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.

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