Manhunt in Endulen, Abducted MP, Tundu Lissu Blocked from Visiting Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Maasai Protesting the Tanzanian Government’s War Against Them

 

Tundu Lissu made a glorious visit, against police orders, to Ololosokwan and Wasso, and was then illegally stopped from visiting Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Before that I had spent too long writing about other issues, mostly about how the Tanzanian government/Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) responded to over a weeklong peaceful protests demanding a permit to renovate Ndian Primary School in Nasipooriong’, Endulen ward in Ngorongoro division/NCA some of which was also covered in the previous blog post. The response is increased disinformation propaganda in media (from an already high level), sending to Endulen market government provocateurs that since early 2022 have engaged in an ethnic hatred campaign against the Maasai, and then mass abduction of any man found in Endulen ward, the elderly, the sick, the very young, with the “excuse” that they would have participated when Maasai warriors chased away the government provocateurs. 31 of those first abducted were for over a week held incommunicado and not taken to court. Even Emmanuel Oleshangai, MP for Ngorongoro, was arrested/abducted for almost three days. Then followed several other arrests/abductions, including that of village leaders. Violence, destruction, and theft by the rangers and police is an integral part of the operation. The denial of renovation permits is a tool in the government’s concerted efforts to by suffocation via restrictions and blocking of social services make life unbearable so that the Maasai “voluntarily” move out of Ngorongoro. Another round of threats and arrests followed massive protests, mostly by women, against the government’s blocking of Tundu Lissu from visiting NCA.

 

This is not to be confused with Loliondo/Sale divisions where the government is using other strategies in its war against the Maasai, with a brutal military attack to demarcate a 1,500 km² “game reserve” in 2022, after many years of lobbying by OBC that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, a local police state, several mass arson operations, “arrests” for the sake of intimidation, and on the eve of the illegal demarcation, abduction for over five months of councillors from the affected wards. Now the government and its German donors and facilitators are working hard to make local leaders accept fake and forced legitimation of this crime, which the councillors rejected, for the second time, on 9th September. 

Though it seems like the government is moving towards Loliondo-style tactics also in the NCA case.

There are several ongoing court cases against the brutal and lawless Loliondo land theft. The ruling in the judicial review challenging former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana's cruel and unlawful GN No.421 is scheduled for tomorrow 19^th September. Unless it’s again postponed, I must very soon write a new blog post about Loliondo. This one is mostly about NCA (Ngorongoro division). Update: Good news! The "Pololeti GCA" does not exist, which must meant that the "Pololeti GR" also does not exist!

EU parliamentarians who were to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo were 24 hours before their departure, stopped by the Tanzanian government.

 

I fear there are important aspects that I’ve missed, but this blog post is already too delayed.

 

In this blog post:

Reminder of the protests at Nian Primary School

NCAA’s journalists kept “reporting”

Genocidal inciter chased form Endulen market

Manhunt in Endulen

Abduction of the MP

More government disinformation and propaganda

Visit by EU parliamentarians blocked by the government

Magic visit by Tundu Lissu cut short by the police

Manongi lying about ranger violence against Joshua Olepatorro

Flying Medical Service are back, at least temporarily

Cabinet reshuffle

Very brief background

Loliondo in next blog post

 Updates at the end.

Peaceful Protests at Ndian Primary School in Nasipooriong’ Demanding a Renovation Permit that’s Blocked in the Tanzanian Government’s War Against the Maasai of Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Government Responds with Extreme Provocation

 

Peaceful protests erupted and continued for over a week in Nasipooriong’ village in Endulen ward to demand a permit to repair Ndian Primary School. This is not about seeking funds but just to obtain a permit. No such permits have been granted since 2021 and this is a very calculated strategy in the Tanzanian government’s war against the Maasai. I’ve tried to provide a brief background to what’s going in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is not to be confused with Loliondo where the government uses other war strategies. As this blog post kept getting delayed, Maasai warriors in Endulen provided some justice to “journalists” who have been employed in a campaign of ethnic hatred since early 2022.

 

On 22^nd July it was ten years since Moringe Parkipuny passed away to soon, and I forgot … I’m glad that he did not have to see this decade of escalating horror, but maybe he could now be proud of some people in Endulen.

See the end of the blog post for updates. NCA rangers are arresting/abducting any man they can find in Endulen. Even the MP has been abducted!

The MP was released on bail after almost three days, and the others after over a week. 

In this blog post:

Protests at Ndian Primary School

The government press

Action taken at Endulen market

Joshua Olepatorro whose teeth were smashed out by NCAA rangers

The Germans again boasting of their support for human rights criminals

Background to the government’s cruel relocation drive

UNESCO and the horrible Dr Malebo

Don’t mix up Loliondo and NCA!

The Royal Tour

Continued Violence and Mostly Silence in Loliondo and NCA, with Some Voices Raised on the Anniversary of the Brutal and Lawless Land Grabbing Attack on Loliondo

Good news has not been as plentiful as I hoped when Maasai representatives (the wonderful Noorkishili Nakero Naing’isa from Ololosokwan, Nengai Kilusu Laizer from Oloirobi, and advocate Joseph Oleshangai from Endulen) spoke truth to power in the EU parliament on 31^st May and the councillors rejected the draft district land use plan for crime legitimation. Though on the anniversary of the military attack on Loliondo, several people spoke to media and the seizing of livestock seems to have stopped for a while (and then resumed …), at least in Ololosokwan, even if the stolen land, which is the biggest part of grazing land in Loliondo can only be accessed by its legitimate owners as thieves at night. The Germans are digging in their heels in their defence of their funding and facilitating of crime legitimation and in Joseph Parsambei the Loliondo land rights struggle has got its worst traitor ever.

 

For several weeks now Tanzanian online discussions have been totally consumed with a Tanzania-Dubai Inter-Governmental Agreement that has recently been ratified by parliament. The bone of contention in the heated discussions is a deal with the Dubai state-owned company DP World to control Dar es Salaam port, other mainland ports, inland container depots ports, and related logistical corridor. The contract is indefinite, or unspecified, and Tanzania shall not, without prior consent of DP World, undertake any development project upon any of the said ports. Critics of this deal are being threatened, harassed and arrested, and everyone is talking about it. There is a connection to Loliondo, but sadly it seems like it has been reduced to saying that Loliondo was sold to Dubai, as if we were again in 1992.

Remember that in February a person who by Ikulu, State House, was referred to as "member of the Dubai royal family" Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum got a VIP treatment and a MoU from President Samia, VP Mpango and Minister Chana. Chris Lang of REDD-Monitor has written about the sheikh’s dubious company that aims to greenwash the UAE’s massive carbon footprint. 

 

It still feels like a nightmare that the brutally and illegally demarcated “game reserve”, which the “investor” OBC for years was lobbying for, does not go away and nobody is punished for abducting all councillors from affected wards the night before the brutal and lawless demarcation started and keeping them locked up for over five months, planting beacons in a rain of teargas and bullets, with beatings, slashings, cuttings, rapes and arrests. Thousands having to flee to Kenya, hundreds arrested and over sixty charged with bogus immigration cases that were dismissed – without any attempt at prosecution - months later, and nobody is held answerable. Destroyed houses, stolen motorcycles and smartphones, seized and even shot livestock and nobody is dealt with. Instead, it is celebrated in parliament. Many people are terrifyingly deep in debt after being illegally fined when their cattle have been seized on the stolen land for over a year now. Oriais Oleng'iyo – 84-years old at the time - who was last seen on 10^th June 2022, with bullet wounds and held by security forces, has still not been brought back to his family, and the enforced disappearance case filed by his son was, as mentioned in last blog post, dismissed by the judge. There are several ongoing court cases, so many that it’s hard for me to keep up, but I’m not getting much detail about them.

 

In Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Ngorongoro division of Ngorongoro district), that is still mixed up with Loliondo by too many people, suffocating restrictions and denial of social services is still the government’s strategy to “convince” the Maasai to relocate to other people’s land 600 kilometres away in Msomera, Handeni. Though both the Msomera villagers and the Ngorongoro migrants are increasingly speaking up about the unsuitability of this relocation. Dehumanizing ranger violence continues and is sometimes reported. In July, the rangers smashed the teeth of the child Joshua Olepatorro. Today, 31^st July, protestors at Nasipooriong primary school in Endulen demanded permits to renovate the school even at their own cost.

 

Also areas next to Lake Natron are under threat, as many times before, and sometimes I’ve written about it, but now I feel a terrible unease about not keeping up.

 

This blog post is unacceptably delayed because of too much and too little information, my lack of focus, and sadness over the silence. 

 

In this blog post:

Stolen grazing land and criminal rangers

Violence in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NOT to be mixed up with Loliondo)

 

The rejected, German facilitated, fake, and forced land use planning

For a brief reminder of what the Germans do,

The maliciously misleading and rejected NDLUFP document, including another Lake Natron threat

 

Anniversary of the biggest crime and various people speaking up on the record

A most disgusting budget speech by Mchengerwa

Amnesty report

Court cases

 

As always, updates will be added at the end.

 

This rubbish has been rejected.

The Tanzanian Government’s Brutal Land Theft and Cattle Theft Continue in Loliondo, Supported by German Funds, Suffocating Restrictions and Blocked Social Services in NCA, but the Maasai are Fighting Back, at Home and in Europe

 

On 19^th May 2023 the councillors at Ngorongoro District Council voted in unison to reject in total the utter madness of the government’s German-facilitated draft 2023-2043 Ngorongoro District Land Use Framework Plan that’s fabricated to legitimize the brutal land grab in Loliondo, and a private motion on suffocation of social services in NCA was supported by all councillors.

 

Currently a Maasai delegation is in Europe and will hopefully severely deal with those who are facilitating and encouraging the crimes by the Tanzanian government against the Maasai. This evening, 31^st May, they attended a public event at the EU Parliament: Forced Evictions in the Name of Conservation: the Role of the EU. I've never written as quickly as a wrote about this event ... (see below, under Maasai delegation to Europe) The evil, lying Tanzanian government representatives fuelled me. Otherwise, this blog post is terribly delayed.

More worrying is that the CCM Political Committee Arusha Region, with the implementor of the war against the Maasai, RC John Mongella, are currently touring the district, inspecting projects in Loliondo and Sale, and have already been seen in company of councillors. 

The land has not been returned and the Tanzanian government keep taking the livestock. Decades of land rights struggle in Loliondo could not protect the 1,500 km² - essential for lives and livelihoods - from a government high on tourist cult and the blood of pastoralists. Almost a year ago, all councillors from affected wards were abducted right before the brutal and lawless demarcation started. Beacons were planted in a rain of teargas and bullets, security forces were beating, slashing, cutting, raping and arresting people. Thousands fled to Kenya, hundreds were arrested and over sixty were charged with bogus immigration cases that were dismissed – without any attempt at prosecution - months later. The security forces destroyed houses, stole motorcycles and smartphones, seized and even shot livestock. Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen on 10^th June 2022, with bullet wounds and held by security forces, has still not been brought back to his family, and the enforced disappearance case filed by his son was on 17^th May dismissed by the judge.

 

The war against the Maasai continue with the government’s different shades of rangers going after livestock lawlessly seizing, fining, and even auctioning. Livestock will always have to enter the land, until the Maasai are no more, but that’s exactly what the evil Tanzanian government is working on. The other front is to make all local leaders useless by terrorizing, threatening, and compromising them. The fake and forced land grab legitimization goes on, facilitated by the Germans. This must have consequences for the amoral Bundesrepublik. At least local leaders seem to still be resisting.

 

In this blog post:

The cattle rustling Serengeti rangers getting away with disobeying court orders

Other cattle rustling by rangers

The anti-pastoralist president ranting again

German-facilitated fake and forced land use planning terror rejected by all councillors

Maasai delegation to Europe

Human Rights Watch investigating and speaking up, and some press

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where the Tanzanian government kept lying

Letter from the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The very many court cases

Msomera villagers speaking up and a reminder of the NCAA threats that keep intensifying

NCA protest banners at visit by the VP

Don’t mix up Loliondo and NCA!

Briefest mention of colonial conservation elsewhere in Tanzania

Updates at the end of this blog post. 

The War Against the Maasai of Loliondo and NCAA Continues, there was a German-Facilitated Meeting to Legitimize it, Commission on Human Rights and Good Governance Visited, the Case of the Enforced Disappearance of Oriais Oleng'iyo has Begun, UNESCO, and More

 

It is not a nightmare that you can wake up from. The horror is real. The threat, lobbied for by OBC, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, of taking 1,500 km² of grazing land from the Maasai of Loliondo - squeezing them into land with towns, agricultural areas, forest reserves, and a nasty American land grab – was last year implemented with brutality and lawlessness by the Tanzanian government. The ugly boundary beacons still stand there and the Maasai can only access their own land as thieves, risking terrible extortion by rangers, which is a risk that must be taken, since cows need grass. Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen on 10^th June 2022, with bullet wounds and held by security forces, has still not been brought back to his family. After the over five-month abduction on bogus charges of all councillors, except one who fled, together with people suspected of sharing information, there aren’t any local leaders who are speaking up against the crimes. Only the court cases resemble anything like hope. There is now further evidence (in case anyone had doubted it) that the Germans support the horror.

 

Ngorongoro Conservation Area with its NCAA rule and restrictions was something to avoid at all costs and a reason for resistance in Loliondo, but now most of Loliondo’s grazing land has been stolen from the villages and placed under the NCAA, with much worse restrictions, total restrictions. In NCA itself, with the specific and outspokenly hostile president, and the relocation drive to other people’s land 600 km away, everything has worsened, but "recently" there have been some visits by allies, which could maybe lead to something worthwhile.

NCAA rangers and leaders of so-called cultural bomas in Olbalbal and Endulen are involved in violent assault, including rape, against women who sell cultural ornaments independently, and I only got details about this last evening. 

 

The war against pastoralists, and other rural people, continues almost all over Tanzania. In Mbarali, Chunya, and maybe Iringa and Chamwino districts, some 48 villages (could be more) are threatened by the old extension decision (GN No.28) for Ruaha National Park. In Kilombero a massive game reserve was declared on 17^th February. In Tarime there’s been lethal ranger violence for decades and on 28^th March a demarcation operation on village land begun. In Nyatwali ward in Bunda there are eviction threats for extending Serengeti National Park all the way to Lake Victoria. Last year the government in the most lawless and irrational way planted beacons in several villages to expand to Kilimanjaro International Airport (there’s an ongoing court case). There’s extreme police brutality in Isela sub-village in Ndolezi village, Mbozi district from where people are being evicted for investment around a meteorite museum managed by the NCAA! This is far from Ngorongoro, in Songwe region, at the other end of the country. In Kalilani village in Uvinza district Mahale Mountains National Park is being extended into the village, and last year, at almost the exact time as Ololosokwan was attacked, rangers attacked this village with live bullets, which I didn’t get to know until 24^th March this year. And so many other underreported, and unreported, horrors.

 

Still, the crimes in Loliondo should suffice for a total tourism boycott of Tanzania.

 

In this blog post:

President’s son in law as new Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism

Extortion of herders continues

Where is Oriais Oleng'iyo?

Demoralizing tour by the MP

Land grab legitimation meeting facilitated by Germans

Crime legitimation meeting number two

Reminder about the Germans and why they must be chased out of the Serengeti ecosystem

Court cases

Reminder of the government commandeered visit by the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights

Visit by the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance

Support and harassment in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Beatings, rape, threats and silence in Olbalbal and Endulen, women terrorized by rangers and cultural boma leaders

UNESCO and the terrible Dr Malebo

Updates added at the end of the blog post.

Sorry for the delay in publishing this post. There's too much happening and it's too difficult to confirm much of the information. I may also be too slow and unfocused. 

The Tanzanian Government Commandeers the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights, Letting Maasai in Loliondo Wait in Vain - and Other Sad and Delayed News and Unanswered Questions

 

The brutal and lawless occupation of 1,500 km² of legally registered village land in Loliondo and Sale Divisions of Ngorongoro District for an illegal “Pololeti Game Reserve” just goes on. The massive loss of grazing land and illegal seizure of livestock with extortionate “fines” keep deepening poverty. Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen on 10^th June, wounded by bullets and held by security forces, has not been brought back to his family. Leaders keep hiding in fear after the over five-month abduction on bogus charges of all councillors, except one who fled, together with people suspected of sharing information. Nobody has been allowed to rebuild their houses in the 1,500 km². Stolen motorbikes and smartphones have not been returned. The illegally planted beacons have not been uprooted. President Samia’s lawless Government Notice No.604 has not been shredded to pieces. The demented tourism cult and anti-pastoralism still holds the government in thrall. Stop this crime! Punish everyone involved and all those silently supporting it!

 

To rub salt into the wounds, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has made a visit to Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Msomera, totally co-opted by the government. The Tanzanian government controlled every move, only by accident did some victims of land theft and human rights violations get a space to tell their woes. In Loliondo the Commission was prevented from meeting any victims at all, and those were victims who thought that their prayers had been heard and that finally someone would come to their rescue. We are waiting for the Commission’s final report.

 

Then the NCAA board of directors descended salivating over the stolen “goldmine”.

 

A tourist boycott is necessary.

 

In this blog post:

January news (plus early February due to delays)

The war against livestock continues

More harmfully mixed-up articles

Support by Human Rights Watch

NCAA board descending like vultures

Remember the difference between Loliondo and NCA

Taasa, The Royal Tour and the DC/human rights criminal

Carbon offsets MoU with Dubai

Cargo plane from Dubai again

Added: mobile OBC camps

Government commandeered visit by the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights

The giraffes on planes that I don’t want to write about (only for Tanzanians)

Fake giraffes

My guess

Zero investigation after the 1990s

Actual giraffes on planes in 2010, but NOT involving OBC, Dubai or Loliondo

The ban on wildlife exports

Green Mile Safari

The weird trophy hunting debate

Zoom seminar with the worst of the worst, OBC’s Mollel included

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

 

Updates added at the end of the blog post.

Guest Blogger: The Words of Salangat ole Mako on the Run for In Vain Trying to Tell the Truth to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights that Never Came

 

Salangat ole Mako has in his own words become a – nightly - grass thief in his own land. He is a Maasai pastoralist and a small-scale commercial cultivator of vegetables and fruits in Ololosokwan village in Loliondo. As lobbied for by OBC, that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, 75% of his, and everyone’s, grazing land has brutally and lawlessly been taken by the Tanzanian government for a “protected area”, and then there have been threats of taking his farm. On 25^th January, Salangat was waiting in vain for a much shambolic and government co-opted visit by the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights (I hope to very soon post a blog post about this). A brief clip of what he would have wanted to tell the Commission was shared online. The following day the Officer Commanding Ngorongoro District came to Ololosokwan to say that the gathering waiting for the international organization had not had a permit and that Salangat had been talking thrash. Then Salangat received more threats and fled to Kenya.

These are his spoken and written words:

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

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

 

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

The Tanzanian Government Keeps Escalating its War Against the Maasai in Loliondo

 

-After decades of land rights struggle in Loliondo in defence of 1,500 km² of vitally important grazing land that’s legally registered village land, the Tanzanian government has with demented brutality and lawlessness, in violation of court orders, less than two weeks before expected ruling (which was postponed), illegally planted beacons to demarcate the land.

 

-Minister Pindi Chana has, against every law and procedure, a week after the illegal and very violent operation started, “gazetted” a fake and illegal “Pololeti Game Controlled Area”.

 

-Government officials have kept landing in helicopter to, as from the warfront, say that the exercise is going just fine and is participatory, at the same time as issuing threats and clapping to war songs performed by massive security forces.

 

-The Maasai landowners and their livestock are suffering mostly untold abuse. Independent press is blocked from the area and does not exist in Tanzania anyway.

 

-Nine councillors and the CCM District Chairman were arrested the day before the illegal demarcation started and have together with 15 (or now 17) other people been charged with the murder of a FFU officer who was killed after the local leaders were locked up.

 

-Hundreds of Maasai have been injured, at least 31 seriously, and  thousands have fled to Kenya.

 

-In areas of Malambo, and elsewhere, the Maasai are being chased away from their homes.

 

-The this time without any exception anti-Maasai expressions among government supporters make this the most dangerous attack so far, but also more Tanzanians than ever before are aware of what’s happening and expressing their support for the Maasai.

 

-Then started mass arrests of Maasai accused of being so-called “Kenyans”, arson of seasonal bomas, and illegal mass seizing of livestock.  

 

-The government, that already has the huge Serengeti National Park, is lawless, boundaryless and brutal in satisfying the thirst for Maasai land by the conservation-tourism industrial complex, in this case OBC that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai.

 

- Where is over 70-years old Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen injured and detained by security forces on 10^th June?

Illegal beacon in Arash.

 

The Brutal and Illegal Land Demarcation Operation in Contempt of Court Continues in Loliondo. It Must be Stopped and the Beacons Uprooted!

 

With total lawlessness, massive deployment of security forces, senseless violence and shameless lies, the Tanzanian government continues planting beacons* in contempt of court to demarcate and alienate from the Maasai the 1,500 km² of vitally important grazing land that it – lobbied by OBC that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai - has attempted to steal so many times. This operation started less than two weeks before the East African Court of Justice is expected to deliver its ruling on 22^nd June. Many people have been injured, are missing or arrested, including local leaders who were lured by the DC and arrested the first day, kept incommunicado, and now charged with "murder" (for self defence exercised while they were locked up) together with ten others. This crime must be stopped, and the illegal beacons must be uprooted!

The ruling was the day before the scheduled date postponed to September!

In the evening of Friday, 24th June people are being told to leave the illegally demarcated area or livestock will be seized tomorrow! Please help!

 Updates at the end of the blog post. 

NEW BLOG POST on 7th July.

*Not sure if the word “beacon” is used this way everywhere, but they are concrete boundary posts.

 

Following the blog post that I’ve kept updating,

in this blog post:

The crime

Very brief and simplified background

NEVER, through decades of land rights struggle and an increasingly threatening government side, has any village council or village assembly agreed to a Game Reserve under any kind of name. Not even the most corrupt and “investor friendly” groupings (not that they’d have any such authority) have ever signed away the land for a Game Reserve. Losing 1,500 km² of vitally important grazing land would lead to such destruction that it just isn’t anything anyone can contemplate. The community reports handed over to PM Majaliwa on 25^th May, though over-ambitious considering the time frame, did certainly not agree to any Game Reserve. The PM was going to “work on the recommendations”, but instead the government went to war against the Maasai. A pattern can be seen in the PM’s behaviour.