A month ago,
the kangaroo High Court and Judge Nyigulila Mwaseba on every point by the
Maasai dismissed the case against the president’s Government Notice (GN)
declaring a “Pololeti Game Reserve” on 1,502 km2 of legally
registered village land that’s dry season grazing land for more than 14
Loliondo and Sale villages. This was done using the most malicious and deranged
terra nullius lies about game controlled areas (GCAs) and obviously forged
documents.
OBC, that
organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has for decades lobbied to have
this land taken from the Maasai. OBC has had the 4,000 km2 Loliondo
GCA hunting block (right to hunt) since 1992-1993. This covers the whole of
Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District and part of Sale Division, including
two towns and agricultural areas, which is why OBC have wanted it reduced to
their 1,500 km2 core hunting area that’s important Maasai grazing
land. The Maasai have through years with
a local police state that’s harassed anyone criticising OBC and the American
operator Thomson Safaris (that claim a private nature refuge outside the 1,500
km2), and illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017, managed to
keep the land until the advent of Tanzania’s most brutal and anti-pastoralist
president ever – Samia Suluhu Hassan.
In the
illegal demarcation operation by security forces that commenced on 10th
June 2022, more than 150 people were arrested and over 40 seriously injured,
over 2,000 fled across the border to Kenya. People were tortured and raped. The
security forces stole motorbikes and phones and destroyed houses and other
buildings. Orias Oleng’iyo, 84-year old, was injured by gunshot, taken by
security personnel and has not been seen ever since. The habeas corpus case filed
by his son was dismissed. All councillors from affected wards were abducted on
the eve of the attack and held for over 5 months, charged with murder for a
killing of a police officer that took place the day after they were
abducted. Random people initially accused of having shared pictures of the
violence were added to the murder charges that the government didn’t show any
interest in investigating and then just dropped after many postponements. All
cases against 132 people accused of being "Kenyans" were also dropped. The
government has boasted of tens of thousands of cattle seizures with
extortionate “fines” (ransom payments) of 100,000 TShs per head of cattle. The
loss of land, cattle, and the payment of “fines” has radically deepened
poverty.
On 17th
June 2022 Minister Pindi Chana declared the illegally demarcated land a new
kind of GCA (introduced in 2009-2010 to create confusion in which to steal
land) that’s the same as a game reserve. With an ongoing court case against the
minister’s new GCA, the president on 14th October 2022, declared the
same land a game reserve. The minister’s order was by the court declared null
and void for lack of the mandatory consultation. Temporary orders to stop the
operation of the game reserve until that case was determined were shamelessly
violated by the government and the contempt of court case was dismissed.
The kangaroo
court ruling signifies increased danger to areas all over Tanzania that are
under threat of being alienated as game reserves.
A notice of
appeal was swiftly filed.
The written
ruling was almost immediately available and shared, so I have no excuse for
being this slow, other than that new issues keep popping up with incomplete details
and information is sometimes very hard, or impossible, to get hold of. I fear I
can have missed a lot. Being sleepy and unfocused does not help but is not an
excuse.
This blog
post also has some updates about the implementation of government promises
after mass protests in Ngorongoro Conservation Area/Ngorongoro Division (not to
be confused with Loliondo), about other court cases, the distraction of a
supposed squabble between TAWA and NCAA, and a reminder of the game reserve
threat all over Tanzania.
In this blog post:
The kangaroo
court ruling
The Tanzanian
government’s changing stories about Loliondo GCA while attempting to steal all
dry season grazing land within it
Other court
cases
Currently
OBC’s
“friends” working to have the stolen village land managed by TAWA
The monstrous
game reserve threats
New protests
needed in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
 |
| In the court room. |
The kangaroo
court ruling
On 24th October –
initially scheduled for the 22nd – in the High Court, Judge Nyigulila
Mwaseba dismissed Miscellaneous Civil Cause No.18 of 2023 Latang’amwaki
Ndwati & 7 Others vs. Attorney General (known as No.178 of 2022 before
being granted leave) and thereby ruled in favour of the brutally and illegally
demarcated “Pololeti Game Reserve” in Loliondo. This was the case concerning
the president’s Government Notice (GN) No. 604 of 2022 that declared 1,502 km2
of essential dry season grazing land this kind of protected area that’s meant
for tourism hunting and radically excludes the Maasai landowners. This should
not have come as a surprise, considering how the judiciary has previously consented
to being used as toilet paper by the government, but I had some hope after the
minister’s GN was declared null and void for lack of mandatory consultation (exactly
the same applies to the president’s GN that was hastily gazetted on 14th
October 2022, only four months after the minister’s GN declaring the same land
a Game Controlled Area, against which there was already an ongoing court case)
and operation of the illegal game reserve was suspended by the court until
determination of the case – even if the temporary orders were shamelessly
violated without any kind of action by the court, other than dismissing the
contempt of court case … There was also a faint hope of at least some populism
in election times (as happened in NCA that’s NOT to be confused with
Loliondo), but with the Tanzanian government, under the most viciously anti-Maasai
president ever, the wishes of tourism, “conservation”, Dubai, and Germany carry
more weight than the Maasai, the law, or the most basic humanity.
With the most
aggressive dishonesty, the ruling pretends that the stolen
1,502 km2 (and actually the 4,000 km2 covering the whole
of Loliondo and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was already a
protected area since 1951 (“time immemorial” was also mentioned) when these
1,502 km2 have been owned and used as Maasai grazing land for
centuries, before and during colonial times, under customary ownership, which
was recognized by the Land Act No.3 of 1923. The Maasai evicted from Serengeti
in 1959 moved to both NCA and Loliondo. In the 1970s the villages in Loliondo
and Sale were registered under the Village and Ujamaa Villages Act, then in
1982 under the Local Government (District Authorities) Act – could enter
legally binding contracts on their own behalf - and got further protection as
village land belonging to the village assembly (all adult villagers) managed by
the village council under Village Land Act No.5 of 1999. Still Judge Mwaseba
pretends that 2,498 km2 – that contain two towns, district
headquarters, the DC’s office, the magistrate court, hospitals and schools,
agricultural land, forest reserves and a nasty “nature refuge” grabbed by an
American investor – were “left for community use”, and keeps using
this monumentally malicious lie as evidence of the government’s “good faith”.
The horrible lie about the
Game Controlled Area – pretending that evicting the Maasai from 1,500 km2
means gifting them with 2,500 km2 - was introduced by Minister
Kagasheki in 2013, which led to protests in which the Maasai gained the support
of both the opposition CHADEMA and the CCM ruling party. In September the same
year then PM Mizengo Pinda in an emotional speech in Wasso declared that the
land without any doubt was village land, that the Maasai should go on with
their lives as before, and that Kagasheki would not be allowed to bother them. Pinda
had already in a letter to the RC in May 2013 made it clear that the land was
village land, but this letter was otherwise less friendly to the Maasai. After
the Kagasheki threat was averted, the government changed to other lies
in its efforts to evict the Maasai from the 1,500 km2 that the
hunting investor from Dubai, OBC, was lobbying to have converted into a
protected area. During the mass arson operation in 2017, Minister Maghembe
returned to the horrible GCA lie, while his ministry and the DC engaged in other
lies, but that did not deny the village land. Then - as seen - in 2022,
every government representative had been prepared to return to the lie about
the GCA loudly in media, when meeting diplomats, and at every international
event. Now the judge obediently has done the same.
The GCA established in 1951 to
regulate hunting and later only serving to delimit hunting blocks, has always totally
overlapped with village land and not interfered with the activities of local
people. The same applies to huge areas all over Tanzania and the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism have issued explicit wishes for many new
game reserves, including a detailed proposal for alienating basically all
grazing land in the Northern Zone (see earlier blog posts and below) – which makes this malicious ruling
even more dangerous.
Since I’ve mentioned 2013, I
must remind everyone to stop copying the incorrect information that in this
year there were evictions, like those in 2009 and 2017. There were not.
With hindsight it was a good year. Maybe the best. It’s sad, and unhelpful,
that with such maliciously lying enemies, not even the friends of Loliondo are
able to keep to facts …
The other
main point of the malicious ruling:
is the lie that there was mandatory
consultation before the gazettement of the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”! This
is based on obviously forged documents that even if they would have been
genuine would not signify consultation.
As known, in the eve on the
brutal military demarcation attack on Loliondo all councillors from the eight
wards with land in the area wanted by the government and the investor for a
game reserve – except the Soitsambu councillor who didn’t attend and managed to
flee – plus two women’s special seats councillors, and the CCM district
chairman were lured to a meeting by then DC Raymond Mwangwala. They were
abducted, bundled in two cars and driven to Arusha overnight. They were held
incommunicado until 16th June when they were charged with murder of a
police officer who was killed by a poison arrow in confrontations the day after
they were abducted. They were remanded/abducted, with repeatedly postponed
hearings and no real attempt at prosecution, until the announcement over five
months later, on 22nd November, that the Director of Public
Prosecution (DPP) had no intention to continue with the case. Meanwhile,
Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana (this criminal is back at
the head of this ministry) had on 17th June gazetted the illegally
demarcated land as a new kind of GCA that’s the same as a game reserve, and on
31st October, or 1st November 2022, it was announced that
President Samia had on 14th October declared a Pololeti Game Reserve
(GN No.604, 2022). Such was the level of “consultation”.
Not shy to appear as
terminally stupid, Judge Mwaseba in her ruling argues that the abduction of the
councillors does not have anything to do with the proclamation of the game
reserve since it happened in June while the GN is from October.
Judge Mwaseba refers to a
district council meeting on 24th September 2022 in which the promulgation
of the “Pololeti Game Reserve” was on the agenda and 25 councillors -obviously
none from the wards whose land was affected since they were still abducted
- signed the attendance list reaching the required quorum. Besides that
attendance is not consultation, the minutes were most probably forged and
several councillors and village chairpersons have submitted affidavits that
they were not consulted.
Further, those minutes refer to a letter from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to the Arusha
Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) indicating the president's intention to
upgrade the “Pololeti Game Controlled Area” to a Game Reserve, dated 7th
June 2022 and a letter from the RAS to the District Executive Director
(DED), dated 14th June 2022. These forgeries, that were
attached to the counter affidavit signed by “Wildlife Conservation Officer”
Emmanuel Daniel Pius, (the government’s go to perjurer who in other cases has
signed other sets of lies) were not so cleverly backdated when the “Pololeti
GCA” itself was not gazetted until 17th June 2022. The letters
are worded “utakumbuka” (“you will remember”) as if the “Pololeti GCA” would
have been gazetted in the past instead of in the future. “If the President
was already considering the establishment of a Game Reserve before June 7, and
the MNRT communicated this intention to RAS Arusha why would the Minister
(Pindi Chana) declare a Game Controlled Area in the same area while the
ministry purported to have a plan from the President? Only a kangaroo court can overlook this inconsistency.", says
advocate Joseph Oleshangay.
Further, according to Advocate
Oleshangay, the documents that the government – and the judge – regard as
evidence of consultation were not even submitted during the preliminary stages
of the case. Instead, the government submitted a document from the 2016-2017
select committee that PM Majaliwa tasked the Arusha RC Mrisho Gambo to set up. This
committee, besides the enemies of the Maasai in the shape of government,
investors, and conservation organizations, included many local leaders and some
NGO people who after multiple illegal arrests and malicious prosecution against
four people were more weakened and intimidated than ever. OBC had sent a
“report” to media with their complaints, and the PM wanted to “solve the
conflict”, leaving a Wildlife Conservation Area (WMA) or a government protected
area (game reserve/new kind of GCA) as the only options. The local leaders
argued for a WMA – which nobody in Loliondo had ever wanted and which had been
successfully fought off when the government and FZS had earlier tried to impose
it. A WMA is a form of eviction while nominally still village land and I only
know of one case, Enduimet, in which grazing rights may have been (precariously)
maintained. Though it should be noted that it can only be established on
village land, so the PM was at that time not denying the status of the land. In
March 2017 there were spontaneous protests (a very popularly misused picture is
from these protests) in village after village against the select committee and
the WMA idea, but then leaders celebrated it as a victory when this option was finally
presented to the PM. As known, what followed was sharply increased fear and government
crime until an improvement in early 2019 (when OBC’s director was arrested,
accused of economic sabotage, then instead of prosecuted, extorted via plea
bargaining) and a dramatically increased threat later the same year which was
ignored by local leaders until it was imminent in 2022. Anyway, during the
proceedings, it was revealed in the Ndalamia case against the Minister's
declaration of the same area as a Game Controlled Area, the Gambo document
failed to meet the necessary requirements for a consultative process. Then the
government forged new documents for the case against the president’s game
reserve declaration – and the judge found them convincing.
Not used
by the government as evidence of “consultation” were the “community
recommendations” (on both NCA and the 1,500 km2 in Loliondo) that in
an elaborate ceremony on 25th March 2022 – few days before the
military demarcation attack on Loliondo - were handed over to PM Majaliwa
who had requested them and said that he was going to work on the
recommendations. There’s little doubt that the PM’s intention was to twist and
lie to use these recommendations to justify the attack. However, the
Loliondo/Sale report, while written in a haste and containing some mistakes, clearly
recommended a stop to any plans of alienating the 1,500 km2,
investigations into human rights violations, and the removal of OBC. That
was what Majaliwa had to work with, but instead he stole the land, committed
atrocities, and OBC is still there.
Further, the German-funded,
FZS facilitated, draft Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2023-2043
that was meant to – after the crime was committed – legalize the brutal
land theft, has twice been rejected by Ngorongoro District Council. Likewise,
the OBC-funded draft Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan 2010 -2030
that proposed a 1,500 km2 protected area was rejected by the
district council in 2011 and therefore not implemented.
OBC is not mentioned in the
ruling. At least not directly, but this ruling says that the State Attorney had
argued that the plan of reserving the 1,502 km2 had persisted for 30
years before being implemented, and that the “Pololeti Game Reserve” was
promulgated with a view to “protect and ensure sustainable conservation in
order to protect the natural resources, including the wild animals as a major
source of foreign currency in our country”. The ruling also claims that the
minister’s GN of 17th June 2022 was ordered already in 2013, “forgetting”
that this criminal order was reversed by then PM Pinda and was followed by
other attempts at taking the land. How does a persistent threat justify a
horrendous crime? Every single point by the Maasai is denied by the judge
in any twisted and often contradicting way. The judge pretends that the
“alleged” violence did not have anything to do with the president’s GN, since
it took place in June and the GN was gazetted in October. Most nauseating is
that the ruling several times repeats that the ruling was done in “good faith”,
and that not turning towns and the DC office into a game reserve would prove
this …
There hasn’t been any coverage
at all in Tanzanian press on this court ruling. Internationally, the Oakland Institute
has reported without analysing the main arguments in the ruling, but emphasized
how the Tanzanian government keeps shopping for judges until it gets a
favourable outcome.
This kangaroo court ruling
will of course be appealed, and a notice of appeal has already been filed.
The Tanzanian
government’s changing stories about Loliondo GCA while attempting to steal all
dry season grazing land within it
I have written this before,
but it should be remembered how the Tanzanian government keeps changing its
story about Loliondo, but that the aim is always to take all dry season grazing
land away from the Maasai.
-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 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 Shamsa 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 Ngorongoro
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
protest meetings 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. 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
terrified enough, 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 1,500 km2 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 PM Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that,
but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti
National Park “too easily”.
-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's 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 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. 18 of 2023 (initially called No.178 of
2022, see above). According to this demented lie - that the High court now has totally swallowed - 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.
In court
The kangaroo court ruling described
above will be appealed and there are also other court cases:
The East African Court of
Justice has been paralyzed, without hearings, for some time, because of lack of
funding, but now hearings have resumed and on 13th November there was
a scheduling conference for, Appeal No.2 of 2024 Ololosokwan Village Council
& Others v. the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. 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 that in September 2018 led to temporary orders restraining
the government from evictions, destruction, and harassment of the applicants. The
contempt of court case was filed in January 2022 when then Arusha RC Mongella
was seriously threatening the Maasai of Loliondo, and then with the brutal and
illegal demarcation exercise, and the gazettement of a protected area in June
2022, the temporary orders were violated to some extreme measure indeed.
The applicants’ lawyers were never given a chance to argue the application in
court! Involved in this judicial hooliganism was the son of a landgrabber, Charles
Nyachae, who also was behaving in a decidedly weird way with Reference No.10 of
2017.
On 29th November
2023, the Appellate Division of the East African Court of Justice allowed
Appeal No.13 of 2022 and remitted Reference No.10 of 2017 back to the
trial court. The court also awarded costs to the applicants. This is the case
concerning the brutal mass arson operation of 2017. This case is overtaken by
events after an even worse crime than mass arson and human rights violations
has been committed with the illegal creation of a protected area in June 2022. Initially
in 2017, the attorney general was arguing that the land would mysteriously have
become a game reserve, but in 2018 the government side change to saying that
the 2017 operation only took place in Serengeti National Park and not on
village land. Even the government’s (TANAPA’s) own map from this mass arson
clearly shows that an overwhelming majority of bomas were burned on village
land. Still, the judges – one of them is the son of a grabber of Maasai land in
Kenya - ruled that the applicants had failed to prove this. They also behaved
strangely with last minute postponements during the brutal military demarcation
attack on Loliondo, and the writing of the ruling indicated that they could not
have understood anything of what the witnesses were saying.
Reference
No.37 of 2022 Megweri Mako & 5 Others vs. Attorney General of Tanzania
is also in the East African Court of Justice. This case is extremely important
and concerns the brutal 2022 theft of the 1,502 km2 in Loliondo for a protected
area. There is not any hearing scheduled for this case.
As reported in the previous
blog posts, for years there’s been deliberate withholding of information about
Thomson Safaris’ disgusting land grab (currently 10,000 acres in Sukenya and
Mondorosi villages) outside the 1,502 km2, on the land that
the government, and its Judge Mwaseba say they have “left for community use”. 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 was
to be filed within 30 days. Land Case No. ? of 2024 - 144 villagers versus
Tanzania Conservation Ltd (Thomson Safaris), Tanzania Breweries Ltd, the
Commissioner for Land, Ngorongoro District Council, and the Attorney General - was
called on 7th November 2024 and on 3rd December is the
hearing on preliminary objections raised by the Attorney General. 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.
Another case in the East
African Court of Justice is Reference No. 29 of 2022 Thadeus Clamian vs.
Attorney General of Tanzania regarding illegal and suffocating restrictions
in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (not Loliondo), but no hearing is
scheduled.
Ngotieti
Kokoyo v. NCAA and 2 Others Criminal Appeal No. 9980 of 2024 is
a case that challenged the fine imposed by the NCAA on livestock that entered
Ngorongoro on 6th April 2024 through the Endamaghai gate (NCA, Not Loliondo) “without
permission”. On 19th September, the State Prosecutor acknowledged
that NCAA had wrongfully imposed the fine under the Wildlife Conservation Act, which
is applicable in other protected areas, but not in Ngorongoro where livestock
enter lawfully under Section 6 of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act.
Unexpectedly, the judge disagreed with the position that appellants and
respondent had agreed on. The Court indicated that it would deliver a ruling
based solely on one issue: whether NCAA had properly filed the prescribed form
for the compounding of livestock, and whether the receipt for the fine alone
presented by the Appellant is sufficient to justify appeal in the absence of a
formal written ruling from Ngorongoro to compound livestock. In the ruling on
31st October, the judge dismissed the appeal!
On 13th November 2024, six applicants from Ngorongoro Division (not Loliondo) filed another case versus the Independent National Electoral Commission and Attorney General, about illegal transfer of voters’ information and polling stations to Msomera. It was firstly mentioned on 15th November and then again on 22nd November, before Judge Mwenda, where the respondents’ lawyer asked for two weeks to file counter affidavit and represent it on 6th December and applicants will file reply affidavit on 20th December. The case will be mentioned on 18th February 2025.
Like all voters in Ngorongoro Divisions, in July the applicants, without any information and without having any plans to relocate, when dialling *152*00# found that they had been registered at polling stations in Msomera, Handeni. Voters at 122 polling stations had been squeezed into 17 polling stations, almost 600 kilometres away. This includes some voters who are no longer alive, like former MP Wiiliam Olenasha who passed away on 28th September 2021.
Currently
The nightmare continues, the
illegal beacons still stand demarcating the stolen land in Loliondo, even when there were
temporary court orders suspending the illegal game reserve, the Tanzanian
government violated those orders, seizing cattle and demanding extortionate
ransom money. However, this year has been exceptionally wet and there was
grazing elsewhere long into the rainy season. Silence from the ground is
terrible, but there are reports that it’s been possible to negotiate the ransom
fees with the rangers. And there are reports that in time for the local
elections, rangers have been passive while herders have accessed the illegal “Pololeti
Game Reserve”, at least in Oloipiri and Ololosokwan. In Malambo there were
reports on 29th October, and following days, that rangers were
burning grass at midnight to keep herders and livestock out. The same happened
in September, which led to protest and reportedly even the DC asked NCAA to
stop the burning.
On 15th October,
there was good news from the high court in Musoma. Judge Komba rejected the
appeal by the republic/DPP of the ruling that determined that the forfeitures (cattle
rustling) by Serengeti rangers were unlawful. On 26th October 2023, rangers
from Serengeti National Park seized cattle on village land in Loliondo and drove
them to Lobo inside Serengeti, rushing to have them auctioned off as “unclaimed
property” while the owners and local leaders were working hard to have them
released. The magistrate court authorized the selling on 31st
October 2023, and it went ahead, even after the high court in Musoma issued a
stop order against it on 1st November 2023. The auctioning order was
reversed on 10th November 2023 and Judge Komba ordered the matter to
be heard interparty. There were no receipts from the auctioning that apparently
had started already on 27th October 2023. On 7th November
2023, MP Emmanuel Oleshangai even spoke up in parliament about this scandal
that appears to have been known at the highest levels in the ministry. The
ruling in February this year made it clear that procedures were not adhered to
and the amount in the Forfeited Assets Revenue Collection account after
auctioning must be reimbursed to the cattle owners. The reimbursement is
however lower than the real value of the cattle. There have been several cases
of Serengeti rangers participating in government crime in Loliondo, but in this
case at least there was something resembling justice.
In Ololosokwan there was
reportedly interference by OBC in the election of village chairperson. Sadly,
there isn’t any opposition candidate, but the incumbent CCM chairman John
Kambaley Pyando has shown seriousness about the land and is not wanted by OBC.
Pyando fled to Kenya during the illegal military demarcation attack in 2022. While
he was absent, another person than the one appointed by Pyando ended up as
acting chairman and showed some terrible weakness, or worse, about a zoning
project supported by investors (suspicions are that this was an attempt to impose a WMA). Upon his return, Pyando put stop to this. I got
a firsthand report that on 20th October, around 7pm at Pirianoi Nadengare’s
boma, OBC’s fuel manager (a former friend of mine who around 2019 was very
vocal in a deranged hate campaign against me) was distributing free fuel for
some 100 motorbike drivers involved in the campaign of an opponent to Pyando.
Claims that the fuel would have been bought in Ololosokwan were soon found to
be untrue. However, there’s nothing indicating that the other CCM contestant
would be positive to investor-friendly zoning, and much less to the illegal
“Pololeti Game Reserve”. The point seems to have been to get rid of Pyando. It
became even stranger on 23rd October when all voters’ ballots for
the CCM election were publicly burned after allegation of fraud. The terrible
district council chairman who’s a long-time OBC employee was present.
Reportedly the aim was to remove confusion and start it all over. My source was
chased away (not a CCM member) from the meeting to discuss the next move. Omari
Bayuni from OBC (not a villager) was for some reason present on CCM election
day 27th October. Pyando won by a landslide and will, since there
isn’t any opposition candidate, continue as village chairman.
In Malambo, people
are still registered at polling stations inside the stolen land now called
“Pololeti Game Reserve" (area B). This happens in the sub-villages of Sanjan,
Ndinyika and Irkarian. The names of the old polling stations are kept, but
reportedly the voting is now slightly outside the stolen land. I need to
get more details about this, but can't wait another month for publishing this blog post ...
Currently, groups of people - good, bad, and ugly - are moving around to prepare for a visit by the president on 1st December, in which, besides NCA, the issue of the illegal "Pololeti Game Reserve" is also supposed to be on the agenda. There's a lot of confusion and a huge risk of hijacking (see below).
OBC’s “friends”
working to have the stolen village land managed by TAWA
On 10th November.
The anti-Maasai Kadoshi tv published a clip from Loliondo with the infamous
non-pastoralist and since as long as I can remember wannabee corruptee Paul
Dudui – a frantic, often deranged, defender of CCM and OBC - and the equally
non-pastoralist district council chairman who since many years back is OBC’s
community liaison, Mohammed Marekani Bayo. The clip seemed to confirm the claim
that OBC are working to have the illegal “Pololeti GR” managed by the Tanzania Wildlife
Authority, TAWA, instead of NCAA. The horrible Dudui thanks the president for
dividing the land, but says that NCAA must work with local people, while
Marekani complains that the district council with NCAA are not getting any
money from OBC. In social media Dudui writes that “conservation stakeholders”
(himself?) complain that NCAA has failed to strengthen conservation in the game
reserve.
In November 2023, OBC’s own “journalist”,
Manyerere Jackton wrote two long articles complaining about NCAA, to which NCAA
swiftly responded, boasting about their worst crimes. The vile criminals
literally 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”. In a glossy publication from March 2024, by OBC themselves,
they claim to have excellent relations with everyone, NCAA included. The
theory is that OBC does not have such total control of NCAA - whose management
has access to massive funds from Ngorongoro Conservation Area – as they have of
TAWA. Others say that the conflict is exaggerated, and they are all working
together against the Maasai. Indeed, despite any differences, they have
common stance against the Maasai.
Not until 15th
November was I alerted to that on 29th October, Manyerere Jackton
had written another such “article”. The article – “Mambo si mambo Loliondo”
is not online, and I was sad and disappointed that nobody shared it we me, or
even alerted me when there was still time to get hold of it. Though after
almost a week of screaming, on 21st November, a friend from Ngorongoro
Division, not Loliondo, made some efforts and got hold of the “article”. Though
even some people who are more important in this fight than I were not alerted,
and a picture of the frontpage was available online, which I failed to notice. On
the frontpage there’s a picture of cattle “illegally inside Pololeti GR last
week”. It says “NCAA given a job that’s not legally theirs, TAWA
sidelined”, “this new system causes a lot of new bureaucracy”, “two investors
continue to benefit without paying taxes”, “wildlife lose protection after
Loliondo is divided”. This describes the article that in many words
complain about just this. It should be remembered that Manyerere Jackton usually
writes what he thinks will please this investor, filling out with details that
often are unnecessarily incorrect and even apparently irrelevant free flowing
fabrications. Manyerere again writes that OBC paid 60,000 US dollars per year
for 4,000 km2 and now pay 500,000 US dollars (some 1.2 billion TShs) for 1,502 km2 –
forgetting that in 2022, via terrible government crime got the game reserve
that they – and to some extreme extent the “reporter” himself – have been lobbying
for. However, in these recent articles there isn’t much of Jackton’s deranged
and slanderous fabrication about private individuals, which defined his work
while campaigning to evict the Maasai from the 1,500 km2. Among
Manyerere Jackton’s “recommendations”, he mentions WMAs outside the stolen land,
which would be de facto further alienation of grazing and agricultural land. There’s
no way that the “reporter” knows what a WMA is (and years ago he wrote in a
very confused way about it) or would come up with such an idea himself.
As this blog post kept being
unacceptably delayed and I was screaming for the first article, on 19th
November, the Jamhuri published yet another Loliondo article by Manyerere
Jackton and this time a friend of mine got the newspaper and sent me “Ngorongoro
yalemewa”. It’s very similar to the pro-TAWA and anti-NCAA articles from a
year ago. Jackton writes that NCAA offices and staff housing in the in the
illegal “game reserve” are unfinished and in a state of ruin that demotivates
the rangers. Most of the article makes claims of increased poaching after the
OBC-funded anti-poaching squads with TAWA were removed, while NCAA are
incompetent. Klein’s Camp and Taasa Lodge are again described as illegal, not paying
taxes and fees, and accused of illegally bringing in tourists from Kenya. Klein’s
are even accused of having had a kitchen garden that was removed after being
reported by the Jamhuri … The district council, represented by OBC’s employee Marekani
Bayo who is the council chairman, complains that the council no longer gets “25
%” (of government revenue from OBC, I suppose) and NCAA officers are suspected
of being involved in poaching. The whole article is just an argument for
bringing back TAWA and there’s not much new or revealing.
In a déjà vu from 2023. A statement
from NCAA about the Jamhuri misleading the public, was available already the
day after the second article, while I was still trying to get hold of the first
article. It reminded me that it’s all just a distraction. Let NCAA and TAWA
squabble, if that’s what they are doing, and it’s not just OBC’s “friends” wanting
to show their relevance to the investor. It’s the game reserve itself that’s
illegal. Focus must be kept of returning the land to the Maaasai landowners and the grass to Maasai cows.
In over 60 articles, since
around 2010, with increased activity when Kagasheki’s threat was stopped in
2013, and whenever OBC’s long-time plan to have the Maasai evicted from the
1,500km2 was felt as endangered, and with apparent contented silence
when major human rights crimes were being committed, Manyerere Jackton has
viciously incited against the Maasai as destructive and non-Tanzanian, and
published lists of hundreds of Maasai, private individuals, that his sources
regard as “Kenyan”. Jackton has gone as far as claiming that 70% of the
Loliondo Maasai are not Tanzanian. He has in the most deranged way slandered
anyone suspected of being able to speak up for land rights. As said, besides
running OBC’s errands, he’s filled up his articles with his own fabrications,
sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Around 2016-2018, he was openly
boasting about being directly involved in illegal arrests of innocent people
and used to send me triumphant one-liners when someone had been arrested. After
OBC’s director Isaack Mollel in 2019 was locked up in remand prison and
extorted for plea bargaining, Jackton was much toned down, and after Mollel was
out and back at work, the plan of getting rid of the Maasai had already started
to look more promising, and there were no longer many articles. Now OBC has
another “problem” that he wants to help them with.
 |
| TAWA's appreciation of OBC |
TANAPA manages wildlife in
national parks, NCAA does so in Ngorongoro Conservation Area where there is no
trophy hunting (and since 23rd August 2022 also in the illegal
Pololeti Game Reserve), while TAWA manages wildlife everywhere else and with
trophy hunting on their main agenda.
The monstrous
game reserve threats
The very
loudly and repeatedly (currently denied by some) game reserve threat that I’ve
written about in several posts, turns the judicial misconduct by Judge Mwaseba into
a danger far beyond Loliondo.
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 threat is also
in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism’s Strategic Plan 2021/2022 –
2025/2026 that says, “The Ministry shall ensure Fifteen (15) Game Controlled
Areas are upgraded to Game Reserves by June,2026;”
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, in February 2024, boasting about
having seized 1,417 heads of cattle, and then Haki Ardhi has reported that on
19th September, TAWA invaded Shamba la 7 sub-village of Ijia,
stealing properties and destroying two houses. The following day they ordered
the 819 residents to leave within a week, alleging that they were inside the
game reserve. I had hardly even heard of
Igombe GR in Kaliua District – gazetted in 2021 after first having been turned
into Igombe and Sagara Wildlife Management Area (ISAWIMA) - 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.
I’ve reported earlier about
the presentation to Minister Angellah Kairuki by the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism’s, leaked in February this year 2024, (reached me in
early March), an 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 747 km2
“Lolkisale-Simanjiro Game Reserve”, a 1,501 km2 “Mto Wa Mbu Game
Reserve”, a 448 km2 “Longido Game Reserve”, and a 3,918 km2
“Lake Natron Game Reserve”. Further, there’s a recommendation to “allow”
Wildlife Management Areas in “wildlife corridors” outside the proposed game
reserves!
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.
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. The minister also said 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, at all.
In Longido District (not to be confused with Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro district) that’s been threatened with two game reserves, on 18th September, accompanying TAMISEMI Minister/president’s son in law, Mohamed Mchengerwa, hardcore criminal and Arusha RC Paul Makonda spoke big words to lessen fears about land alienation, and mentioned that not only the Maasai of Ngorongoro will meet the president, but also those worried about the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism’s recommendation on game controlled areas. He had received a report from traditional leaders and assured the audience that he had understood perfectly and that the ministry’s “evaluation” was just a recommendation, and nothing had been implemented. Further, he said that he would even take those from Loliondo, affected by the so-called “Pololeti GR” with him to see the president. As seen … in Loliondo the threat has indeed been implemented in the most brutal and lawless way since 2022. Makonda called on everyone to be calm and have patience and everything would be peacefully solved. Makonda can of course say anything, regardless of if it’s true or not, but can this be used in any way?Reportedly on 15th November two nasty traitor types took some kind of delegation to Dar es Salaam, expecting to see the president. On 17th November, meeting the press, on the occasion of six months as RC, in Arusha and with known imposters in the audience, Makonda, while talking about Ngorongoro (see below) briefly mentioned that Loliondo has been a “GCA since German colonial times”. Sadly, it seems like he has learnt to big GCA lie. Currently there's much confusion and different groups are moving around to organize this meeting. There's a big risk of hijacking.
On 4th October,
when visiting Arusha City Council and RC Makonda, Minister Mchengerwa, in a
most absurd turn of events, lashed out at leaders that want to take
pastoralists’ grazing land. The worst of them all is his mother-in-law!
His main point was his GN No. 796 of 6th September 2024 relisting
the villages in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (see below) and some other
villages – the same villages that he had delisted in GN No. 673 of 2nd
August 2024. This new rhetoric, however insincere, is welcome, but I’m considering
that Mchengerwa may be genuinely stupid and doesn’t understand anything at all.
During his brief time as Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mchengerwa
was quite militaristic, and in June 2023 promised that there will be no turning
back, no surrender, in completing the Ngorongoro relocation exercise (not Loliondo). He
probably has no idea about what a game controlled area is, but that would be
something he has in common with most people.
New
protests needed in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area (NCA) is not about “Pololeti GR” (other than that the NCAA is
managing this atrocity) and should not be mixed up with Loliondo …
Still, I need to briefly mention the state of implementation of the
government’s promises after mass protests in August. I don’t know how similar
methods could be used in Loliondo where there isn’t mass tourism to block and
not thousands of international tourists from whom government violence must be
hidden.
In NCA, decades long
restrictions, radically worsened after Samia Suluhu Hassan came into office in
2021, are used by the government to make the Maasai relocate. 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. Further, the Msomera villagers – whose legally
registered village that already had its own land use plan has been turned into
a propaganda showcase for the government’s anti-Maasai drive - were “informed”
at gunpoint and accused of having invaded a “protected area” (the big GCA lie
again). The entrance of construction material into NCA has been blocked,
herders regularly assaulted by rangers, residents harassed at Lodoare gate, ID
is demanded, usually voter’s registration, and in August/September last year
2023 there were mass arrests, or abductions, including torture, and a police
state similar to that of Loliondo has developed, even if there isn’t the kind
of silence that too often falls over Loliondo like a stinking, damp cloth.
As reported in previous blog
posts, 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 stations for updating the Permanent Voters
Register for the local elections on 27th November and the general
elections in 2025. During the elections, the same premises serve as polling
stations. Not a single station in the 25 villages of Ngorongoro
Division/Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Ngorongoro District was found on the
list. Already registered voters dialled *152*00# and found that they were
registered at different stations in Msomera! To date there isn’t any
explanation from authorities. Upon questions from media, INEC referred to
TAMISEMI that in its turn referred to INEC. It’s of course INEC that handles
these lists, but it was then – on 19th August, the second day of the
protests, found that INEC was acting on an illegal Government Notice (GN) by
the head of TAMISEMI, the president’s son in law, Mohamed Mchengerwa, that had
delisted every single village in Ngorongoro division.
After mass protests blocking
tourist vehicles on 18th August 2024 and mass protest gatherings
until the seriously rattled government on 23rd August – via
Ministers Lukuvi and Kabudi and RC Makonda - returned with big backtracking
promises of restoration of social services, an end to harassment, and relisting
of the 25 villages of Ngorongoro division that had very recently and shockingly
been delisted by Minister Mchengerwa. The fast-approaching local elections were
to proceed without any disturbance.
Implementation
of social services promises: A team from the District Executive
Director’s (DED) office, already on 26th August, set up camp in
Ngorongoro division and started dealing with the for years wilfully paralyzed
water problem at Ngorongoro Girls Secondary School in Alaitole, while local
leaders engaged in totally brainless praise of the number one enemy of Ngorongoro,
President Samia. Such brainless behaviour by the leaders has since been
repeated several times … A water pump
was installed. However, not enough solar panels were brought (from Ngorongoro
District Council, not bought new), so the teachers had to remove a 120-watt
panel from one of the classrooms to use for the water pump, but the pump still
had to be moved to Esere Primary School since it couldn’t pump enough water.
On 16th September,
Ndian Primary School received 150 bags of cement for repair of its seriously
cracked walls. A year ago, non-stop protest at Ndian Primary School 1st
- 8th August 2023, to demand a repair permit (all such permits
had been denied since 2021) resulted in mass arrests, abductions and
torture. The Ndian headteacher has been asking the community to contribute
some money for renovation despite of that the MP had declared that 78 million had
been allocated for renovation and addition of more classes in the school.
On 13th November,
DC Kanali Wilson Sakulo announced that repair of the road between Endulen and Embarway
Secondary School had commenced. However, this is what the result looks like.
Reportedly, funds have been
set aside for further renovation during school holidays, but for now that’s all after all renovation
of schools has been paralyzed since 2021. So far there has not been any
improvement to the deadly and purposeful neglect and defunding of health services.
Implementation
of promises to end ranger harassment: Harassment
of Ngorongoro residents at Lodoare gate has mostly stopped. On 16th
September, vehicles belonging to Ngorongoro residents, that also serve as
public transport, were blocked for one and a half hour at Lodoare gate, but I
haven’t got any more such reports.
Contrary to the new
presidential orders there has been harassment by rangers elsewhere and I fear a
lot could go unreported. On 3rd September NCA rangers blocked a
group of goat and sheep from getting water from Lake Ndutu, and on the 4th
the rangers refused to let Maasai pass Endamaghai gate in Olpiro with their
cattle.
On 13th September
(I wasn’t informed until 8th October), Rorian Lendumu was detained
for grazing in the Northern Highland Forest, taken to Karatu Police Station
where he was first denied police bail, but it was granted the following day. On
2nd October he was taken to court, first denied court bail and then
granted on the 3rd. A most confused charge sheet was shared, which
mentioned Ngorongoro Conservation Area in “Karatu” district, and that the
71-year old Rorian would have illegally with livestock entered the conservation
area where he has lived his entire life. On 10th October, the case
against Rorian Lendumu was dismissed, since the Karatu court has no
jurisdiction presiding cases from Ngorongoro.
On 3rd October, Isaya
Moses and Ndaayi Tuke from Endulen were arrested and locked up at Ngorongoro
Police Station. They were charged with building and repairing houses and bomas
without permits and bringing building materials without permits. They were
bailed out on 7th October. After postponements, the case was
mentioned again on 29th October but with only one offence, "destruction
of properties", referring to “environmental” destruction, where if one is found
guilty the punishment is seven years in prison.
I’ve been told that last week ten
people from Kakesio Ward were arrested and taken to the Endulen NCAA zonal
office accused of building new houses. They were not taken to the police or to
court and later returned to Kakesio.
On the other
hand, the delisted villages were indeed relisted, but using methods that set
dangerous precedent, as did the deranged delisting itself. On 16th September Minister/son in
law Mchengerwa announced the boundaries of villages and sub-villages that will
participate in the upcoming local government elections scheduled for 27th
November. This was detailed in GN No. 796 of 2024, which reinstated the
villages in Ngorongoro that had been delisted in GN No. 673 of 2nd
August 2024 (publicly online on 19th August). According to Mchengerwa, this was
done, “to ensure proper administrative representation and access to social
and economic services that meet the needs of residents,”. He did not
explain why he illegally delisted the villages in the first place.
Accompanied by Arusha RC Makonda, Mchengerwa urged residents to register to the
voters’ list and to prepare to contest for political office.
The weird and
dangerous Olepose case
As mentioned in earlier blog
posts, in the afternoon of 22nd August it was announced that an
injunction had been issued by the court against the delisting of villages. The
case was filed the same day as the injunction was granted, which is unheard of,
and it was reported in media that would otherwise never report good news for the
Maasai (all mainstream media). This case was fraudulently filed in the name of
the activist and opposition supporter Isaya Olepose (current village
chairperson candidate for CHADEMA) who had been in Ngorongoro since 6th
August and had not filed any case or met the lawyer who was saying that he did
so. There isn’t anyone else with the same name in Ngorongoro division. Also the
lawyer - Ipilinga Panya - who according to court documents filed the
application for Olepose, denied any knowledge of the case. The high speed
granted injunction was reported to the speedily gathered government pleasing
press by a lawyer called Peter Njau who looked less confident than lawyer
usually do on such occasions. By the way, “panya” is rat in Swahili and “njau”
is the mew of a cat, but those are the real names of those lawyers.
The Ngorongoro DED then, the same afternoon, announced
that the election would go on as usual. On
26th September the bizarre court case was mentioned. Advocate Njau
appeared in Court and said Olepose was not able to attend but that they are not
interested to continue with the case as the villages have been restored.
Olepose – who was present in the courtroom - raised his hand and the judge
asked, “Who are you?” Olepose said he’s the person named as Applicant,
but that he does not know Advocate Njau. Njau said, “this is not Olepose my
client, my client is a different person”. So the judge asked Olepose how he
knew he’s the Applicant if he never instructed the lawyer to file the case.
Olepose said because the name in the case is his, the Ward mentioned Endulen,
village Nasipooriong and sub village Ormekeke mentioned is where he resides.
So, the judge asked Olepose to produce his ID’s which he did. Then Njau said
his client is from Nasipooriong village, Ormekeke sub village, Eyasi
Ward (of course no such village there). Both Njau and Government lawyers kept
insisting the case must be withdrawn, and more so because Olepose said the case
was filed without his consent. Thereafter the judge directed that the case be
rescheduled to 10th October and Njau bring the real Olepose and this
Olepose who appeared in court must also come so the court can ascertain who is telling
the truth. (Everybody involved knows that there’s only one Isaya Olepose in
Ngorongoro Division).
On 10th October, the
bizarre Olepose case was dismissed. The existing Olepose was present and
insisted that those who opened a case in is name must be dealt with. This
time the government had forged an ID and a birth certificate for the
non-existing Olepose whom nobody has ever seen. Advocate Njau now claimed
that he had only been in contact with Olepose via phone.
Advocate Joseph Oleshangay
asks, “When judges conspire with the state to undermine the rights of
individuals then, why do we have Courts?. Many countries fall into civil wars,
tyranny and other problems because of a dysfunctional justice system leading to
1. Erosion of
public Trust
2.
Undermining rule of Law
3.
Lawlessness or authoritarianism.
4. Selective
accountability
5. Impunity
and abuse of power.”
As mentioned in the previous blog post, in mid-September, in the High Court in Tanga, eight Msomera villagers with land titles sued one Ngorongoro migrant respectively that have invaded their farms. Among those sued are former MP Kaika Saning'o Telele and the supposed bishop Kivuyo. Besides the Ngorongoro migrant, each one of the eight Msomera villagers has also sued the Msomera Village Council, the Handeni District Council, and the Attorney General. I heard that summons had been issued and the government had started intimidating the applicants. The notorious Handeni DC, Albert Msando, publicly threatened those who filed a case. A few days thereafter, they were summoned by police and interrogated as to why they are planning to create a deadlock in the Msomera relocation exercise. It’s not that easy to obtain more information about these court cases. I just haven't got any updates.
The CCM candidate for Msomera
village chairperson is the worse than useless councillor for Kakesio ward, Johanes
Kisau Tiamasi, who is still listed as such, and attending meetings at
Ngorongoro District Council, but has relocated to Msomera. Kakesio does not
have ward councillor representing the ward. The genuine Msomera villagers have
a CHADEMA opposition chairperson candidate, Martin Joseph Singoya, who was been
arrested and locked up for a night for objecting to CCM’s choice of candidate –
a current ward councillor from Ngorongoro District …
In Ngorongoro Division there
are at least seven opposition candidates contesting for village chairs. Malambo (Sale Division) also has a CHADEMA village chair candidate and candidates for the sub-villages Malambo
Madukani, Ng'ambolo, and Sanjan. Opposition candidates have been threatened and
efforts made to disqualify them. The Endulen village chairperson candidate,
Kitende Gabriel, was threatened and disqualified with the claims that he can't
write and read and wasn't registered in the voters’ permanent register. Everyone
knows it’s a lie, he's educated and everyone has communicated with him in written form on
WhatsApp. Two sub-village candidates in Ngorongoro ward have also been
disqualified, as have the Olbalbal and Bulati village chairperson candidates. Nationally
such disqualification is rampant. Opposition politicians are threatened,
abducted and disappeared at unknown location for months, or murdered like Ali
Mohammed Kibao, and keep being arrested.
As mentioned above, on 17th
November, RC Makonda celebrated six months as Arusha RC and met the press, with
imposters previously used for fake Ngorongoro spectacles in the audience. His
main message was that President Samia will meet with people from Ngorongoro on
1st December. The fear is now that this will be a closed meeting
with traitors or imposters, and in Arusha. Reportedly, a team selected by MP Oleshangai has been in Karatu the past three days preparing for the visit, and in Loliondo several confused teams are said to be making plans.
On 21st November
there was another Msomera propaganda spectacle when the NCAA board, led by
retired general Mabeyo visited to praise the completion of 2,500 houses, built
by Suma JKT (The National Service Corporation Sole) on land belonging to the
Msomera villagers.
When will
funds illegally diverted to Handeni be returned? When will Flying Medical
Service be allowed to fly? Is access to the craters and northern highland
forest undisturbed? When and how can those that have relocated due to the
strangulation of social services return? Where is the government’s apology for
the over three years of illegal restrictions, defunding and harassment?
Regarding Loliondo, I must
repeat: Bring back mzee Oleng'iyo! Return the land to the Maasai! Uproot the
illegal beacons! Shred President Samia’s lawless GN No.604 to pieces! Punish
everyone involved in the brutal Loliondo land theft! Don’t let anyone who
encouraged it get away!
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, not even CIA, and hasn’t earned a shilling from
her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com
@SusannaN2 on
X
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.
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