The Worst Year Ever in Loliondo is Ending Without any Hope on the Horizon

 

This year has been the worst year ever. With extreme brutality, breaking every law, the Tanzanian government has turned 1,500 km² of important grazing land, legally registered village land in Loliondo and Sale divisions of Ngorongoro district, into a fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve”.

 

This is not just a violent operation that took place in June – when mzee Oriais Oleng'iyo was last seen wounded by bullets and held by security forces. It is an ongoing brutal crime that continues, in a most deadly way, until the illegal boundary beacons are uprooted and the lawless Government Notice No.604, issued by the president, thrown into the waste bin.

 

The land has been stolen, the grass has been stolen, livestock keep being stolen and ransom fees demanded, everybody’s mental health is stolen, all leaders – they had some moments of usefulness early this year - have become useless cowards through terror. This terror has been caused by the locking up of all councillors from affected wards on bogus murder charges for over five months, reporting has almost stopped through confiscation of smartphones, arrests, and additions to the murder charges.

 

This crime is significantly worse than the illegal evictions with mass arson in 2009 and 2017. Those attacks had a start and an end when the Maasai could rebuild, while the current brutality goes on and on.

 

In Ngorongoro Conservation Area, not to be confused with Loliondo, restrictions have worsened and hate propaganda in the press and in parliament have gone mouth-frothingly insane in this year. It looked like it was there that the government’s violence would explode, but instead, it did in Loliondo.

 

However, it is not only Ngorongoro district. Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government is waging a war against pastoralists all over Tanzania. The repression and lawlessness of the Magufuli era have been kept while a crazy tourist cult has become state religion. A cheesy travel show is the gospel and there is a promise of 5 million tourists by 2025. Tanzania is a perfect candidate for a total tourism boycott. 

Let's hope that we will meet 2024 without these two, at least not in their capacity as head of state/emirate.

In this blog post:

The government’s continued war against land and livestock

The dropped bogus murder case

Fake and forced land use plans

The war against livestock

The chief criminal Samia and her German donors

Thomson Safaris

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Court cases

Brief Loliondo hunting block background

Briefly about 2022 threats leading up to the brutal illegal demarcation

Briefly about the brutal and illegal demarcation of a fake game reserve

Illegal Arrests Again in Loliondo, German Ambassador Supports the Government’s Efforts, UNESCO Denies Responsibility, Ndumbaro is Removed from the MNRT and His Successor Makes Sure to Look as Bad as Possible in the Shortest Time

 

After years of – like many others - painting a disappointing figure, Methew Siloma, councillor of Arash (Loliondo division) spoke up, with unexpected bravery, calling a spade a spade in a way I thought could no longer happen in Loliondo, and subsequently he was arrested by his own CCM party. Several other local leaders and NGO people suffer from increased police harassment.

 

There’s no end to the ethnic hate campaign (allegedly funded by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority) against the Maasai in parts of media (and most of parliament). PM Majaliwa and – now former - Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Ndumbaro have kept appearing in fake spectacles and telling outrageous lies about NCA and Loliondo in a tempo that’s hard to keep up with. Before being moved to the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs - Ndumbaro announced that he would hold regular meetings with diplomatic missions to “inform” them about NCA and Loliondo. It looks like the government has full support from the German ambassador. Meanwhile, UNESCO say that they have never asked for the displacement of the Maasai of Ngorongoro. And it seems like the NCAA has finally found some real traitors instead of only using actors.

 

The new minister, Pindi Chana, was installed on 2^nd April, met with the German ambassador on the 5^th, and made a militaristic visit to Ngorongoro on the 6^th.

 

Again, this blog post is too long and delayed, since too much is happening, while some important information is hard to obtain. It should be even longer, with more detail to avoid misunderstandings, but then nobody would read it.

 

In this blog post:

The meeting in Arash and the CCM arrest/abduction

Brief reminder about the efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km² in Loliondo

New “article” by OBC’s “journalist”

The old trick of public services as a weapon of war in Loliondo and NCA

Brief summary of NCA, including latest news

UNESCO denying responsibility for the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal and everything else

Ndumbaro meeting ambassadors and Germany is discreetly anti-Maasai as usual

Support by Kenyan senator

Bye, bye Ndumbaro

 

Pindi Chana in Ngorongoro on 6th April