As the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, Assembly was
being hosted in Tanzania and its hypocrite president, former speaker of the
national assembly Tulia Ackson dressed up in Maasai attire, there was yet
another attack on the peace and life of Maasai people. The government of
dictator Samia Suluhu Hassan through its blood-drenched police on 6th
October abducted at least four people from Loliondo and one from Ngorongoro, in
a chase of one person suspected of coordinating a demonstration. As speaker of
parliament, Tulia Ackson presided over the infamous “debate” on 9th
February 2022 when parliamentarian after parliamentarian, for several hours, competed
in spewing the craziest imaginable ethnic hatred against the Maasai of
Ngorongoro, while their colleagues banged their tables in approval.
IPU is the global organization of national parliaments and "empowers parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy, and sustainable development".
Much worse than the recent arrests has, even recently, happened during
my very long, inexcusable and partly inexplicable absence from this blog,
and I will briefly mention it all in another post I’m writing on, but
these “arrests” were so stupid in a sad way. With some notable exceptions, the
IPU delegates won’t speak up about what’s happening in Tanzania and don’t mind schmoozing
with a president who “won” the elections with 97% and thousands of slaughtered Tanzanians,
while the heroic and angelical (not hyperbole) opposition leader Tundu Lissu – whose body was
punctured by 16 bullets in an assassination attempt in 2017 – has been locked
up for over 500 days on bogus “treason” charges. I’m mainly writing for those
that have already decided that they want to support the Maasai of Loliondo and
Ngorongoro in the struggle against a brutal government intent on taking their
land and wiping their culture off the face of the earth for the benefit of conservation
and tourism, or those who at least want to write about this struggle, for the
Maasai themselves, and for Tanzanians in general. Therefore, I decided to keep
this brief (and failed … even if briefer than usual) and then write a Swahili
version.
The saddest part it that it does not seem like
any demonstration was planned,
-when the ugly beacons still stand marking the illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” in Loliondo, which was demarcated in a brutal military attack in 2022. Livestock keep being seized and owners fined, everyone - for the payment of fines - is in debt to businessmen across the border, grazing is done at night by herders that are like thieves on their own land. The deepest fears materialized, but the decades-long resistance that made central government and “investors” gang up creating a local police state (now replicated across the entire country …) is barely upheld by some youths, while a former leader and former friend of mine is now the MP who after almost a year in the illegitimate blood parliament is still unable to speak up for the return of the land.
Mzee
Oleng'iyo who was last seen on 10th June 2022, with bullet wounds
and held by security forces, has still not been brought back to his family.
-when in Ngorongoro division (Ngorongoro Conservation Area), even
after in 2024 a massive demonstration made the government pretend to backtrack,
efforts to create facts on the ground for the dreaded zoning that would restrict
almost the entire area from the Maasai and their livestock are kept up by
rangers that harass herders and livestock, destroy buildings, and arrest
innocent people. And almost nothing of
the blocking of social services to make the Maasai relocate “voluntarily” has
been reversed.
-when Lake Natron is under the threat of the same destructive
land alienation as Loliondo – a game reserve – while the former activist and in
the past outspoken local politician, now illegitimate MP, knowing all the
dangers with such a scheme, is pushing for a WMA.
In the evening of 6th October, I got the message that my friend
Salangat Mako, together with three workers of the NGO Pastoral Women’s Council,
PWC, had been arrested – suspected of planning a demonstration aimed at the IPU
assembly - after a trap was set up by the police to lure them to Selian
Hospital in Arusha, and I was urged to post about this in social media, which I
did.
It was first believed that Salangat had accompanied the PWC workers to the
hospital, but after they were released, I was informed that Salangat went on
his own to visit Siwuo Tome, and well-known and loved old man from Kirtalo
village (Soitsambu ward in Loliondo division) who was undergoing treatment
there. On his way out Salangat received the news that Olobulu Tome – a young
man who was accompanying Mzee Siwuo at hospital - had been arrested and taken
to Arusha Central Police station. Salangat decided to follow up and go to bail Olobulu
out, but once he reached the police station, he too was arrested and locked up.
He asked the police why he was being arrested and got the reply that he’s
Maasai. To this Salangat replied that if being Maasai is a crime, they should indeed just lock him up.
Apparently, Olobulu had been arrested for communicating with PWC’s
assistant director, Naishorwa Masago, for her to help get a vehicle to take
Mzee Siwuo home. The assistant director is a person that the police for some
time had tried to detain, house searches included, upon a suspicion that she
was coordinating a demonstration – or more likely a false report by someone
constantly seeking government favour via boundaryless “pickme” behaviour and
being an outright traitor. Plain-clothes officers handcuffed Olobulu and
drove him to the police station.
Unlike the earliest reports, the PWC staff had heard of Olobulu’s arrest
and went to the hospital to confirm. There they were misled to wait for Olobulu
in the waiting room where they were subsequently arrested by Officer Sele and
his squad. Those arrested were Thadeus
Clamian, Nangei Meitaya and Ezekiel Kishau. Nangei Meitaya was slapped, pinched
and clawed on his face by a policewoman when he tried to use his phone to
inform people that they were being arrested. Olobulu was then released.
Salangat and the PWC staff were held in a cell with 11 people, sleeping
on the cold concrete floor. Still, compared to Loliondo Police Station, Arusha
Central is quite luxurious. The cell has a toilet and water (non-potable) and is
cleaner and warmer than Loliondo. In 2015, I was a guest at both establishments,
and I’m told that they continue the same way. Luckily, those arrested had
friends and family that brought food and water to the station, but they were
not allowed to see them or communicate with them in any way. In the most
lawless way, even the lawyers were denied access, unless they brought Naishorwa
to the police. Salangat and the PWC staff were however lucky that they were
not arrested in Loliondo or Ngorongoro. They were not tortured and for
the Arusha police, hunting Maasai is just a strange task that they’ve been
given, instead of being invested in local repression on behalf of conservation
and tourism.
There was a sense of panic regarding the arrests. The fact that the
lawyers were denied access to the detained made some think they were not held
at Arusha Central but moved around. The panic is quite explicable when even a
former high government figure like Humphrey Polopole who was CCM’s Ideology and
Publicity Secretary under Magufuli and later ambassador to Cuba until he
stepped down and started criticising the government’s disregard of rule of law,
was abducted on 6th October 2025, now a year ago, and remains
disappeared. It’s widely believed that “President” Samia had Polepole removed
from the world of the living. Or Vice-President Emmanuel Nchimbi – holder of
the second highest political office in Tanzania - who on 25th August
this year stepped down after timid calls for a new constitution, was expelled
from the party, and has since been unreachable. It’s believed that in the best
case he’s just under house arrest. This besides hundreds of Tanzanians, mostly opposition supporters and activists, who have been taken away by the police or "unknown assailants", never to be seen again, or in some cases found tortured and murdered.
Prominent Tanzanian activists have said that that it’s important to
speak up soon and loudly in these cases, and I was worried that this was not
being done. Though people from Loliondo and Ngorongoro were just starting to
hear about the arrests.
Many Maasai have through the years been locked up in the cold and dirty
local Loliondo police cells and tortured for the sake of intimidation, like
happened to some people who in 2016 were accused of communicating with me. Though
the craziest cases were committed as part of the military land grab attack in
2022 when all councillors from affected wards – together with some random
people found carrying smartphones – were abducted and then, for over five
months, locked up in Kisongo remand prison, accused of murdering a
policeman whose killing took place the day after they were
abducted. This behaviour had spread to Ngorongoro Division in 2023 when there
were abductions, and mass arrests, even targeting the then MP. At that time Karatu
police cells were used, apparently for the convenience of the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority, when the district headquarters are in Loliondo.
It would require its separate blog post and more investigation, but just since August, dozens of young people have been arrested and beaten, then
released, for grazing their cattle at Lake Masek (not a crime in any way)
On 4th August 2026, four young men were detained at the Lake
Masek grazing area. They were taken to Ngorongoro Police Station where they
were told to report on the 7th. Upon reporting at the police
station, the young men were taken to Arusha and charged with hindering the
rangers from doing their work, destroying a car mirror worth 12 million
Tanzanian shillings (quite expensive indeed) and watering their cattle at Lake
Masek (which isn’t illegal). They were sent to Kisongo prison for seven days
and then released after people held protests on the ground in Ngorongoro.
On 11th September five youths were arrested, again at Lake
Masek where their cattle were left without herders. They were released on bail
on 13th September.
One young man, Sokoine Ng'otiek, arrested on 28th September, was after being unreachable, found at Kisongo remand prison where he is locked up in relation to the killing of lions. His charges are unbailable and there will be a court hearing on 16th October. Nakataa Ngawuo, who was arrested with Sokoine was released on bail earlier. Surrounding this speedily and internationally publicised lion killing (in Sweden more of a news item than the disappearance of Vice President Nchimbi, that does not seem to have been mentioned anywhere) there was such strange behaviour by the NCAA that many believe that the authority itself is responsible.
On 1st October, 18 young men were arrested for Lake Masek
grazing. They were beaten before being taken to Ngorongoro Police Station. On 2nd October, 17
were released. Pusindawa Melita remained in custody accused of stabbing a ranger
but was himself injured with an elbow fracture after beatings. Pusindawa was then
released on bail.
There's no end to ranger crime on the stolen land in Loliondo. Today, 12th October, I've been told that 500 cows in two herds, belonging to mzee Ormorijoi Meitaya have been seized in the Ilusien area of Ololosokwan. The rangers are demanding ten million shilling per group to release the cows.
On 7th October, there were several statements
condemning the arrests of the PWC staff while the delegates to the IPU Assembly visited Ngorongoro and made
clueless comments in the vein of the most ignorant tourists. MISA reported that,
“for the past four days, security officers have been deployed throughout
Ngorongoro, and inspections are even being carried out in visitors' toilets on
the assumption that the Maasai might put up banners for the visiting delegates
to see.” Early in the morning, while Salangat and the PWC staff were still
held at Arusha Central Police station, Naishorwa’s house in Arusha was again
searched by Officer Sele and his squad, causing increased fear and panic.
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition issued a statement calling for
the police to immediately release those arrested and assuring that no THRDC
member organizations were coordinating any demonstration. They also called for arrested
staff members to be allowed to communicate with their lawyers and families. This
was good, but with there was also a need of reminding of that coordinating a
demonstration is not a crime.
MISA too issued a statement condemning the pattern of arbitrary arrests
since August and calling for a stop to raiding and searching residents’ houses
without following procedures required by law. I suppose the pastoralist NGOs
considered themselves covered by MISA’s statement.
Robert Kamakia of PALISEP issued his own statements on Facebook and
TikTok.
Four members of the German delegation to the 153rd Assembly of the IPU
issued their own statement: Katrin Fey, Lena Gumnior, Rolf Mützenich and Claudia
Roth. This is significant, since Germany’s support of the crimes of the
Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources through the decades and still today
with an ugly kind of stubbornness, can’t be overstated. Deutsche Welle Swahili
broadcast a brief piece with Claudia Roth on 9th October.
Another statement was issued by BAVICHA (youth wing of the opposition
party CHADEMA) Ngorongoro.
Late in the evening of 7th October,
Salangat Mako, Thadeus Clamian, Nangei Meitaya and Ezekiel Kishau were released
without charges.
Now I hope to start blogging, finishing my brief (in many words, since
there is so much to be brief about) rundown of what has happened since last
time. Fortunately, these last years, MISA are reporting on significant
developments regarding land and human rights in Ngorongoro district, and
particularly Ngorongoro division, but I suppose that’s much because of how
reticent people in Loliondo are to sharing information. I’m still needed to
keep setting the record straight on often misreported Loliondo events between
2010 and 2022, and I started writing on a “How not to Write About
Loliondo”-post now long ago. A brief and clear post about the German problem is
also needed, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else will properly bring up the
problem that the current MP has turned into. Yannick can still speak up for
the return of the stolen 1,500 km2 before I publish next blog post.
Remember that on 25th January 2023, Salangat was waiting in
vain, in Ololosokwan, for a much shambolic and government co-opted visit by the African
Commission of Human and People’s Rights. A brief clip of his words was
recorded.
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
Also found on Facebook and Bluesky.
WhatsApp: +46739068102
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