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.

The Horror Continues in Loliondo and the Tanzanian Government Must be Stopped

Update 30^th September: I will as soon as possible finish a blog post about today’s terrible ruling in the East African Court of Justice. The court ruled that the applicants had failed to prove that the mass arson operation in 2017 was carried out on village land and not in Serengeti National Park as claimed by the government witnesses. This ruling, besides a terrible blow, is stupid in many ways.

NEW BLOG POST on 2nd October

The Tanzanian government’s dirty war against the Maasai in Loliondo, despite of significant support from international organisations for the Maasai, goes on and on, and sanctions, instead of just words, are needed. The brutal and lawless government – while violating all laws and human rights, and hardly even pretending to follow any procedure – is robbing the Maasai of 1,500 km² of mostly less densely populated grazing land - all of it legally registered village land - expecting them to squeeze into the remaining 2,500 km² of the 4,000 km² Loliondo hunting block where there are towns, agricultural areas, forests, a grabbed “private nature refuge”, and other land occupation, while shamelessly lying that this means that out of love they are “giving” the Maasai the 2,500 km². Government representatives even lie that this operation would be “participatory” - when ALL councillors (except one who fled) from affected wards were arrested the day before the illegal demarcation started and continue locked up on trumped up charges.

Local leaders that for the past years have shown weakness, and worse than weakness, have with the new version of the threat against the 1,500km² this year made it very publicly clear that giving away this land for a protected area in any form is not an option.

 

For years, this land alienation has been lobbied for by Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. Now, after dissenting views inside the government were killed, and the always present repression of activism worsened during the Magufuli regime, the government of Samia Suluhu Hassan has made tourism into state religion, while anti-Maasai hate speech in the one-party parliament flouting on blood has reached insane levels. Unlike in the past, the Maasai don’t have any allies at all in the government and less than a handful in parliament, and there isn’t anyone around to stop a cultural genocide, other than independent or opposition voices, when voices are not enough. Flagrantly violating the injunction in the ongoing case in the East African Court of Justice apparently doesn’t carry any consequences for the Tanzanian government.

 

The Maasai have been shot at, teargassed and beaten. Thousands have become refugees across the border in Kenya and illegal arrests and malicious prosecution are used for further intimidation. Houses have been demolished or razed. Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) rangers keep seizing livestock on village land illegally demarcated as a protected area and demanding extortionate fines for their release. The threat is much worse than during the major illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017. And there are illegal beacons that must be uprooted.

 

Where is Oriais Oleng'iyo? Last seen injured and “accompanied” by security forces on 10^th June.

 

My delay in publishing this blog post is unacceptable. So many crimes are being committed, but due to a worse than ever coordination and lack of leadership getting confirmed information is very hard. I fear there are many, many horrors that aren’t being reported in any way. Like to blog post since the illegal demarcation started, updates will be added at the end. 

 

In this blog post:

The illegal, brutal and lawless land demarcation, and the government’s lies about it

Crimes committed to uphold and benefit from the illegal protected area

The bogus murder case

When will the Germans be driven out of the Serengeti ecosystem?

Thomson Safaris – as always, OBC’s copycats in using the Loliondo police state

Summary of previous efforts to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km2 in Loliondo