre and Daniel Marnewick, the Area-based Conservation
Coordinator for the IUCN Eastern and Southern Regional Office. I wish these
individuals can be personally sued. Their horrible report requires its own,
more detailed, blog post.
Unlike UNESCO, IUCN did in
June 2022 issue a statement on the human rights violations in Loliondo, urging
the Tanzania government to immediately stop all human rights violations, to
provide remedy and security to those harmed, and to ensure appropriate peaceful
measures are undertaken towards recognizing, respecting and protecting the
rights of the Maasai communities, even calling on the government to adhere to
the 2018 East African Court of Justice injunction on the ongoing land dispute. I
suppose IUCN were rattled by the footage that came out before the arrests of
anyone suspected of sharing it. Daniel Marnewick has perhaps missed this statement
or just preferred to parrot the lies of the human rights violators, and not
even getting those right.
Not one word of the Report
on the Joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring Mission to Serengeti
National Park can be taken seriously.
To avoid
confusion, don’t forget that UNESCO and IUCN for years, in
report after report, have instigated against the Maasai of Ngorongoro
Conservation Area. In the report I found on 17th August they also join
the lies of the human rights violators regarding Loliondo.
OBC becoming
more visible
After lying low for some
years, OBC have become more visible. As reported earlier, in November 2023, the
“journalist” Manyerere Jackton who in over 60 articles in the Jamhuri weekly
newspaper has incited against the Maasai of Loliondo, campaigned for the land
grab, and viciously slandered, fabricated stories about anyone slightly
suspected of being able to speak up, wrote two articles about OBC’s current
complaints. After obtaining the illegal game reserve that they’ve for years
been lobbying for, they did not feel appreciated enough, felt that other
investors (Klein’s and Taasa) should only operate with their permit, but were
instead favoured, and OBC were unhappy with the work of NCAA that was given the
management of the illegal reserve. There was a complaint that there were
livestock everywhere, but in a most disgusting response, NCAA boasted about
between January and November 2023 having seized 6,165 goats and sheep, 13,217
heads of cattle, and extorted 785,475,000 TShs in “fines”. The “journalist” reported
that during the illness of the notorious former chief conservator Manongi, some
NCA staff would have conspired to reduce the hunting area. Nothing more has
been heard about this.
In early June 2024, a
propaganda publication from OBC was shared online (apparently published in
March). At first sight a glossy product in which OBC’s supposedly excellent
relations with everyone, not least NCAA, are described, as are their charitable
projects, but the pictures used were old, there were some formatting mistakes,
and there wasn’t much new information. Of interest is that OBC highlights their
donations of vehicles to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the
Tanzania Police Force, their support to the Tanzania Wildlife Research
Institute (TAWIRI) and College of African Wildlife Management (Mweka), and
their awards received from TAWIRI and the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA).
The main message is about OBC’s commitment to protecting the illegal game
reserve, without the slightest mention, not only of the fact that its operation
is suspended by the high court (ignored by the government and hardly upheld by
the court), but no conflict exists in OBC’s publication. OBC see crime, equating
“illegal” grazing with poaching and boast about having provided the government
with over 50 vehicles, fuel, and arms to fights such “illegal activities”.
The OBC pamphlet mentions the
company’s support of water development projects. On 1st July, Arusha
RC Paul Makonda, together with the UAE ambassador, came to the primary school
in Wasso town to launch more such water projects. Rather than OBC, Sheikh
Mohammed of Dubai was hailed as the benefactor, but they are one and the same.
The ward councillors had – according to leaked, or perhaps willingly shared,
messages from their WhatsApp group - not been informed in any way. To those
present it was obvious that the council chairman knew but had kept quiet. In
2015, a similar launch of water projects was attended by then Minister Lazaro
Ndumbaro and the press described the presence of local leaders as support for
OBC, when division was sharp, and an “investor-friendly” clique was sabotaging
the land rights struggle. I have not heard how that clique explains the horror
that has since unfolded.
 |
| Makonda and UAE ambassador |
The first public appearance by
OBC after the 2022 brutal land theft was of Isaack Mollel as one of the
speakers in a zoom seminar on 14th January 2023, to push back a
stupid rumour of wildlife trafficking, and to engage in self-congratulation for
Tanzania’s tourism product and increased tourist arrivals. Mollel explained
that OBC’s owners are from the UAE, that the company drills wells, helps the
hospital and schools, and regularly donates vehicles to the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism. They do not come to trophy hunt, but to relax, sometimes
leaving without hunting and other times shoot some animal to have for dinner.
Amnesty
report about investors in the illegal game reserve in Loliondo
On 7th August a new
report by Amnesty International was released, Business as usual in bloodiedland? Role of businesses in forced evictions in Loliondo, Tanzania. In this
report Amnesty puts the light on the investors operating in the illegal
“Pololeti Game Reserve”. Such a report calling for accountability instead of
treating OBC as a mysterious entity and Taasa and &Beyond (Klein’s Camp) as
innocent is exactly what’s needed, but sadly this report also has some huge and
totally unnecessary mistakes, some of which are repeated from Amnesty’s earlier
report about Loliondo. I’ve been patient for so many years trying to downplay the
constant misinformation by well-meaning and very helpful people, but on 7th
August I was almost sent into a rage. What’s the use of, instead of getting a
life, spending over a decade chasing and sharing information about Loliondo,
when organizations and journalists prefer to listen to their own confused
colleagues?
Worst of all is that eight
times in this report Amnesty claim that there were evictions like those in
2009 and 2017, and the terrible 2022 that never ends, also in 2013. There
absolutely were not. As I’ve detailed so many times, 2013 was the year
of the Kagasheki threat that was stopped. With hindsight it was a good year.
Maybe the best. It seems like this mistake originates from a typo that keeps
being repeated in reports and articles. Sometimes the incorrect claims have
been about other years that are more arguable. Amnesty had the same mistake in
their earlier report, and I tweeted and blogged about it, but it's unstoppable.
Another mistake has its origin
in misleading newspaper articles from 2017 claiming that OBC's hunting
concession had been terminated when it absolutely was not. It was Minister
Kigwangalla making loud statements that he very soon had to backtrack on. At
the time, I wrote several blog posts about this flip-flopping minister and for
years I’ve been screaming about the misinformation. OBC never left, just a
month after Kigwangalla's statements, PM Majaliwa said that they were staying
and in 2018 Sheikh Mohammed visited somewhat publicly (which the report claims
didn’t happen after 2016 …) and then OBC again gifted the MNRT with vehicles.
Amnesty says they couldn’t find any information on when the concession was
reinstated. Of course, they can’t when it was never terminated. They also claim
that OBC’s director Mollel was arrested days after Kigwangalla was talking
about the Prevention of Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) when it happened
over a year later and only then was OBC toned down a little, but never left.
 |
| Vehicles donated by OBC to the ministry in April 2018. |
 |
| Sheik Mohammed at Oloipiri Primary School in March 2018 |
For some reason, Amnesty
leaves out area B of
the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”, the area that has affected Malambo in the
most terrible way. It’s not even on their map. It could maybe be explained by
the fact that OBC’s camps are in Kirtalo, while Klein’s and Taasa are found in
Ololosokwan, but it was absent also in the previous Amnesty report that almost
made it seem like the illegal demarcation and violence of 2022 took place only in
Ololosokwan when a 90-kilometre stretch from Ololosokwan to Piyaya, plus an
area a bit further to the east in Malambo were attacked, and continue under
attack.
I’ve also learnt from this recent Amnesty report. For some months, several people have told me, without explaining how they’ve come to that conclusion, that OBC have changed their name to Royal Safaris, which I’ve found very unlikely when all I’ve seen is that both OBC and their friends (like their own “journalist”) keep using the name Otterlo Business Corporation. Amnesty explains that on 23rd December 1992, OBC was registered with the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) under the name Royal Safaris Conservation Co L.L.C. So it’s old news.
Amnesty has some relevant (but
weak due to anonymity) information about hunting abuse. This is a difficult
issue, since it will always make some overexcitable Tanzanians start
fabricating stories about Antonov planes loaded with wildlife from Loliondo. Eyewitnesses
that had worked for OBC, told Amnesty they had seen members of the royal family
airlift live animals out of Loliondo, particularly cubs, according to one
former OBC employee. Another anonymous eyewitness said that OBC’s royal guests
would go out hunting themselves, without the obligatory professional hunter and
wildlife officer, and kill what they wanted, often injuring animals. This is
not so surprising, even if escorted, OBC fund the rangers and used to be almost
undistinguishable from TAWA, so there isn’t any effective monitoring. Though
this applies to the whole hunting industry in Tanzania.
Unfortunately, they also refer
to the MERC report from 2001, which Moringe Parkipuny contributed to as the
main source. Though a decade later Parkipuny was upset that this report was
still online, since it was unfinished, outdated, and the Kenyan author had cut
all communication after relocating to the USA.
The information about Klein’s
Camp and Taasa is not so exact, which is more understandable since nobody has
written about them, except for this blog, and very occasionally, most recently when writing about an article by OBC’s journalist in November 2023. Taasa seem
to now have removed from their website the claim that they are operating in a
Wildlife Management Area.
There are also eyewitness
reports on OBC’s direct involvement in the illegal eviction operations, but that’s
well-known and hardly even controversial. What Amnesty misses is that OBC
funded the rejected and never implemented Ngorongoro District Land Use
Framework Plan 2010–2030 proposing the 1,500 km2 land theft, like
the German development bank, working with FZS, funded the 2023-2043 equally
rejected plan to legitimize this land theft after it was illegally committed.
Article in
the Atlantic months ago
A long time has passed now,
since it didn’t fit the blog post about Thomson Safaris (I wish the American
author could have had a look at those ruthless hypocrites too) and since I’ve
become unacceptably slow, on 8th April 2024, the Atlantic magazine
published an article - This Will Finish Us - by Stephanie McCrummen who had been to Loliondo, NCA,
Msomera, and to Kenya, but the main focus is clearly on Loliondo. There have
been many articles by now. I almost can’t remember them all, and they are
generally better than some years ago, but this article is wonderfully written
and more than anyone before, McCrummen describes the heartbreak and deep
injustice of losing land and livestock, telling the story of one of the herders
whose cattle were seized by Serengeti rangers from Bologonja that in early 2023
for some time joined the NCA/”Pololeti” rangers in the cattle theft committed
in Ololosokwan.
Like no other non-Tanzanian,
McCrummen, when visiting Msomera, captures the attitude of the Tanzanian
government in the words of Handeni DC Albert Msando who says that if the “voluntary”
relocation fails, the Ngorongoro Maasai will be moved by force, adding, “That’s
why there are guys here with their shoulders decorated” and, “The Maasai
are not exempted from acculturation or cultural acclimatization, or cultural
extinction.” The DC is the same as who right at the side of
Swahili-speaking commissioners from the African Commission of Human and
People’s Rights threatened displaced, original Msomera villagers, without any
intervention by the commissioners.
McCrummen makes it clear that
Loliondo and NCA are two different areas but refers to Loliondo as a “region”
north of Ngorongoro when Ngorongoro and Loliondo are two divisions of
Ngorongoro district, and Loliondo also is the name of the GCA containing the
whole of Loliondo division and part of Sale division, which is what’s relevant
in this case, (it’s also the name of the town that serves as district capital).
Though when the text moves from one place to another, I’m not sure that the
reader follows her, or understands that the destructive Msomera setup doesn’t
have anything to do with Loliondo. Many people refuse to understand this,
whatever explanations they are given. McCrummen refers to the 1,500 km2
as the Osero (which I too have done many times until I was advised not to). This
long-running land conflict is known under the name “Loliondo” for a good
reason, since in 1992/1993 OBC got the whole 4,000 km2 Loliondo GCA as
their hunting block, including towns and agricultural areas, and have lobbied
to have the 1,500 km2 core hunting area alienated from the villages
and converted into a protected area, which was brutally and lawlessly done in
2022, depriving the Maasai of almost all dry-season grazing. The Tanzanian
government wants to replicate this GCA crime in over a dozen other GCAs (see
above), and already did so in Kilombero.
Unfortunately, McCrummen
repeats the widely spread misinformation that OBC’s licence would have been suspended
in 2017 and mixes it up with the case/extortion against the director in 2019.
As I’ve been screaming for over six years now (also above in this blog post) - with
crystal clear evidence, it absolutely was not. I repeat, Kigwangalla
said that OBC would have to leave before 2018, but it was very soon clear that they
weren’t going anywhere, a month later PM Majaliwa declared that they were
staying, in 2018 Sheikh Mohammed again visited and OBC gifted the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism with vehicles and employed the
soldiers stationed at Lopolun to assault herders and burn down bomas in Kirtalo
and Ololosokwan. Only in 2019, when the director. Mollel was arrested and
extorted via plea bargaining, were OBC toned down a little, but never
left.
Many journalists have
contacted me about Loliondo and most never write anything, but the past few
years I’m more often contacted by those who are in contact with journalists.
Please just put me in contact with the journalists, so that I can explain to
them directly.
McCrummen quoted Dennis
Rentsch of the horrible FZS talking about not wanting to "vilify" the
Maasai, “but” (going on about “overgrazing” and “tipping points”) when it’s
what FZS have been doing for decades, and much worse than that. FZS facilitated
the legitimization of the brutal theft of the 1,500 km2 via the Ngorongoro
District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043 that fortunately was rejected –
twice – by the councillors. She also quotes the Spanish researcher Pablo
Manzano who in 2018 did a strange report about Loliondo without mentioning the
mass arson of 2017, the human rights violations, or the local police state, but
has improved and is doing some quite impressive research on pastoralism. And
she met someone whom I haven’t heard about for many years – Ngodidio Rotiken
who lost his eye to a teargas canister and was handcuffed to the hospital bed
in September 2009 towards the end of the mass arson operation of that year, the
one that should never have been allowed to be repeated. It did not sound like
Ngodidio was happy.
Disenfranchisement
and massive protests in NCA
On 29th July, a 1,115-page pdf document from the so-called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC, formerly NEC) was being shared on WhatsApp. This document lists all voters’ registration stations in Tanzania, which serve to update the Permanent Voters Register for the local elections in November and the general elections in 2025. During the elections, the same premises serve as polling stations. Shockingly, not a single station in the 25 villages of Ngorongoro Division/Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Ngorongoro District was found on the list. The registration update/polling stations of Loliondo and Sale however remain on this list. Soon already registered voter dialled *152*00# and found that they were registered at different stations in Msomera village in Handeni, to where the government wants them to relocate “voluntarily”. Even deceased relatives were found to be registered in this village. To date there isn’t any explanation from authorities. Upon questions from media, INEC refer to TAMISEMI that in its turn refer to INEC.
On 3rd August,
several ward councillors and village leaders (all CCM) together with some
common villagers (not all CCM) issued a statement against the
disenfranchisement. Then, on 8th August Ngorongoro youths issued
their own protest statement. There was a worrying silence from MP Emmanuel
Oleshangay but on 13th August he responded to the Citizen newspaper,
that even he had found himself registered at a polling station in Msomera, but
when contacting INEC, the authority denied having changed any information. At
least, on 8th April, at PM Majaliwa's budget presentation,
Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai asked why, if relocation is
"voluntary", the Maasai of Ngorongoro are suffering abuse,
restrictions and blocked social services, including denied permits for building
school toilets. Though the past days very serious questions have been raised concerning
what exactly the MP and other leaders are up to.
On 20th June, the
Ngorongoro police in a letter to CHADEMA claimed that “intelligence information”
showed that it is not “safe” to hold political meetings in Ngorongoro division,
and sadly the opposition party did not visit.
In the light of the horribly
fraudulent and violent 2020 general election, in which Salula Ngorisiolo was
killed at Oloirobi polling station when police and NCAA rangers opened fire at
unarmed voters that were speaking up about the fraud (a murder that Ngorongoro
leaders have still not spoken up about) and the current crackdown on opposition
in Tanzania with illegal arrests, including top opposition leaders, and
abductions, often including torture, by “unknown assailants”.
Current government numbers
indicate that that over 8,000 Ngorongoro residents have relocated (this
includes some non-genuine opportunists) and the government’s estimate of the
population of Ngorongoro division/NCA (not including Loliondo/Sale divisions) is
around 120,000 people (probably inflated). Have all registered voters now ended
up on the lists of a village in Handeni?
On 10th April, 135
Ngorongoro migrants to Msomera issued a statement about forgotten promises,
warning others from relocating, and saying that they will return to Ngorongoro.
The following day this was followed by a fabricated story that unnamed traditional
leaders in Meshili, Olbalbal in a meeting would have announced that they were
relocating to Msomera to get a better life and complained that politicians and
activists were paying and misleading them to stay. A letter by real leaders from
Olbalbal set the record straight. There was no meeting as described in the fake
article, they were not relocating, but anyone wanting to do so was free to
relocate. On 27th May women who had been forced to relocate to
Msomera by the policy targeting “heads of family” and then returned after
mistreatment, and those who had refused and become homeless in Ngorongoro spoke to Kusaga TV (online media). And on 29th June, several Msomera villagers
– a village of some 8,000 residents before the governments Ngorongoro
relocation - again spoke up about being overrun and “informed” at gunpoint that
their land now was for Ngorongoro migrants, while they as residents of a
registered village were “invaders” of a game controlled area (see above). The
Katikati sub-village chairman had been removed by the Handeni DC for speaking
up.
In May some new imposters issued a statement in support of “relocations” from Ngorongoro and of the brutal
evictions in villages next to Kilimanjaro International Airport. With total
shamelessness, these individuals claimed to be directly affected, but were soon
revealed to be somewhat known, notorious, and from Arumeru district in Arusha.
One Dk. Ojung Ole Saitabau claimed to be from Ngorongoro, but in 2020 he
contested for the parliamentary seat of Arumeru Magharibi … The others were Emanuel
Oshim Lukumay and Ng’wigulu Nyerere Shigella. There seems to be an endless
supply of such trash, and nothing ever happens to them.
On 8th August, a
meeting at Endulen market to discuss how to end oppression and abuse was
invaded and disrupted by heavily armed NCA rangers.
After the brief and corruption
laden conservatorship of Richard Kiiza, on 6th May President Samia
appointed Elirehema Joshua Doriye as Ngorongoro Chief Conservator. Nothing has improved
following this change. On 11th August, NCA rangers held meetings
with hotels and lodges telling them:
1. To monitor if any Maasai
working in the hotels hold secret meetings. They were told that the Maasai are
now enemies of the state, and all their movements should be monitored.
2. That the hotels should
ensure that no tourist learns that the Maasai are excluded from voter’s registration.
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 the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority,
some of the funds transferred to Handeni, 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, almost 600 kilometres away. The
entrance of construction material into NCA is blocked, herders are regularly
assaulted by rangers, residents are harassed at Lodoare gate, ID is demanded, usually
voter’s registration …, and in August/September last year there were mass
arrests, or abductions, including torture, and a police state similar to that
of Loliondo has developed, even if the there isn’t the kind of silence that too
often falls over Loliondo like a stinking, damp cloth. These are not the first
restrictions or eviction efforts, but the onslaught has sharply accelerated
since President Samia came into office. In 1975, the Maasai were evicted from
the crater floor and all cultivation in NCA was prohibited, lifted in 1992 and
brought back in 2008/2009. Since 2017, the Maasai no longer even have access to
water and saltlicks for their cattle in the crater. Replacement salt provided
by NCA was found toxic, leading to cattle deaths. There’s a population panic –
used as an excuse for any human rights violations - on part of the government
and some international organizations, notably UNESCO (see earlier blog
posts), 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.
I’ll write about the
disenfranchisement in more detail in next blog post.
On 31st July, Human
Rights Watch released the report “It’s Like Killing Culture” Human Rights Impacts of Relocating Tanzania’s Maasai.
On 18th August, NCA
dawned with massive manifestations and blocking of the Ngorongoro-Serengeti
road. Thousands of people held leaves as a sign of peace, sang and prayed, some
holding neatly pre-printed banners, also in English so that tourists would
understand what this was about. Long snakes of tourist vehicles came to a standstill
and hundreds of video clips and pictures were shared in social media. I haven’t
seen the results online yet, but many tourists must also have recorded what
happened. Some protesters who knew English engaged in explaining the situation
to the tourists.
16 people were arrested but
released after pressure from the protesters. Ward and village leaders held a
disappointingly low profile. There are unconfirmed rumours that some
councillors could have been compromised. Around 6pm, the Regional Administrative
Secretary and some other people sent by RC and hardcore criminal Paul Makonda
arrived. The regional representatives got five days to respond to the protesters’
concerns (there has been confusion about the number of days). NCAA issued a statement
saying that “some residents” were holding a manifestation, but that tourism activities
were proceeding uninterrupted, and that the manifestation was evidence that
there weren’t any human rights violations in NCA.
The demands are:
1.Restoration of social
services
2. Restoration of the Ngorongoro
Pastoral Council, in the hands of the people, and not the district council.
3. An end to all forms of
brutality and oppression.
4. No park fees charged for
residents’ vehicles.
5. Free movement without any
interference from NCA rangers.
6. Abolition of all forms of
economic sanctions.
7. Restoration of all register
update and polling stations in Ngorongoro Division.
If the demands are not met, there
will be non-stop peaceful demonstration by blocking all tourist roads within
NCA
Statements in support of the
Maasai were (as before) issued by Secretary General of Tanzania Episcopal
Conference, Charles Kitima and by the for some years useless Tanganyika Law
Society that’s been reformed under the leadership of Boniface Mwabukusi.
Unsurprisingly a video of young
Maasai imposters appeared with some bad acting pretending that they were from
Ngorongoro and that the protesters were all Kenyans, while they just wanted peace
and the government to take action against those “Kenyans”. They did this in
front of a baobab that’s never found at the altitude of Ngorongoro and it was
soon found that they were from Olmolog in Enduimet, Longido and the video shot
in Bweni in Dar es Salaaam region.
On the 19th, over a
thousand (numbers are far from exact) people continued gathering – principally a
large gathering in Oloirobi village in Ngorongoro ward - and issued statements
that it’s their land, they aren’t going anywhere, and they are waiting for the
response promised by the regional authorities. Reports said that NCAA had
called from reinforcement by TAWA and TANAPA rangers from Simanjiro and Monduli,
and police not from Ngorongoro was already there. A clear message was sent to
Hamis Dambaya of the NCAA PR unit that wrote the statement about “some
residents”.
In the evening, it was found
that on 26th June, Mohamed Mchengerwa, President Samia’s son in law
and Ministers of State in the President’s Office for Regional Administration
and Local Government (TAMISEMI) had signed Government Notice No.673 delisting
all 11 wards, 25 villages and 93 sub-villages of Ngorongoro division (and some other
villages in the country) and that this had been published in the Gazette on 2nd
August (or the notice itself was not published, but it was mentioned).
The gathering in Oloirobi
continued on the 20th. Both CHADEMA and ACT Wazalendo issued
statements in support of the Maasai of Ngorongoro. Boniface Mwabukusi of TLS,
in no uncertain terms, made it clear that Minister Mchengerwa had not any provision
of the law to do what he did.
The huge gathering in Oloirobi
continued on the 21st. Sadly, or infuriatingly, police in Karatu were
at not allowing vehicles going to Ngorongoro to carry any food, to prevent it
from being taken to the protesters. Rangers have been deployed from several
regions and are stationed at the old NCA headquarters, reportedly until 8th
September. The RC is still expected to come within the days agreed to respond
to the demands. People stay put, camping out until the 23rd waiting for this,
before other action. Tomorrow the government is expected to come with “journalists”
for another propaganda spectacle about people relocating to Msomera.
Support for the Maasai from Tanzanians
who aren’t deranged government supporters seem greater than ever before.
To be continued in next blog
post.
Enough was already enough so
long ago.
On 22nd June,
inside Ngorongoro Crater, enkipaata, the ceremony setting off a new age-set’s
journey to becoming warriors was celebrated. The Irmegoliki age-set will remain
in Ngorongoro long after Samia Suluhu Hassan and the Ngorongoro Conservation
Area Authority are all dead and forgotten.
The president
telling the origins story about her hatred for pastoralists
At a meeting with “tribal
chiefs” in Dodoma on 20th July, President Samia talked about
conflict between pastoralists and famers, claiming that the former most often
are to blame and sharing a personal story. At some undisclosed time, the
president said that she had been growing rice in Morogoro to get rich. “Bye,
bye, umaskini (poverty)”, was how she described it, in her usual style. Her
rice field was invaded by some 300 cows, and she lost everything. The president
didn’t explain why she – who is from Zanzibar – was growing rice in Morogoro. Whether based on a true story
or not, further incitement against pastoralists was clearly the aim. The
president chooses to ignore that her manic wish to alienate all grazing land
for tourism and conservation will lead to worsened conflict. Stop her! All viruses of the world, please, please stop Samia Suluhu Hassan,
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
Please
contact me with any questions about Loliondo. Never guess and never copy
hurriedly written newspaper articles, or even reports by serious organizations,
without double checking. Also, please contact me with any information you may
have. Don’t assume that I’m getting it automatically. I must chase people 24-7
for information. While anyone with good intentions is allowed to use anything
written in my blog, and I’ve long ago understood that many fear being
associated with me, I appreciate being given credit or at least having my blog
linked to
Heavy presence of security forces and the huge gathering continued. The MP joined for the first time, cried bitterly, and promised that the government would come with a response the following day. Former Simanjiro MP Millya was also there, but the protestors were not impressed.
https://youtu.be/GpuDVV2y7Z4
More human rights organizations than usual issued a joint statement.
In a most weird turn of events, it was announced that an injunction had been issued against the delisting of villages. The case was filed the same day, which is unheard of, and it was reported in media that would otherwise never report good news for the Maasai. The case was filed in the name of Isaya Olepose who had been in Ngorongoro since 6th August, and said that he had not filed any case and never met the lawyer who was saying that he did so.
The DED then announced that the election would go on as usual.
23rd August
RC Makonda arrived with Ministers Kabudi and Lukuvi and infamous police commissioner Awadhi.
The message was that the government respects the court and the villages are not delisted. Further, the message from the president was that local elections in November and general elections in 2025 will proceed according to previous arrangements, that paralyzed social services will be returned. The president had even instructed the NCA rangers not to harass people.
Now it's important to see that this actually happens, that the illegal GN is revoked via another GN, that services are swiftly returned, withheld permits granted, and funds sent back from Handeni.
25th
Horrible statement by the MP thanking President Samia.
27th August
Pindi Chana at the NCAA HQ in Karatu said that the ministry will ensure that the government's instructions in regards to improving social services are implemented. She particularly mentioned minister Lukuvi message to the Maasai that the president had instruction issuance of permits for improvements, to let the residents pass Lodoare gate until 6 pm instead of 4.30 pm , ensure their safety and better relations with NCAA.
28th August
A team from the DED's office set up camp in Ngorongoro and started dealing with the for years paralyzed water problem at Ngorongoro Girls Secondary School in Alaitole, while local leaders engaged in totally brainless praise of President Samia. A water pump wa installed and then the team passed through all schools and health centres in Ngorongoro division.
In Karatu the MP was again praising the president in a terrible way.
12th September
Pindi Chana visited the NCAA HQ in Karatu.
12-13 September
Ward meetings with feedback and selecting xommunity members to meet the president.
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