Loliondo Bogus Murder Case Dropped after Over Five Months, While the Horror Worsens with Fake and Forced Land Use Plans

 

I needed to write a briefer, clearer blog post about the brutal and lawless land demarcation – robbing the Maasai of Loliondo of vitally important grazing land - committed by the entire blood-soaked and illegitimate Tanzanian government, and about the terrible (but not as terrible as reported in parts of the press) and partly inexplicable ruling by the EACJ on the 2017 mass arson. But the horrors just keep accumulating and I’m overwhelmed. State security and surveyors have been to Loliondo to redraw village boundaries and impose land use plans with heavy intimidation, and reportedly corrupted some people. On 1^st November it was announced that President Samia Suluhu Hassan on 14^th October had declared the 1,500 km² a fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”. Then the DC and an individual calling himself conservator of the illegal protected area have been threatening with further land theft, outside the 1,500 km², via WMAs.

 

Meanwhile, in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCAA, NOT to be mixed up with Loliondo), the restrictions to squeeze out the Maasai keep tightening.

 

I miss the days when I was told that they Maasai of today aren’t the Maasai of 1958, meaning that they are educated, organized, and there’s no need to worry since they will stop evil government plans. It’s such a long time ago. Help is needed. People who can target President Samia in ways that will be very acutely felt, must help stopping the cruel crimes against the Maasai. Open letters are much appreciated (see below for new ones) but words are just not enough. “Words are not enough” applies to me as a blogger as well, but I don’t know what to do.

 

When I was about to publish this blog post there was good news that the Director of Public Prosecution has dropped the obviously bogus “murder case” against 24 people – including all councillors from affected wards, except one who fled - who have been locked up in remand prison for over five months. I hope there isn’t a price for the release, but that hope is getting fainter by the hour.

 

Meanwhile, pastoralists all over Tanzania are under attack. Seven villages around Kilimanjaro International Airport have suffered illegal planting of beacons, in Mbarali there are evictions and terrible seizure of cattle, evictions and killed pastoralists in Kilombero, and violence ordered by an anti-pastoralist councillor in Morogoro has led to one death and several injuries.

 

I’ll soon write a briefer blog, hopefully with answers to some of the questions that remain.  

 

Where is mzee Oriais Oleng'iyo?

 

The horror

Fake and forced land use plans

Dismissed immigration cases

Bogus murder case dropped

The old lie

Court cases and the government’s brutal and wildly shifting lies

Ruthless hypocrites Thomson Safaris

The not at all less threatened Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Updates at the end of the blog post.

Amidst Government Terror and Lawlessness, the East African Court Fails to Deliver Justice to the Maasai of Loliondo

 

Update: On 1st November, Miscellaneous Cause No.09 of 2022 – a parallel case to the one filed in the EACJ to stop the fake and illegal Pololeti GCA - was mentioned in the high court and met with the information that the evil Samia Suluhu Hassan had on 14^th October declared the land as a “Pololeti Game Reserve”.

On 22nd November the DPP dropped the bogus murder case, and the new blog post is basically finished, except for some terrible uncertainties. 

More updates at the end of this blog post, and a new post will be ready as soon as possible. 

NEW BLOG POST

On 30^th September 2022 in Arusha, the East African Court of Justice delivered its ruling in Reference No. 10 of 2017 Ololosokwan Village Council & 3 Others versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. The case was so very clear that it seemed impossible that the Maasai would not win, and the judges seemed to have understood. Still, the ruling was “dismissed for lack of merits”. The court argued that the applicant villages failed to prove that the mass arson operation in 2017 was carried out on village land and not in Serengeti National Park, as was the lie by the government (respondent) witnesses in 2018, after the attorney general in the initial response from November 2017 had lied that the 1,500 km² would have been declared a protected area, which is what Minister Pindi Chana – illegally – did on 17^th June this year. The court seems not to have noticed this glaring discrepancy between the attorney general (respondent) and the respondent’s witnesses.

 

TANAPA's map from the 2017 operation clearly shows that an overwhelming majority of bomas were illegally burned on village land.

The lawyer Joseph Moses Oleshangay tweeted, “The case has been dismissed. I believe the three months’ time delay was meant to rewrite the decision. No other means can explain more than 90 days delay.”

 

In this blog post:

The ruling

Reference No. 10 of 2017

Illegal annexation to Ngorongoro Conservation Area and recent violence there

 

Hearing in the East African Court of Justice, but Perjurers not yet Cross Examined

On 10^th – 11^th June there was a hearing of Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. As mentioned in the previous blog post, my plan was to write extensively about this, but the defendants had only set aside two days, and their witnesses will be cross examined at a later date, and that was the matter of most interest to me. Now besides being delayed, I may repeat mostly old news here, but it wouldn’t be the first time, and I need to keep repeating the basic facts until they stick (it doesn’t work that way, but I can try...)

All information from readers is, as always, more than welcome.

In this blog post:

East African hearing 10^th–11^th June, without as much happening as I’d expected

The questions

Summary of Osero developments

Outrageous Perjury about Loliondo in the East African Court of Justice

In this blog post:

Outrageous perjury in the EACJ

The cases against OBC’s director

The question

Summary of osero developments of the past decades

People who know what’s going on in Loliondo continue completely mute, and even some who are on the ground ask me if I know anything... Far too late I’ve got hold of some affidavits with the most deplorable perjury in the East African Court of Justice case. A court hearing has been held in the case – or one of the cases – against OBC’s director. The important questions remain unanswered.

Better Late than Never! Interim Measures Issued by the East African Court of Justice to Restrain the Tanzanian Government from Evicting, Harassing or Intimidating the Maasai of Loliondo

In this blog post:

Two sets of interim measures issued by the court
Whose land is it?

Past and present efforts to grab the 1,500 km2 osero from the Maasai

At last some good news! The East African Court of justice has not only restrained the Tanzanian government from more eviction attempts while the case is ongoing, but also restrained the office of the Inspector General of Police from harassing or intimidating the villagers that have sued the government. Though unfortunately there’s some confused reporting resulting from confused writing of the ruling that makes it seem like the government’s vague plan for the 1,500 km2, the plan that must be stopped, would already have been implemented. I should have published this blog post days ago.

Silence, Torture, Stupidity, Affidavits, and Soldiers in Loliondo

In this blog post:

The bizarre case of mistaken identity and illegal arrests

Thomson Safaris back to violence (if they ever stopped), using soldiers

Reported arrests of OBC rangers, but details are scarce and confused…

Attack by soldiers at orpul in Ololosokwan

The government’s affidavits

More articles

Now

Summary of osero and OBC developments of the past decades

Update 25/9: At last some good news! The East African Court of Justice has issued interim orders against both last years illegal operation on village land that led to arson, seizing of cattle, beatings and rape, and against the intimidation campaign launched in May this year to derail the case. The office of the Inspector General of Police is restrained from harassing or intimidating the applicants pending Reference No. 10 of 2017. Better late than never...

In memory of Yohana Saing’eu, many people’s father and legendary chairman of Ololosokwan for 33 years, who sadly passed away on 27^th August 2018. In 2011, I saw the defender of the village in a street of Arusha, in the company of a lawyer, and on the way to Dar es Salaam after receiving a letter that demanded that the village certificate be handed in. In 2013, I saw the father sitting on a log in Mairowa with a small girl on his lap. Even if it doesn’t seem so right now, I believe that the legends of the future could be walking around in Loliondo.

This blog post is very delayed, not because there isn’t anything happening, but because multiple bad developments that nobody who hasn’t been silenced has exact information about are taking place.

Intimidation Continues in Loliondo While Everyone has been Silenced

In this blog post:

Violent assault committed by soldiers

The EACJ case

Probe team, team of attorney general’s lawyers, or whatever

Reuters article everywhere

Visit by RC Gambo

Summary (important reading for those who want to write about Loliondo, but don’t have the time to check facts)

Don’t forget to read the 12^th June blog post with the sad story about Thomson Safaris’ ruthless hypocrisy, the 7^th June and 13th May posts with chaotic updates, and the 11^th April post about the visit by Sheikh Mohammed, and Kigwangalla’s spectacular U-turn.

Loliondo between Silence, Confusion, Fear, and Bad Old Friends

In this blog post:
Silence
The East African Court case
Visit by royal hunters
The Minister’s U-turn
Silence about the “chombo/mamlaka maalum” and the German money
Video by PINGO’s Forum
Magufuli in Arusha
Military camp
No justice
Summary for newcomers

Fear and Silence in Loliondo

In this very brief blog post:

Confusion about the “special authority”

Few meetings

Dismissed preliminary objection

Livestock census

Background summary

Confusion about the “special authority”

After PM Majaliwa’s much delayed announcement of his decision how to “solve the conflict” over 1,500 km2 of important grazing land in Loliondo that the “investor” from Dubai, Otterlo Business Corporation, for years has lobbied to have converted into a protected area, silence has ruled Loliondo.

The PM’s decision, rushing through a legal bill before February/March to create a “special authority” (chombo maalum) that will manage the land, was a huge disappointment and caused great fear in those I heard from, and this makes the silence hard to explain. There had been hope that the village land would be left in the hands of villagers, with the condition that they form a WMA, which was the compromise proposal reached by the Arusha RC’s select (non-participatory) committee. A WMA carries considerable dangers in itself and had therefore been rejected for a decade and a half.