2024, another
horrible year in Loliondo and Ngorongoro nears its end and for a change I’ll
write a – relatively - brief blog post. Blog posts have this year been far too
few and so lengthy that I fear nobody will read them. This is the result of
that I’m no longer hearing from some important voices and sometimes I must struggle to obtain basic
information that should be shared speedily all-over. This leads to uncertainty
and the need to hold off publishing, while there are new developments and the
unpublished blog posts become longer and longer. Tough the fault lies also with
my own strange sleepiness and lack of focus. I’m currently (at last) writing a
“How Not to Write about Loliondo”-post, which is quite straight-forward about
well-established events in the past that reporters, researchers and
organizations still seem to insist on getting wrong. The problems with that
post is finding the right tone and deciding how recent and significant the
misinformation must be to get included.
This brief
post will cover the uncertainty of recent news of two commissions set up by the
president concerning Ngorongoro. These commissions are the result of the best
news of the year 2024 – blocking of tourism traffic in Ngorongoro Conservation
Area (Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District) on 18th August
2024, followed by several days of mass protest gathering. The blocking and protests
rattled the government to the extent of issuing promises (still hardly
implemented at all) of backtracking on the strangulation of social services to
make the Maasai relocate, and the reversal (implemented) of very recent and apparently
deranged delisting of the villages of NCA and disenfranchisement of all voters.
Fears are that the momentum from the protests has been lost when the government
has yet again been allowed to set up “commissions”, which is habitual behaviour
that’s never lead anywhere at all, if not to a worsening of the situation. In
Loliondo (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division that form the old
Loliondo GCA) where in 2022, 1,502 km2 of grazing land was brutally
and illegally turned into a game reserve, there hasn’t been any such good news.
However, before and after a meeting with the president on 1st
December, reports were that this illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” would be
included in the evaluation by the commissions, but the latest government
statement with details has totally left out Loliondo.
Now, on New Years Eve, there are reports of police harassment against residents from Loliondo and Sale Divisions that have spoken up about the exclusion of "Pololeti Game Reserve" from the commissions. Apparently there are letters summoning NGO people, some councillors, and individuals like former CCM district chairman Ndirango Laizer to the Ngorongoro Security Committee on 4th January.
In this blog post:
Loliondo
Loliondo and
the president’s commissions
Remember what
a GCA is and how such areas are threatened with game reserves
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area
NCA and the
president’s commission
Msomera and
elections
Loliondo
OBC, that organize hunting for
Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has since 1992/1993 had the Loliondo hunting block (right
to hunt) that’s the 4,000 km2 Loliondo Game Controlled Area (GCA).
This GCA covers the whole of Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District and part
of Sale Division of the same district, including two towns with the head quarters of
Ngorongoro District, agricultural areas, forest reserves and an ugly
American land grab, which is why OBC have wanted it reduced to their 1,500 km2
core hunting area that’s important Maasai grazing land and legally registered
village land, turning this land into a protected area. 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 smaller 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. One government official after the other landed in Loliondo to
celebrate the military operation against the Maasai and issue threats. All
councillors from affected wards, except one who fled, 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 a 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 eventually dropped. The
last 62 people who still had such cases pending after the mass arrests in June
and July were not discharged for want of prosecution until November. 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 28th August 2022, the illegal game reserve was placed
under the management of Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), as
opposed to the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA). Friends of OBC suggest that
the hunters prefer TAWA. Though even rangers from Serengeti National Park have
several times illegally seized cattle in Loliondo to take them into the park
and get authorization from courts west of the park to auction them off.
On 17th June 2022
Minister Pindi Chana – who currently is back as Minister for Natural Resources
and Tourism (the president frequently moves her sycophants around between the
ministries) - 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, “Pololeti Game Controlled Area”. 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 and for having
been replaced by the president’s government notice. 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.
Not only hunters from Dubai,
but also the German development bank and Frankfurt Zoological Society exert
horribly negative influence in Loliondo (and elsewhere) – to the extent of
funding and facilitating the draft Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan
2023-2043 that was meant to – after the crime was committed – legalize the
brutal land theft. Fortunately, this draft has twice been rejected by
Ngorongoro District Council (not that the government cares). In late November,
quite good articles (one in German and one in English) by a German reporter,
Benjamin Hindrichs, were published detailing how German funds are used to
dispossess the Maasai. Many aspect are left out, but the article is remarkably
correct compared to almost all written about Loliondo. Though somewhat unclear
if the author has understood what Loliondo GCA is. I should celebrate, but am
overcome by bitterness that not the tiniest link to my blog was included (the
author very well knows how justified this bitterness is).
The ruling, on 24th
October 2024, in the case concerning the president’s government notice
declaring the equally illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” was quite scandalous,
based on big and obvious lies about what a game controlled area is and on
forged, illogically backdated, documents. This kangaroo court ruling is being
appealed. For more details, in November I wrote about the ruling.
At least, in the East African
Court of Justice (EACJ), continues Reference No.37 of 2022 Megweri Mako & 5
Others vs. Attorney General of Tanzania concerning the brutal 2022 theft of the
1,502 km2 in Loliondo for a protected area. This court is operating again after
having been paralysed for months due to lack of funds. Though as far as I
know, there’s not any hearing scheduled for this extremely important case.
In the EACJ, there is also the
case concerning the brutal mass arson operation of 2017 (as opposed to the 2022
land theft for a game reserve). On 29th November 2023, the Appellate
Division of the EACJ allowed Appeal No.13 of 2022 and remitted Reference No.10
of 2017 back to the trial court. In the first ruling there was judicial
hooliganism, with the judges (one of them was the son of a Kenyan grabber of
Maasai land) behaving strangely with last minute postponements during the
brutal military demarcation attack on Loliondo in 2022 that flagrantly violated
temporary court orders, and the writing of the ruling indicated that they could
not have understood anything of what the witnesses were saying. The ruling was
exactly what the Tanzanian government wanted in 2018 when they for some time
had left the horrible lie claiming that Loliondo GCA was a protected area, and
instead were saying that that the 2017 operation took place in Serengeti
National Park and not on village land, which their own documents show is not
true, but the court found that the Maasai had not been able to prove. The
judges have also dismissed the contempt of court case without even giving the applicants’
lawyers a chance to argue the application in court. The appeal of the contempt
ruling is ongoing and had a scheduling conference in November.
2024 has been less
catastrophic than 2022 and 2023, because of exceptionally wet conditions. Proper
reports from the ground have been hard to get, but while there have been
terrible cases of the extortionate “fines” for seized livestock, it seems like
those have often been negotiable, and leading up to local elections in November
it was reported that rangers stayed passive. The latest I heard from
Ololosokwan was that there isn’t much ranger patrolling, since patrol roads are
destroyed by the rain. Cattle are seen resting during the day which means that
they grazed during the night. This denotes fear of rangers and increased risk
from the somewhat less destructive four-legged predators.
Loliondo and the president’s commissions
While the blocking of tourism
traffic, followed by mass protests gatherings that rattled the government to
the extent of issuing promises of backtracking, took place in NCA and not
Loliondo, on 18th September, in Longido District (not to be confused
with Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro district) that’s been threatened with two
game reserves, accompanying TAMISEMI (PO-RALG) 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 extremely dangerous recommendation (leaked
in February 2024) of creating game reserves in game controlled areas, assuring
everyone that this was indeed only 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. And
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. However, 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
briefly mentioned that Loliondo has been a “GCA since German colonial times”. It
seems like he had learnt the government’s horrible GCA lie that can be applied
to any of the huge areas of village land that also are GCAs.
On 1st December, the meeting with the president took place in Arusha, not Ngorongoro. It was a closed meeting, with many representatives (reportedly all close to the MP, but certainly not outright traitors or imposters) from Ngorongoro and indeed also Loliondo, but adding some horrible people with a history as imposters, like Lekisongo from Monduli who repeatedly has been used by the government to falsely represent the Ngorongoro Maasai. The only video clip that has been shared is one of the president announcing two commissions, one for land issues and one for the relocation to Msomera. Then she started attacking pastoralists as is her habit. Not just in that clip … The president does not name Loliondo, but those “mapori” that had been mentioned by the Maasai, giving the impression that she couldn’t recall the names. In Swahili, “pori tengefu” is GCA and “pori la akiba” is game reserve. Though people have told me that Loliondo was very much mentioned. Everyone had understood either that the commission evaluating land was to be about Loliondo, or both Loliondo and NCA, and the other one about NCA/Msomera scam.
No other video clip has been shared. There’s nothing from what
the Maasai were saying. Eventually, thanks to an international organization,
CELEP, that published it, not any of my friends, I got hold of what the
“community” presented to the president, but in an English version. There are
several pages about NCA and the Msomera scam while Loliondo is only briefly
mentioned, but in a very correct and serious way, including the game reserve
threat against to the Lake Natron area (part of it in Ngorongoro District) and
other areas all over the country. It’s so brief that I can copy and paste it
here, without correcting grammar and spelling, which I’m anyway not an expert
at myself:
“Since
establishment of Pololeti Game Reserve in 2022, much has happened those
affected lives and livelihood of the resident of Loliondo. Before
establishment of Pololeti Game Reserve, paramilitary groups were deployed to
forcefully evict people lawfully residing in the impacted area. Government has
sized and confiscated tenth of thousands of livestock afterward that has ruined
family economy and impacted livelihoods. Official used this process to
weaponized citizenship of resident of Loliondo to justify exclusion.
Recommendation
Loliondo
Residents Request your excellency to
1. Revisit
the government decision to annex 14 affecting 1502 square kilometers village
land
and establish
Pololeti game without consulting the affected villagers and create Pololeti
Game Reserve
and Return back the grabbed land.
2. While
considering annulling your decision to establish Pololeti Game Reserve, we make
an urgent
request that you make directives to allow immediate grassing access for
livestock.
This will help to restore the affected Loliondo Residents livelihoods.
3. Stop the
pastoralists eviction and militarizing conservation across northern Tanzania.
4. Form a
participatory presidential Commission to investigate the eviction process and
come
up with legal
recommendations on the land impacted by Pololeti Game Reserve and other areas
threatened by establishment of Game Reserve.
5. Direct for
stoppage of police harassment in the name of illegal immigrants in Loliondo
6. Immediately
stop a proposed plan to upgrade the Lake Natron villages land to a game
reserve and
other's pastoralist areas in the entire country.”
Alarmingly, when on 23rd
December, the members of the two commissions were announced (more about that
below), not only were those all government people, except from two
representatives from NCA in each committee, but both commissions are expressly
described as concerning Ngorongoro Conservation Area, not Ngorongoro
District, and Loliondo is certainly not even mentioned.
On 27th December, but not released by Watetezi tv until the 30th, as a reaction to the commissions formed exclusively for Ngorongoro Division, women from Loliondo and Sale Divisions issued a statement urging the president to form a participatory commission – not dominated by people from the government system – to deal with the land Loliondo land conflict. An interview with former CCM district chairman Ndirango Laizer and the deputy chairman of the traditional leaders of Ngorongoro, Kiaro Kubany, was published on the 27th.
Others say that a section of leaders such as councillors still believe that they can engage the government to reclaim their space in the formed commissions. “While some of us believe that the last resort is mass action”.
As mentioned, latest reports,
now, on New Years Eve, are of police harassment against residents from Loliondo
and Sale Divisions that have spoken up about the exclusion of "Pololeti
Game Reserve" from the commissions. Apparently there are letters summoning
NGO people, some councillors, and individuals like former CCM district chairman
Ndirango Laizer to the Ngorongoro Security Committee on 4th January.
Remember
what a GCA is and how such area are threatened with game reserves
It must always be remembered
that the 1,502 km2 stolen to create “Pololeti Game Reserve” 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. The enormously malicious government lie is that the remaining 2,498
km2 – that contain two towns, district headquarters, the DC’s office, a prison
built in the 1920s, the magistrate court, hospitals and schools, agricultural
land, forest reserves and a nasty “nature refuge” grabbed by Thomson Safaris – has
been generously gifted to the community and that a “protected area” has been
“reduced”. Huge areas all over Tanzania are GCAs and the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism has announced its recommendation to repeat the crime
committed in Loliondo – alienating huge wildlife-rich livestock grazing areas
wanted for tourism hunting and destroying pastoralist lives and livelihoods - and
without doubt use the same lie to justify it. In 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;”
And as reported in several
blog posts, in February 2024 a presentation to then Minister Angellah Kairuki
by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism’s, leaked in February this
year 2024, 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” (part
of it in Ngorongoro District). Further, there’s a recommendation to “allow”
Wildlife Management Areas (land alienation while nominally still village land) in
“wildlife corridors” outside the proposed game reserves!
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
(NCA) is not about “Pololeti GR” (other than that the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority is managing this atrocity) and should not be mixed
up with Loliondo/Sale. The Loliondo/Sale Maasai are not targeted by the
Msomera scam. Hunting is not allowed in NCA.
In NCA, decades long
restrictions, much instigated by UNESCO (details about this in several blog
posts) 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 several 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 listed 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. So were already deceased people,
including the late former MP. 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: Reportedly, there has not been more implementation than a water
pump installed Esere Primary School – initially meant for Ngorongoro Girls
Secondary School. 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 then it still
had to be moved to the Esere Primary. Then in 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. Still, such repair is barely noticeable.
That’s it. More repair were announced for the school holidays, but as
far as I know, nothing of this has been seen. There isn’t any improvement to
the deadly and purposeful neglect and defunding of health services, and the
life-saving Flying Medical Services continue grounded.
Reportedly, harassment of
Ngorongoro residents at Lodoare gate has mostly stopped, but as reported in earlier
posts, there have been incidents of blocking of livestock from watering at and
on 4th September the rangers refused to let Maasai pass Endamaghai
gate in Olpiro with their cattle.
Then Rorian Lendumu was
detained for grazing in the Northern Highland Forest, taken to Karatu Police
Station where he was first denied police bail. On 2nd October he was
taken to court, first denied court bail and then granted on the 3rd. The charge
sheet 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. The case against 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. The case is again postponed.
I was told that 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 were
to participate in the 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. However, this was
followed by disqualification attempts against opposition candidates and reports
of ballot stuffing.
On 13th November
2024, six applicants from Ngorongoro Division filed the amazingly detailed Miscellaneous
Civil Cause No. 000028736 of 2024, William Oleseki and 5 others versus INEC and
the 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. On 4th
December, the respondents filed a quite preposterous counter affidavit. The
case – that should have its own blog post - will be mentioned on 18th
February 2025.
NCA and the
president’s commissions
As mentioned above, the NCA community
recommendations brought to the president on 1st December are long
and detailed, but the general request are:
“1. We
request for your public statement to stop all forms of harassment against the
residents of
the Ngorongoro. We seek to live in peace and tranquillity within our
area without
being mistreated by conservation authorities and other state
operatives.
2. We request
permits for the construction of all community services, such as schools,
health
centers, road infrastructure, and water projects, to be granted to improve our
living
conditions.
3. We request
the formation of an independent commission with various stakeholders
to develop a
proper land use plan.
4. We request
greater community participation in all matters affecting the community.
5. We request
the suspension of the relocation exercise, as it is fraught with deceit,
propaganda
against Maasai community, and significant bureaucratic hurdles.
6. We request
the reinstatement of the Pastoralists Council to continue being a key
mediator and
link between the community and the Ngorongoro Conservation
Authority. In
line with this, we request the appointment of at least five community
representatives
on the Authority's Board.
7. We request
the removal of any obstacles preventing indigenous people from
returning
home with their vehicles. Entry should be freely without paying to return
to their
homes.”
In the section about Loliondo I
mentioned the 1st December meeting with select (by the MP) “community
members” and imposters from elsewhere. In the brief clip, the president talks
about how “scientific” the commissions will be, which is a warning flag when
the problem is political. Unsurprisingly, all commission members – revealed on
23rd December - are government people: retired ministers, principal
secretaries, ambassadors, and judges, presidential advisors and a two
university professors. Included is even someone known for having had the
anti-Maasai function as former Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism,
Zakia Meghji. There are only four Ngorongoro representatives, two in each
commission, and all of them are CCM ruling party figures. In the land
commission are the councillor and Pastoral Council secretary James Moringe and
the special seats councillor Moi Arpakwa Sikorei. In the “voluntary” relocation
commission are the councillor and Pastoral Council chairman Edward Maura and
the Esere Primary School teacher Rehema Moisare. While sometimes making strong
statements, Moringe and Maura are known for seeking compromise with the
government. There are Ngorongoro residents with scientific expertise, but those
were not considered. Anyone orientated towards opposition politics is of course
unthinkable.
It's unclear what the
commission concerning land will deal with. Unlike in Loliondo, there isn’t any
recent land alienation. The Maasai were evicted from residing in Ngorongoro
Crater in 1974/1975 (when I write like this it’s because there was a change in
the law in 1974 and evictions at gunpoint in 1975). In December 2016, effective
2017, PM Kassim Majaliwa issued orders stopping access to water and saltlicks
in the crater, and the craters Olmoti and Empakaai – by order and not by any
change to the NCA Act - which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for
Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks
for livestock in these wards. These restrictions could be prevented if rangers
stop harassing herders. The worst fear is that the government’s plan is to move
forward with land alienation like in the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model
review proposal that was presented in September 2019, which included the
Loliondo land theft in the form (two areas) that was brutally an illegally
demarcated in 2022.
The commission concerning the
“voluntary” relocation does of course not include any representative from
Msomera where villagers were informed at gunpoint that they didn’t have any
right to their own land.
Msomera and
elections
I’ve not been able to get any updates from the
cases in the High Court in Tanga. As mentioned in several blog posts, 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. 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.
On 29th November, women
from Msomera marched to the Tanga RC's office to protest being dispossessed
for the benefit of Ngorongoro migrants. On
Boxing Day, these women held another protest, against the DC intervening in the
local elections, removing the Msomera CCM candidate and replacing him with the
Ngorongoro migrant Johanes Kisau Tiamasi, who is still the councillor for
Kakesio ward, attending meetings at Ngorongoro District Council, but has
relocated to Msomera. Kakesio does not have a councillor representing the ward.
The genuine Msomera villagers had a CHADEMA opposition chairperson candidate,
Martin Joseph Singoya, who was arrested and locked up for a night for objecting
to CCM’s choice of candidate. Now Tiamisi is both councillor in Ngorongoro and
village chairperson in Msomera.
The day of local elections, nationally
there were reports of ballot stuffing, murder of three opposition politicians,
beating and illegal detention of opposition candidates. In Ngorongoro the MP was
chased away from Ormekeke polling station in Nasipooriong' village, Endulen
ward. He's not registered to vote at this station, wanted to force his way in,
but was stopped by voters. There were reports of ballot stuffing. CCM won by 99
% in all street, village and sub-village
elections across the country, which speaks for itself. I can’t happen anywhere
where election fraud is moderate.
2025 is election year, general
elections in Tanzania, and arrests, enforced disappearances, and even murder of
opposition politicians is rampant. How can a repeat of the election fraud and
violence of 2020, in which Salula
Ngorisiolo lost his life when police and NCA rangers opened fire at unarmed
voters protesting open and shameless election theft at Oloirobi polling
station, be avoided?
The Chanzo recently publishedan article by Joseph Oleshangay asking many questions about the implications of
the attempted disenfranchisement of all voters from Ngorongoro Division.
Now at the end of the year,
the New African magazine recognized Joseph as one of the top 100 Most
Influential Africans.
Talking about Joseph, who has
certainly made some Europe trips and visited the European parliament, among the
best news from 2024 was the announcement on 7th June, that Tanzania
had been removed from EU's NatureAfrica scheme for which the European
Commission had allocated 18 million euros. There were also new conditions that
indigenous and local people's rights must be respected. This is so much more
powerful than statements of concern or condemnation and almost unprecedented. Though,
sadly, Germany continues as frantically as ever funding and facilitating the
crimes of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Let 2025 be the year that the beacons
marking the fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” in Loliondo and Sale are
uprooted and the year that sees the end of all torture of the Maasai of
Ngorongoro Division to make them “relocate”. Make it the end of the presidency of
the evil Samia Suluhu Hassan and her war against the Maasai.
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
@susanna-nordlund.bsky.social
on Bluesky
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.
2 comments:
Great post, very interesting, well researched, i just discovered your blog, and i am very impressed, thank you!
Thank you Marcel!
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