After PM Kassim Majaliwa’s agenda-driven, tricky (his kind of word), and non-listening visits to Loliondo and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in mid-February (see previous blog posts) there have been protest and prayer meetings in both Loliondo and NCA, statements, further contributions to the anti-Maasai ethnic hate campaign, very confused media coverage, international solidarity, and the president selling Tanzania in Dubai. Another issue that urgently should (but won't) be brought to light, is that the government has used an ill-intentioned law to kill the case against Thomson Safaris that’s older than this law. 

I may have written this before, but at calmer times, these developments could all have got their own blog post. Now, I’m not even keeping up. Then Ndumbaro started telling full-blown Kagasheki-style lies about Loliondo to Deutsche Welle, and the following day Majaliwa held a misleading spectacle with traditional leaders not from Ngorongoro to receive a list of households willing to “voluntarily” relocate from NCA. I hope I haven't missed anything important and that this blog post will be read depite its length.

Reportedly, Majaliwa will very soon visit Ngorongoro.

Update 15th March: Majaliwa's visit has been postponed. 

While the anti-Maasai hate campaign is speeding and spinning with its more malicious disinformation, not enough of an effort is made to at least make serious people and allies keep to facts. Those who don’t know anything make up their own “facts”, and those who know are too polite to correct them, or worse ... I’ve almost myself stopped telling writers about their mistakes after publication, since corrections are never made, and too often misconceptions are kept even when information is received before publication.

These are three different, but closely related problems:

In Loliondo OBC, that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km² of important grazing land, village land belonging to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area. A local police state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from NCA.

In NCA, an 8,292 km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the purposeful poverty-inducing rule and restrictions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and since 2019 there’s a genocidal eviction plan, that extends to annexing some surrounding areas, the area under threat in Loliondo included. Current government efforts focus on “voluntary” relocation and disinformation, while an ethnic hate campaign rages in media and in the parliament.

In Loliondo, but outside the 1,500 km2 area, the American Thomson Safaris claim ownership of a 12,617 acres private nature refuge and have copied OBC’s use of the local police state. Sadly, for years it’s been basically impossible to get information about this land grab. 

In this blog post:

Loliondo after Majaliwa’s trick

Ndumbaro lying about the 1,500 km²

The government’s many tricks to grab the 1,500 km²

Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Majaliwa keeps tricking

The anti-Maasai hate campaign does not stop

The president selling Tanzania in Dubai

Government kills the Thomson Safaris case in the court of appeal

Deputy Minister Masanja's caravan of women on 5th March. The MNRT's ideal land use.

Loliondo after Majaliwa’s trick

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, in Loliondo on 14^th February, PM Majaliwa didn’t make any precise announcements about the 1,500 km², or about NCA for that matter, which for many was a relief after the genocidal momentum that had been built up in an anti-Maasai media campaign and some extremely crazed and aggressive incitement against the Maasai by a long line of members of the one-party parliament. Though with his talk about “wider interest of the nation”, apparent wilful ignorance about the existence of land laws, and expressed pleasure with not hearing anyone saying, “this is our land”, he was not any better than RC Mongella whose visit a month earlier had led to loud protests after years of frightful silence. The public was locked out of the meeting, but some independent press was there. Sadly, the leaders present did not speak up about the law, or about the ongoing case in the East African Court of Justice, and kept talking about how very ready they were to work with the government. Some attendants addressed other issues, NCA included, by the message was also very clear from several local leader, that being ready to work with the government does not mean being ready to be evicted, and the importance of the 1,500 km² for grazing was explained, not least by MP Emmanuel Oleshangay.

And as mentioned earlier, on 17^th February in Ngorongoro Division where he was supposed to address NCA issues, Majaliwa ended by throwing in some alarmingly ignorant comments about Loliondo. He said that the 1,500 km² (the land that OBC lobby to have converted into a protected area) is “empty” (there are both permanent and seasonal bomas). The PM said that, if the problem is water, we have the minister here, and boreholes can be drilled elsewhere. Just threedays earlier, the Ngorongoro MP had very clearly explained the area’s importance for grazing. Excising the 1,500 km² from the 4,000 km² Loliondo GCA signifies destruction of lives and livelihoods. The remaining area has two towns, with district headquarters and hospitals, agricultural areas, forest, and the horrible American company Thomson Safaris claiming their own private nature refuge. If anyone has missed it, Majaliwa has an agenda and won’t listen to anything else. Unsurprisingly, on 1^st-2^ndMarch, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Jumaa Aweso, visited Loliondo to announce water projects. Majaliwa ordered a demarcation exercise of the disputed 1,500 km² to be initiated to “know the boundaries”! There aren’t “boundaries”, since the area is part of the village land and has not been grabbed! No boundaries are needed, unless there are bad intentions.

In a written statement from his office and when presenting his Loliondo and Ngorongoro visits in parliament, Majaliwa continued with the same threatening and misleading nonsense. His claim is that the dispute is between local villagers and conservationists, but since nobody knows the exact boundaries of the disputed land, at a meeting in Ololosokwan in 2018 there would have been a resolution to place beacons to demarcate the area. There was no such meeting in 2018. Further, the written statement says that Majaliwa instructed authorities concerned with the issue of placing beacons to ensure that they involve the leaders of the areas at all stages. To make it even more absurd, the statement says that this isn’t any trick (the word is used in English), that the government isn’t like that, and that everything is beneficial and done in good faith! A decades long land rights struggle in which the Loliondo Maasai have managed to maintain their 1,500 km² osero, despite extremely violent illegal operations, a local police state that for some years silenced everyone, and the constant lobbying by OBC, and there isn’t any “trick” involved in demarcating the threatened land. To me it sounds like a textbook example of the nastiest trick!

Mzee Kimeriai from Kirtalo lives in the 1,500 km2, and after Majaliwa’s lies that this land is “empty” he is begging the government not to finish off his people.

Following Majaliwa’s threat there has been several land protection and prayer meetings in Loliondo, even if not as many as in NCA. In Malambo, 24/7 patrols have reportedly been set up across the village to report any cars resembling Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), or the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ). On 23^rd February a meeting was held in Ololosokwan, organised by traditional leaders, who reported that they had been hopeful when meeting Majaliwa in Wasso, but terrified after hearing his words in parliament. This was a prayer meeting attended by some 1,000 people, and strategies of how to protect the land were discussed.

Ololosokwan

The following day, around 11am there were reports from people in Soitsambu and Ololosokwan of two army vehicles full of soldiers moving from Wasso towards Ololosokwan and once in Ololosokwan in direction towards the osero. An hour later two more army vehicles travelled the same route. These were the soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force that since March 2018 are stationed at Olopolun near Wasso. During normal routine work that many vehicles aren’t used at the same time, and reportedly the soldiers were making rude gestures using weapons when passing people along the way. Most people interpret this as an act of intimidation, while some say it was normal routine.

A statement about land conflicts in Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Sale, signed by all Ngorongoro councillors, including the most unlikely, regarding the 1,500 km² mentioned OBC’s lobbying, land ownership, the ongoing case in the East African of Justice, Majaliwa’s lie about a meeting in Ololosokwan 2018, and the disquiet caused by his talk about demarcating the land was addressed. Unfortunately, this statement was never read, since due to problems with logistics, no journalists showed up. Reportedly, other statements are on the way.

Today, 14^th March, there was a protest and prayer meeting in Malambo in Sale Division, at the southernmost end of Loliondo GCA where people are under threat of having land robbed from them for a protected area allowing hunting.

Ndumbaro lying about the 1,500 km2

On 8^th March, or that’s when the audio clip was shared, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Damas Ndumbaro had some fun lying to Deutsche Welle Kiswahili, or maybe he’s genuinely stupid (some are convinced that’s the case). His lies were in response to the global web movement Avaaz that’s returned to petitioning about Loliondo (now mixing it with NCA), and are loved by everyone in Ngorongoro, while this blogger has more mixed feelings. Avaaz started their petition in 2012, which was bewildering to all local leaders, as there hadn’t been any threat from the government since OBC’s land use plan was rejected, and their first petition text was frankly misleading, talking about “the Serengeti sell-off” when it was about Loliondo (some signatories believed the threat to be the opposite of what it really was). In 2013, when Kagasheki tried to rob the Maasai of the 1,500 km², Avaaz were both helpful, and misleading. Even when they had all facts, they insisted on writing everything in their own insincere style. What they did in 2014 is so horrible that I just don’t want to write about it again. Then Avaaz didn’t say one word during the years of worst terror and violence. This could be because their contacts in Loliondo didn’t alert them, but others certainly did. Maybe Avaaz this time are doing the best with the information they’ve been given, and new people are involved. Though it would be good to arm allies with all facts … It’s what I’ve been working on for over a decade with not that much to show for it.

In the Deutsche Welle interview Ndumbaro seems to have been told that only “first peoples” can have “ancestral” land and enjoys saying that the Maasai came from Sudan. This is what most Maasai seem to have reacted to – maybe because those from Loliondo are still quite silent - advising Ndumbaro who’s Mgoni to return to South Africa, but we already knew that Ndumbaro has a personal hatred against the Maasai, and against pastoralism. Then the minister moved on to saying that nobody owns land in Tanzania and that everyone can be moved, citing infrastructure projects, but this is a case of foreigners practicing a hobby, and Ndumbaro has still not learnt that there are land laws, even if he this time wasn’t saying that the president owns all land, which was what he said when parliament had its first anti-Maasai day. The minister says it isn’t true that there’s hunting in NCA, in which he has a point. Though the petition was originally about Loliondo, and the NCA MLUM review proposal includes annexing areas with hunting, which would require changes to the NCA Act.

The by far most dangerous lies are when Ndumbaro mentions Loliondo. He’s back to Kagasheki’s shameless, and frankly twisted, lie that the 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo division plus part of Sale division) would be a protected area that has been “invaded”, which previously would have been allowed, but not anymore, says the minister, ignoring the simple fact that it’s legally registered village land. This means that he considers the district headquarters and the DC’s office to be “invaders”. PM Pinda put a stop to this lie on 23^rdSeptember 2013 … The lie is based on that in Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 (that came into operation in 2010) Game Controlled Areas are protected areas, and they are not allowed to overlap with village land. Therefore, OBC funded the draft district land use plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km²into this new kind of GCA, which was rejected by the district council in 2011, since it would have led to very serious destruction of lives and livelihoods. For further horror, Ndumbaro pretends that nobody is living in the 1,500 km²! Whose houses have then been razed in several illegal invasions of village land? Ndumbaro has a feeling that it’s foreign countries with an interest in Loliondo and Ngorongoro that are misleading the public … I wonder if anyone has told this unbelievably ignorant minister that there’s an ongoing case in the East African Court of Justice to stop the governments efforts to rob the Maasai of the land.

The government’s many tricks to grab the 1,500 km²

Since tricky PM Kassim Majaliwa says that the government doesn’t engage in tricking Tanzanians there are a few nasty tricks to remind about, and this is also to remind Loliondo leaders about the circumstances in which you’re most likely to be tricked.

In 2008 local leaders were tricked, or coerced, by then DC Jowika Kasunga to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km² osero was illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.

The Maasai moved back, and some leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a tricky draft district land use plan that proposed turning the land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united and weren’t tricked. The draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council.

The government and the investor had another dirty trick up their sleeve. In 2013, Minister Kagasheki lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km²meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This trick did not work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped Kagasheki (not that anyone thought that Kagasheki was doing this on his own, but he did show enthusiasm).

Then the many tricks to buy off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land. Though nobody was tricked enough to sign any MoU.

The investors OBC (and Thomson Safaris) had for many used the tricks of the local police state that through the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will threaten anyone who could speak up about them, and engage in defamation and illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with Magufuli in office, and by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with his trick of a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical areas” under protests in each village. The tricky proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad comprise that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

Maybe since tricking was so easy, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision on 13^th August 2017 an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

Oloosek, Ololosokwan, 13th August 2017

The illegal operation wasn’t stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would have left Tanzania before 2018. I don’t know if this was a trick, but it was very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri). Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, and would of course be contempt of court.

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince) and in April OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually made permanent with donations from the NCAA.

Next trick was done by the OCCID and local police that tried to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for the applicants' main counsel. On 25^th September 2018 the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated, as a “trick” by soldiers that in November and December tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by president Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC tuned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out and back to work, reportedly after plea bargaining.

Then in September 2019, followed the terrible trick of a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km² and turn it into a protected area allowing hunting … This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with innumerable protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

The worst trick of all were the stolen elections of 2020, in which Salula Ngorisiolo was killed when police and NCAA rangers opened fire at Oloirobi polling station in Ngorongoro.

2021, besides the big relief of 17^th March, brought the trickster Jumaa Mhina as new DED using every trick to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ.

On 11^th January 2022, a new trick was brought by Arusha RC John Mongella who summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders weren’t tricked, not even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people. They refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km², or to sign the attendance list, which could have been used to claim that they’d agreed to something. On 13^th-14^thJanuary in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

Then tricky Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected.

Three days later, on 17^thFebruary in Ngorongoro, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then Ndumbaro on 8^th March re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

Placing beacons to mark the 1,500 km² osero would be a serious invasion of village land and only serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. It must be dealt with urgently!

Ngorongoro Conservation Area after Majaliwa’s trick

In NCA there were big prayer meetings before, during and after Majaliwa’s visit. There are reports of such meetings most every day. Just as in Loliondo, the public was locked out of Majaliwa’s meeting in NCA on 17^th February (which I wrote about in the previous blog post), but with the difference that two journalists were arrested, and those locked out kept singing outside the NCA hall. Majaliwa kept to his agenda of “too many” people and livestock and would not listen to anything else. The far too polite attendants followed the agenda of “conservation”, but their contributions, including reports about missing rhinos and suspected culprits (briefly mentioned in my previous blog post), weren’t reported, since due to the arrests there weren’t any independent journalists present.

What Majaliwa later communicated in the written statement from his office and in parliament was only that those willing to “voluntarily” relocate from Ngorongoro should not be hindered, but helped, and that they should register at the offices of the DC. The terror is in the context, in the years of restrictions imposed by the NCAA on growing crops or building modern houses, in the loss of grazing areas and saltlicks, and in the current ethnic hate campaign in media and in parliament, and in how Majaliwa refers in a neutral, or positive way, to these MPs who laugh approvingly when their peers suggest sending in tanks against the Maasai and fabricate one dehumanizing story after the other. And the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model (MLUM) review proposal, that was presented by Chief Conservator Manongi in September 2019 has still not been thrown into the rubbish bin.

The MLUM review report’s proposal is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. When it was presented, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had once again visited Ngorongoro and in their report repeated that they wanted the MLUM review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. Recommendations and concerns from UNESCO has in the past repeatedly led to a worsened human rights situation.

When the Maasai were evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, losing access to over 14,000 km2, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying the 8,292 km² Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest.

The MLUM review report proposes to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti and Empakaai where grazing these past few years has been banned through order (residents in Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted in 1975). This has led to losing 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards. The proposal is to do the same with Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts, like Selela forest and Engaruka historical site) and the 1,500 km² in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost perfectly to the wishes of OBC.

A list of 52 heads of households willing to voluntarily relocate from Ngorongoro was released a few days after Majaliwa’s visit. Some of those were deceased while others had moved away from Ngorongoro over a decade ago. Only two of those on the list were actual residents of Ngorongoro.

People have for decades been tortured by the NCAA, so that they will leave “voluntarily”, and in December 2021 the researcher Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel translated this to academic language about how people are made relocatable and land grabbable through long processes of marginalisation.

The village chairmen from the 25 villages of Ngorongoro Division held a press conference on 22^ndFebruary to set the record straight about PM Majaliwa’s visit. The village chairs reminded of that Majaliwa only for an hour listened to leaders, not the public, and that journalists and local experts were not allowed in. They explained that they are ready, have always been ready, to discuss challenges with conservation and tourism, like the number of people and livestock, but not least the disorderly growth of hotels damaging the environment, of traffic congestion in the crater, of invasive weeds (significant increase since the Maasai were blocked from accessing the crater). What they are not ready to discuss is evictions. They are not going anywhere. Their message to the world is that they don’t need tourism that robs them of their land.

On 5^th March, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, who’s very much involved in the war against the Maasai, brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to Ngorongoro. This was supposed to be in celebration of International Women’s Day, but celebrated tourism, domestic tourism, and not least the CCM government. Almost all these women were overweight, which was a striking contrast to the (due to purposeful ill-intentioned restrictions by the NCAA) often malnourished Maasai women. The ministry and the NCAA uploaded video clips of these women squirting champagne and – like foreign tourists at other times (the return of which is celebrated) - overcrowding the Ngoitokitok picnic site in Ngorongoro crater, an image that was much celebrated. This wastefulness and destructiveness were obviously the image that the anti-Maasai ministry want to show the world, and it’s been much shared by them. Meanwhile, the Maasai climbed Mount Makarot to pray for their land.

On 10^th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai traditional leaders – not from Ngorongoro – in which he was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. Not only when speaking, but also in the written message from his office the PM said that the government had set aside 400,000 km² in Handeni. It was the first thing many people saw, but newspapers just copied it, and everything else about the Handeni plans, unquestioningly. The total area of Tanzania is 945,087 km². Present, and speaking for evictions from NCA, was of course the imposter Lekisongo from Monduli who in October 2021 falsely was presented as the leader of all Maasai traditional leaders at a public meeting with President Samia. At that time, Ngorongoro representatives were forced to hold a press conference to denounce this individual – which I suppose made him irresistible to tricky Majaliwa. Among the numerous attendants, the only person from Ngorongoro was an allaeged NCAA informer from Alailelai who’s one of the two persons on the first list that’s been made public who actually is a Ngorongoro resident, but it has later been revealed that he left Ngorongoro over five years ago. The rest of the attendants were from Arusha town and Monduli. This kind of fraudulent spectacle may seem too strange to be true, but remember that Majaliwa when Magufuli hadn’t been seen since 27^th February 2021, at prayer in the main mosque in Njombe town on 12^th March, assured Tanzanians that the president was in good health and working hard, with loads of files on his desk. On 17^th March 2021, Magufuli was officially declared dead.

Fraudster Lekisongo on the right

The following day in parliament, when talking about his meeting with Maasai traditional leaders … Majaliwa said that he had a slip of tongue and that it was acres and not square kilometres. He did not explain what he slipped on to meet with Maasai from Arusha and Monduli, including a well-known fraudster, to talk about Ngorongoro.

On 11^th March, the chairman of the laigwanak of Ngorongoro, Metui ole Shaudo, told Watetezi tv that he and his peers had not been invited to, or informed about, the PMs meeting in Arusha, and that they do in no way agree with what was said by Lekisongo, who keeps pretending that he can represent them. The councillor for Malambo and laigwanani, Clement Joel Reson, said that in Sale division the traditional leaders had been waiting in vain for the PM to visit, and then they see how he shows up in Arusha to discuss Ngorongoro with people not from Ngorongoro.  

On 12^th March, the Ngorongoro laigwanak, traditional leaders, held a press conference to denounce Majaliwa’s spectacle. The message was that they will sue Lekisongo in a court of law for repeatedly and fraudulently claiming to represent them while speaking in favour of the government’s relocation plans. They also denounced Ndumbaro’s talk that they would be from Sudan. The laigwanak declared that no ward, village, or traditional leaders had been involved in any Handeni plans.

All journalists were unable to cover this press conference due to restrictions from Majaliwa!

On 13^th March, Majaliwa visted Msomera village in Handeni where houses are being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro. It would be interesting to know if it’s the COVID-19 funds mentioned in the leaked document from January that are being used.

Now it’s said that Majaliwa will very soon visit Ngorongoro. I’ll write a new blog post about that.

Update 15th March: Majaliwa's visit has been postponed. 

The anti-Maasai hate campaign does not stop

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, this year has seen a vicious anti-Maasai hate campaign conducted by Habib Mchange of the Jamvi la Habari below-gutter tabloid, known for fabrications and slander of opposition politicians, and for starting numerous “organisations” to quote himself as their representative. Another member is the sports presenter, turned frontpage reviewer, Maulid Kitenge, who shortly after having joined the hate campaign was in Ngorongoro on a first time visit with his colleague Oscar Oscar in a NCAA vehicle. Anything Kitenge sees: a cow, an elephant, a modern building, or his own shadow will make him scream like a pig in heat that the Maasai must be evicted from NCA. The main “arguments” of this hate movement is that the Maasai are too many, that their livestock are owned by “rich people from elsewhere” fabricating some baseless anti-Kenyan paranoia, that they are living like animals, being eaten by predators, and that there aren’t any graves in NCA! Other members are the editor of the old anti-Maasai newspaper, the Jamhuri, Deusdatus Balile who added some lurid colonial fantasies about Maasai burial practices to a well-funded press conference by this group.

Balile’s colleague in the Jamhuri, Manyerere Jackton, in well over 50 articles has been spewing out unhinged hate rhetoric against the Maasai of Loliondo, and campaigned for taking the 1,500 km² away from them. He has claimed that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private persons that his “sources” consider to be “Kenyan”. His slandering of those speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for land rights, has been vicious and insane. Even worse is that I’ve experienced first-hand how he likes to boast about being directly involved in arrests of innocent people.

Most shameful is how other media - including Deutsche Welle Kiswahili – have treated this anti-Maasai hate group and their organisation “MECIRA” as some kind of legitimate conservation actors.

Though one news outlet, Darmpya online news, are asking questions, like how come the “allowances” for attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and for what purpose. There are also many Tanzanians online who have spoken up against the hate campaign.

Further, Kitenge has shared a photo of himself visiting PM Majaliwa …

Kitenge visiting Majaliwa. Birds of feather ...

Even worse was of course the spectacle in parliament on  9^th February when the atmosphere was such that the crazier hateful lies a parliamentarian spewed out against the Maasai, the more laughter and table banging there was, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to their Instagram page uploaded clips of the most hateful MPs, in case anyone thought they are just deranged individuals who happen to be members of parliament. Only three parliamentarians, all Maasai, spoke up against this hate feast that was followed by a one-sided “seminar” to educate the MP, in which to same behaviour just went on.

Lately, a briefer version of a clip uploaded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in September has again been shared online. I wrote about this clip at the time, in which Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, on a visit to NCAA complains about having seen livestock, and chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war that they aren’t fighting for their own interest, but for the nation. He says that the pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and that they sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists must “start” developing conspiracies. As if he hadn’t already in the restrictions and abuse of the Ngorongoro Maasai, and in his “workshops for editors and senior reporters”. Basically, everyone from Ngorongoro is convinced that Manongi is behind the current hate propaganda. Remember that the clip isn’t even any leaked secret plan, but something used to show off, or get sympathy.

On 22^nd February a new article was published by the old anti-Loliondo “journalist”, Manyerere Jackton, who after over 50 articles full of defamation and fabrications, toned down his campaign for OBC when the director, Isaack Mollel, spent some time in remand prison for “economic sabotage”. This time without mentioning names, except for mine, he attacks those who work against Majaliwa’s plans to “save” Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and parrots what he was told in one of Manongi’s workshops. In the past, this individual has described me as an international spy who gets billions of money from those who’ve sent me to destroy the Serengeti ecosystem, among other deranged fabrications. In this latest article Manyerere claims that in Loliondo Majaliwa reprimanded people who spread hate propaganda, including one foreign national who has been deported twice, and who in social media tarnishes Tanzania and her own critics. I haven’t been able to get hold of anyone else who heard this, but the “journalist” knows that the PM was referring to me, and he even spells my name correctly. Though instead of linking to my blog, he can’t abstain from the baseless fabrication of describing me as an important fundraiser for Loliondo NGOs, when the truth is that I’ve never fundraised one shilling for the NGOs, and totally lack any skill for making people give away money. It’s how this “journalist” works. He lies all the time, even about unimportant issues. Though so much worse than this is how he has sent me triumphant one-liner emails when innocent people are about to get arrested in the Loliondo police state. I hope to some day meet Manyerere Jackton in a court of law about this.

President selling Tanzania in Dubai

At the end of February, President Samia attended the Dubai Expo 2020 and signed a US$7.49 billionbusiness partnership deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Here’s photo of her and OBC’s hunter, the UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

There’s a lot more to report about this, but I’m already afraid that nobody will read this blog post.

Government kills the Thomson Safaris case in the court of appeal

The government is moving forward all over the district in its efforts to hand over Maasai land to “investors”, or what’s in their terminology is called, “the broader interest of the nation”. The American Thomson Safaris, owned by Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland claim their own private Enashiva Nature Refuge in the villages of Sukenya and Mondorosi, or Soitsambu before the sub-division of villages. They base this claim on having bought the right of occupancy from Tanzania Breweries that cultivated a small part of it in the 1980s and then, using forged documents, got a 99-year right of occupancy in 2003, selling it to Thomson in 2006. The right of occupancy was for 10,000 acres that somehow was turned into 12,617 acres (51 km²) before selling it to Thomson. Though most of all this land grab is based on the Loliondo police state and Thomson’s way of learning and perfecting OBC’s strategies of how to use it for divide and rule, violence, threats and defamation via the DC, security committee, and government officials. Besides the local Maasai, several journalists have experienced how this local police state work for Thomson, and so have I.

In 2013, at the height of unity and seriousness in Loliondo, Land Case 26 of 2013 was filed: Mondorosi Village Council, Sukenya Village Council and Soitsambu Village Council versus Tanzania Breweries Ltd, Tanzania Conservation Ltd (Thomson Safaris), Ngorongoro District Council, the Commissioner for Lands, and the Attorney General. An earlier case had been dismissed on a technicality. In 2015 the High Court in Arusha, ruled against the Maasai on all points except a minor one concerning TBL adding 2,617 acres. Since then, this case has continued in the court of appeal. To my sadness and frustration, since 2016 it has been basically impossible to get any updates from the ground. The local police state worsened considerably, and even more so to silence those speaking up about Thomson Safaris that also affect a smaller area than OBC. Occasionally I hear from people who talk about harassment of herders, without explaining well, and then they go offline for years, literally.

As mentioned in earlier posts, in 2021 the new DED Mhina started working hard to make the village chairmen withdraw the cases against OBC and against Thomson Safaris. He almost succeeded with the heavily compromised chairmen of the villages that have sued Thomson Safaris who declared that they would sign the DED’s letter of withdrawal, but then they changed their mind, and such a letter never reached the court.

This year, late-January, out of court negotiations failed. Thomson Safaris and the government only wanted to discuss the 2,617 acres, and then only pointing out borderline areas, so the case continued until 18^th February when the Solicitor representing the Attorney General who was in the case one of the respondents stood before the Court and claimed to have been representing both parties (the appellants and the respondents) and as such, the government (the respondent) has no interest in the Appeal.

The same prayer was brought to the East Africa Court of Justice in Application no 15 of 2017 (arising from Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania) and was overruled. Unlike the East African Court, the Court of Appeal of Tanzania without affording the appellants the right to be heard, dismissed the appeal

This was based on legislation introduced under Magufuli to do away with all separation of power, so that local governments can’t sue the central government, but it should not be possible to use this on a case filed before the law came into operation. Still, the court ruled that there wasn’t a case, and the lawyers to the villages weren’t even added to the records. Now a new case must be filed. The ruthless hypocrites must be forced to move their very private nature refuge to Boston, USA.

There’s too much to write about, I have probably missed something important, and everyone’s too busy. I hope it’s because those who want to rob the Maasai of their land will soon be stopped …

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

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

Remember:

In Loliondo OBC, that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km² of important grazing land, village land belonging to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area. A local police state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from NCA.

In NCA, an 8,292 km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the purposeful poverty-inducing rule and restrictions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and since 2019 there’s a genocidal eviction plan, that extends to annexing some surrounding areas, the area under threat in Loliondo included. Current government efforts focus on “voluntary” relocation and disinformation, while an ethnic hate campaign rages in media and in parliament.

A question: How can allies of the Maasai be stopped from mixing up NCA and Loliondo, from claiming that OBC would have left in 2017, from saying that there were evictions in Loliondo in 2013, and other misinformation that keep being repeated, again and again?

The meeting in Arash and the CCM arrest/abduction

In the previous blog post I mentioned that despite the protests in January, after the years of panicked silence and abysmal treason, Loliondo Maasai are still so much more silent than those in Ngorongoro division, even when both Ndumbaro and Majaliwa have lied in threatening ways about the 1,500 km² of important grazing land bordering Serengeti National Park, which OBC that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, for years have lobbied the government to convert into a protected area. Though on 19^th March this silence was broken in an impressive way, which lead to more repression.

On 19^th March, a huge gathering – some mention 3,000 attendants from 8 wards in Loliondo and Sale divisions, and others from Ngorongoro divisions – was held in Arash in Loliondo. The press was conspicuously absent, but some local youths had prepared themselves to film the event

The message sent from this meeting was:

-PM Majaliwa is a liar.

-The Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.

-They request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.

The fraudster and imposter Isaack Lekisongo Meijo, an individual from Monduli district, near Arusha town, who repeatedly and fraudulently has misrepresented the Ngorongoro Maasai was finally condemned in a traditional way. In October 2021, Lekisongo at President Samia’s meeting with the public at Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium was presented as the leader of the Tanzanian Maasai, while defending evictions from Ngorongoro. A press conference was held by traditional leaders from Ngorongoro to denounce this imposter, and then they held a meeting with him to sort things out, but after the meeting Lekisongo told the press that the Ngorongoro laigwanak had come to apologize to him! On 10^th March 2022, Lekisongo at a spectacle in Arusha repeated his misrepresentation of Ngorongoro when PM Majaliwa announced a list of Ngorongoro people, none of whom were still living in Ngorongoro, that were “volunteering” to relocate to Handeni. Only one of the attendants to this fake spectacle, which Majaliwa then boasted about in parliament, was originally from Ngorongoro. The Ngorongoro laigwanak once again had to hold a press conference to denounce Lekisongo. On 18^th March, while celebrating one year of Samia Suluhu Hassan’s presidency and its many successes, RC Mongella – whose threatening visit in January finally brought Loliondo people out from where they were hiding, in a delusional style brought up how he’s working with local people to strengthen conservation in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. The indispensable imposter Lekisongo was of course present and dressed up Mongella in a kind of Maasai outfit.

This is how a curse was placed on Lekisongo in Arash on 19^th March. I’ve asked why this treatment hasn’t been given to so many other people who have been threatening the land through the years. Apparently, it has, but without broadcasting.

The councillor of Arash, Methew Siloma, refreshingly explained that the Maasai were not asking anyone for any permit to hold this meeting. He said that (regarding both NCA and Loliondo) it had been decided to form a committee of 25 representatives (the number has grown since then) to collect the views of the public and take them to the president, not any minister. He said they didn’t have any faith at all in PM Majaliwa, since he’s a liar who claims that the Maasai would agree to the alienation of the 1,500 km² osero in Loliondo. Further, Siloma made it clear that the Maasai would not cooperate with any person our authority trying to demarcate the 1,500 km² with beacons. Compared to Siloma’s disappointing time as district chairman when he not only was a coward at a time when everyone was a coward but set the discouraging mark already in 2017 accepting German funds that the councillors, after Minister Maghembe had announced that these funds carried the condition of implementing OBC’s land use plan (which led to a manifestation by 600 women), had decided not to accept, this was a very serious and impressive statement.

Siloma could of course not be allowed to speak the truth. On 23^rd March he and the councillor for Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, who also has been speaking up in an admirable way, were summoned to the ethics committee at the CCM office in Loliondo. Siloma was summoned via a letter from CCM signed by the party secretary of Ngorongoro District, Abubakar Chati. After the interrogation, police entered the CCM office and arrested Siloma who was abducted and driven all the way to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service). On 25^th March, Siloma was finally released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police.

The trap.

The Ngorongoro CCM chairman, Ndirango Laizer, spoke up for Siloma and is now having his citizenship questioned by Immigration. This is the most classic abuse by the Loliondo police state. I encountered it before I had even heard about this local police state (and before becoming a blogger) in 2008 when a friend of Thomson Safaris told me that their problem was a “Kenyan” Maasai woman (later I got to know that this referred to a very Tanzanian woman who has been very much harassed). Now even the very Tanzanian CCM district chairman since 2018 is being harassed, accused of being “Kenyan”.

The victims of this repression (the CCM leaders) aren’t exactly innocent, but enablers of the system who were targeted when they finally decided that enough was enough. In the past, the party has often saved Loliondo leaders, and the land, from the government, but now they are being arrested by CCM. It may be time to say goodbye to this party once and for all (but it will hardly happen).

Since some time, there are two local Loliondo NGO representatives, Robert Kamakia and Loserian Maoi, who are being harassed about a “cybercrime” and are now being summoned to the Arusha central police station almost daily. In a Loita group they called someone a “sell-out” and this person confirmed it by running to the police. Maybe I should write a blog post about all the things I’ve been called.

More disconcerting in Arash on the 19^th was the talk by the councillor of Ololosokwan, Moloimet Saing’eu, who spoke up for the land as if he were an activist since forever. This individual used to occasionally act as an activist until he in 2015 joined OBC as their assistant director with the explanation, “If you can’t beat them, join them”! So, he just spent the years of most silence, and abuse, comfortably working for the enemy, fully aware of OBC’s long-time lobbying for land alienation, which had led to so much fear and violence. He just continued through the illegal mass arson invasion of village land in 2017, and in 2018 – the year of worst terror, and after the anti-OBC talk by Minister Kigwangalla was forgotten (at least by the minister himself), he reinforced OBC’s love relation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism handing over 15 vehicles on the company’s behalf in April 2018. This blogger was basically the only person calling a spade a spade when speaking up about the unbelievable treason, which made me unpopular among Moloimet’s fans, to put it mildly. After the 2020 “elections” Moloimet became the councillor for Ololosokwan. In 2021 he left OBC. Some say he was laid off, since they didn’t “trust” him, while others (closer to him) say that he had to distance himself from OBC to fulfil his political ambitions. And indeed, also at this meeting Moloimet complained about how CCM are blocking the election (by councillors) of new district chairperson after Oleshangay became MP for Ngorongoro. Apparently, being a traitor hasn’t cost Moloimet anything at all.

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

Since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km² Loliondo hunting blocks (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate scandal covered by Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, and agricultural areas, so OBC have lobbied to have it reduced to their core hunting area bordering Serengeti National Park, and to make it a protected area, which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

In 2008, then DC Jowika Kasunga coerced local leaders into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km² osero was illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.

The Maasai moved back, and some leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the village land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united, and the draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

In 2013, Minister Kagasheki lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km²meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This ugly trick did not work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped Kagasheki (not that anyone thought that Kagasheki was doing this on his own, but he did show enthusiasm).

Then the efforts to buy off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land. Though nobody signed any MoU.

The investors (OBC and ThomsonSafaris) had for years used the local police state that through the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will threaten anyone who could speak up about them, and engage in defamation and illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with Magufuli in office, and there were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical areas” under protests in each village. The proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad compromise that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

Maybe since the Maasai showed such weakness, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision, on 13^th August 2017 an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested loudly. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

The illegal operation wasn’t stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would have left Tanzania before 2018, but it was very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri). Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, and would of course be contempt of court.

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince), and in April OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually made permanent with donations from the NCAA.

In June 2018, the OCCID and local police tried to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for the applicants' main counsel. On 25^th September 2018 – a year after the illegal operation - the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated. In November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by President Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC toned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out and back to work, reportedly after plea bargaining. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

In September 2019, a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km² and turn it into a protected area allowing hunting was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ.

On 11^th January 2022, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km², or to sign the attendance list, which could have been used to claim that they’d agreed to something. On 13^th-14^th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected, because of the crazy anti-Maasai hate campaign, and parliamentarians calling for tanks to be sent to Ngorongoro.

Three days later, on 17^thFebruary in NCA, not Loliondo, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then Ndumbaro on 8^thMarch re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with Deutsche Welle Kiswahili, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

Placing beacons to mark the 1,500 km² osero would be a serious invasion of village land, contempt of court, and only serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. Any attempt must be dealt with without delay!

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now set to be the Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

Abdulrahman Kinana and Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai on 24^th March 2018

Yesterday, 6^th April the new minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo, but I haven’t got any details about this part of the visit.

New “article” by OBC’s “journalist”

On 5th April, the frontpage of the Jamhuri weekly “newspaper” carried the images of several ministers for natural resources and tourism and poses misleadingly the question about what had them removed from that Ministry. Tanzanians like to comment on why no minister lasts long at the head of this ministry, it’s an issue that raises some interest. Though reading the article, it’s obvious that Manyerere is just urging the new minister Pindi Chana to destroy the Maasai of Ngorongoro district, particularly (and unsurprisingly) those in Loliondo.

The “journalist” is once again singling out the ministers that came after those most aggressive and anti-Maasai, as if those would have been more corrupt than others: Maige who replaced Mwangunga under whom the illegal mass arson operation of 2009 was committed, Nyalandu who replaced Kagasheki who in an aggressive way was trying to via vociferous lies have the 1,500 km2 osero, according to OBC’s wishes, stolen from the Loliondo Maasai, and Kigwangalla who replaced Maghembe under whom the illegal mass arson operation of 2017 was committed, and who even spoke up against OBC for a few days until he U-turned. Kigwangalla openly complained that OBC’s director had tried to bribe him more cheaply than he bribed is predecessors. Further, Manyerere paints Khamis Suedi Kagasheki as an anti-corruption example … innocent of Operation Tokomeza (he even became internationally popular for calling for extrajudicial executions before this blood-soaked operation) and claims that unnamed MPs with cattle in Serengeti National Park wanted him removed. OBC’s “journalist” complains that PM Pinda putting stop to Kagasheki’s terrible threats against the Maasai made the conflict last …

Manyerere has told every lie imaginable, and unimaginable, about Loliondo, and in this “article” he repeats Kagasheki’s lie that the Loliondo Maasai are landless and that robbing them of the 1,500 km² means giving them 2,500 km². Besides reaching the target of 5 million tourists by 2025, the “journalist”, says that Pindi Chana must deal with “saving” NCA and Loliondo, for which she has the blessing of President Samia.

Manyerere Jackton, in well over 50 articles has been spewing out unhinged hate rhetoric against the Maasai of Loliondo, and campaigned for taking the 1,500 km² away from them. He has claimed that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private persons that his “sources” consider to be “Kenyan”. His slandering of those speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for land rights, has been vicious and insane. This year, the Jamhuri joined Habib Mchange and Maulid Kitenge is their hate campaign against the Maasai, and Manyerere’s colleague, Balile, introduced lurid colonial fantasies about Maasai burial practises. Even worse is that I’ve experienced first-hand how Manyerere likes to boast about being directly involved in arrests of innocent people.

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

Public services such as water projects, classrooms, and dispensaries have been used against the land rights of the Loliondo Maasai. In the form of charitable projects by the investors that want to alienate and manage land, notably OBC and Thomson Safaris, such projects have always been used as a dirty weapon of war, to be able to say, “look they accept us and our plans, since they accept our projects”. It would have been a relief, that as it should be, the government is doing something, if it weren’t because now the government is using the same ugly weapon. For non-Tanzanians, I may need to clarify that the word “government”, and not “state”, is always used, clad in green as the CCM ruling party, and inspections and inaugurations of development projects are invariably accompanied by embarrassingly stupid shouting and answering in chorus so that nobody will miss that its Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan who should be thanked for the good use of taxpayer or donor money.

At his meeting in NCA on 17^thFebruary, as mentioned in several previous blog posts, PM Majaliwa winded up by talking about Loliondo in a way that he hadn’t done when in Loliondo three days earlier, ordering the of placing beacons to demarcate the disputed 1,500 km²“so that we know what land we are talking about(!)”. He also mentioned water projects outside this area as solving problems when he very clearly, on the 14^th, had been told about this land’s importance for grazing. Unsurprisingly, on 1^st-2^ndMarch, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Jumaa Aweso, visited Loliondo to announce water project, which was filmed in action mode. This was brought up at the RC’s one-year celebration of President Samia, in which he claimed to be strengthening conservation in Loliondo and Ngorongoro, and then was dressed up by the multiple-times condemned and exposed imposter Lekisongo.

Lately Edward Kohi from TAWIRI (this case is unsurprising) and Ngorongoro livestock officer Chobi Chubwa (also not surprising) have lent themselves to the campaign to rob the Maasai of the 1,500 km² osero. The current reasons listed by the proponents of this old land grab proposal that would cause massive destruction to lives and livelihoods are: Saving corridors and breeding grounds for wildebeests. Protecting the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. Biodiversity and saving water sources for Serengeti. The area’s value for tourism. The areas importance for national borders. And - public services via the government and investors.

Does this mean that there are land alienation conditions for public services? Last time I heard about that was in relation to German funds that Maghembe and Mwakilema (current head of TANAPA) in March 2017 told a parliamentary committee (and very much the press) would only be released on condition of turning the 1,500 km² into a protected area, which wasn’t denied by the Germans until two years later by representatives of the development bank in an interview with Chris Lang. When Kigwangalla in November 2017 revealed that the funds had been accepted despite of a decision by all councillors to reject them in March the same year (after big protests) then MP Olenasha said there wasn’t any danger, since the 1,500 km² would not be excluded from the development projects, but as far as I’ve been able to find out, nothing has been done there the past five years.

It should be remembered that we are talking about is the same as extending the boundaries of Serengeti National Park, but allowing hunting (the reason for OBC’s lobbying), which in land grab lingo is called a “buffer zone” and not a “corridor” or anything else. If the land were taken away from the Maasai, these people would continue wanting more “buffer zone”. It should also be remembered that the main breeding grounds for wildebeest are found further south in Ndutu. The logic behind evicting people in this area to guard the national border escapes me, but I suppose the answer would be some paranoia about “Kenyans”, even if this north-south stretching area of Loliondo is a tiny part of the border with their scary republic. As known, one main point by the current anti-Maasai campaign (and the old Loliondo police state) is that all protests are caused by “Kenyan” organisations that want to destroy Ngorongoro to benefit their own tourism industry.

Being a government authority, the NCAA used to weaponize development projects in the same way as unethical investors do, like when the chairman of the Pastoral Council in 2019, shortly after having spoken up about the MLUM review proposal, was touring Olbalbal ward together with NCA chief conservator Manongi, the main promoter of the genocidal proposal, promising development projects. This makes any person look compromised. However, since 2021 the NCAA are blocking any construction of public services. Schools and dispensaries are not getting permits. Classrooms have been built with COVID-19 funds in Loliondo and Sale divisions, but not in Ngorongoro. In the short-term plan for “voluntary” relocations to Handeni and Kitwai, which was leaked in January, it’s said that permission will be sought to use COVID-19 funds allocated for the development of projects to instead relocate Ngorongoro Maasai. I still haven’t found out where the funds for the building of houses in Handeni come from.

Much of the rhetoric about Handeni concerns public services, when it’s the NCAA itself that’s blocking those in Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Regarding Handeni, Majaliwa has said that – unlike in Ngorongoro – the Maasai would have electricity in Msomera. Is that impossible in Ngorongoro? Ndumbaro, when meeting with foreign diplomats on 25^thMarch was saying that in Msomera the Maasai would be given land with title deeds, which is not possible in Ngorongoro. This is the same minister who during the anti-Maasai hate session in parliament said that all land in Tanzania is owned by the president and had to be corrected by the speaker. Ndumbaro has also gravely lied about the land status in Loliondo, and now he’s Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

The message from the NCAA and MNRT is that Msomera is so much better than Ngorongoro for the Maasai, but the only thing that’s better is that NCAA isn’t there with its restrictions, harassment, and blocking of public services. Ngorongoro is home, it has a better climate, and a bigger, less densely populated area. Those moving to Msomera will live together with villagers they don’t know and who have not been consulted about getting thousands of new neighbours, and it seems like they aren’t organized enough to question what’s going on. What could go wrong? It can’t even be said that NCAA isn’t there, since it’s a NCAA project, led by well-known malicious liars.

Brief summary of NCA, including latest news

When the Maasai were evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, losing access to over 14,000 km2, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying the 8,292 km² Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest.

The Maasai in the 25 villages in NCA live under restrictions not found in Loliondo, are not allowed to grow crops, or build permanent houses, have the past years been losing access to one grazing area after the other, and as a result are suffering from high levels of child malnutrition, while throughout the years they have been shaken by rumours and threats of eviction. In 1975 those residing in Ngorongoro Crater were brutally evicted (the NCA Act was changed in 1974), and in 2017 – by order and after a visit by Majaliwa in December 2016 - the Maasai lost access to the three craters (see below).The current threat was announced in September 2019, when chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public the Multiple Land Use Model review report’s proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District.

There have been uncountable protests and delegations against the MLUM review proposal, and several promises from the government to do the exercise afresh in a “participatory” manner, but then the same genocidal proposal has been repeated.

Shortly after taking office in March 2021, in a speech on 6^th April President Samia said that something had to be done about too many people and livestock, or it was “bye, bye Ngorongoro”. Little more than a week later, demolition notices were made public, ordering the demolition within 30 days of over a hundred buildings, private houses, but also those built by the government, like schools, dispensaries, and the Endulen police station. Two churches and a mosque were included. Further, 45 people accused of having returned from Jema to where they were relocated in 2006, were ordered to leave, and so were 174 families deemed to be “illegal immigrants”. After big protests these demolition and eviction notices were withdrawn until further notice.

In May 2021, the NCAA headquarters were abruptly relocated to Karatu. Then, the first days of June, Manongi and NCAA held a promotional event on parliament grounds in Dodoma, handing out goodie bags with t-shirts, leaflets, and whatever. On 30^th June, deputy minister Mary Masanja flew to Ngorongoro with 35 MPs for domestic tourism.

On 3^rd September 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and tourism uploaded a video in which Deputy Minister Mary Masanja complains about having seen livestock, and chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war, that the pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists must “start” developing conspiracies.

On 6^th September, under heavy police deployment and with several arrests to prevent any kind of protest, President Samia came to Ngorongoro to film the documentary The Royal Tour. She has still not met with Ngorongoro people. There is a petition against this documentary.

In August and September 2021, NCAA rangers assaulted several young herders and killed four sheep with a vehicle, which led to protests on 23^rd September, which lasted for several days. An uprising seemed to be on the way, but then everything was put on hold when MP Olenasha sadly passed away on 27^th September.

Also in September 2021, the Germans were having a nice time with deputy minister Masanja and – again - giving away millions for sustainable natural resource and ecological sustainability development in the Serengeti ecosystem

On 17^th October President Samia held a speech in Arusha talking about how important Ngorongoro is for tourism and that “we” can’t continue considering people’s interests while destroying it. She was accompanied and supported by the imposter Lekisongo.

2022 started with a leaked plan – apparently written on New Year’s Eve - for “voluntary” evictions from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to be fully prepared to begin in February.

Then, as mentioned above, on 11^th January RC Mongella visited Loliondo and issued a land alienation threat that made even the biggest traitors speak up.

Habib Mchange’s Jamvi la Habari paper, that focuses on fabrications and slander of opposition politicians, initiated a hate campaign against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social media, was joined by crazed sports presenters, Maulid Kitenge and friends, and later (or from the start?) the old anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper with Deusdatus Balile and Manyerere Jackton. These “journalists” started an organization with its sole focus on evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro and were treated as serious actors by other media. Though Tanzanians in social media who had earlier not paid much attention to Ngorongoro saw what was going on, were appalled, and started speaking up.

In parliament on 9^thFebruary MPs competed in being wilfully ignorant, hateful, and calling for evictions from Ngorongoro, and Loliondo, there was much laughter and table banging, while only three MPs spoke up for the Maasai. Majaliwa said that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act would be reviewed, but first there was to be a seminar for the MPs and he would meet with people in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism uploaded some of the worst clips of MPs. On 12^th February a one-sided “seminar” about Ngorongoro was held for the MPs who continued their hateful and defamatory incitement against the Maasai.

On the 13^th the new anti-Maasai organisation held a loathsome press conference, adding to their many crazed and dehumanizing “theories” one saying that there were no graves in Ngorongoro. The Darmpya online news, are asking questions, like how come the “allowances” for attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and for what purpose.

In NCA people many people stopped sleeping and started praying incessantly.

On 17^th February Majaliwa held a brief agenda-driven meeting at the NCA hall, for leaders and closed to the public. There was confusion and thorough registering of the attendants. Two journalists were arrested and released later the same day. Those who were locked out stayed outside the hall singing.

On 5^th March, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, who’s very much involved in the war against the Maasai, brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to Ngorongoro, to celebrate tourism, CCM, or supposedly International Women’s Day. Meanwhile Maasai women climbed Mount Makarot to pray for their land.

On 10^th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai from other areas, without any connection to Ngorongoro, led by the denounced fraudster Lekisongo. The PM was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. All had already left the district years ago and are apparently now looking for compensation money. The following day the PM boasted about this meeting in parliament, and on the 12^th real traditional leaders from Ngorongoro held a press conference to denounce the fraud, but journalist didn’t want to cover it after having been advised otherwise by Majaliwa.

On 13^th March, Majaliwa made a much-publicised visit to Msomera village in Handeni where houses are hurriedly being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro, without consulting them, and apparently without consulting people from Msomera that’s a legally registered village, with its land use plan. Majaliwa was to visit Ngorongoro on the 15^th, but it was postponed.

On 29^th March it was reported that NCAA vehicles with armed rangers were driving around in Alailelai ward in an intimidating way, and later did the same in Endulen. The following day the behaviour was reported from Olbalbal, and it has continued in other areas.

NCAA informers are reportedly moving around trying to convince people to register to be relocated. Most (all in the first list that was made public) who are doing so have already left and are now looking for compensation money.

On 25^th March Ndumbaro met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and on the 31^st President Samia replaced him with Pinda Hazara Chana.

On 3^rd April, the NCAA had found some real traitors to show off, unlike the previous imposters/actors from other places than Ngorongoro, even if long-gone or unknown people are still looking for a compensation deal. And they are of course not traitors for wanting to relocate, but for lending themselves to the dirty war against their own people, thanking President Samia Suluhu Hassan. I will return to these people, but their argument for being “thankful” for the dubious Handeni project is all about the problems that NCAA are causing in Ngorongoro, and then they lend themselves to NCAA’s propaganda, some to the latest addition to the false government narrative that in this recent form says that land rights defenders would be denying people the human right of moving to Handeni … The worst one, part of the richest NCA 1%, had her 300-million TShs house on last year’s list for demolition without compensation and was supposed to demolish at her own expense (the order that was stopped until further notice). Now she’s registered for compensation, but I doubt she’ll live in Handeni, but rather in the Kwa Iddi area of Arusha.

A committee of representatives from Ngorongoro are writing a report with community views. This has been criticized as dancing to Majaliwa’s tune. Even if the main point would be that the PM is a dangerous liar who should be fired, he will in some way present it as if people support him. Though at the meeting in Arash, councillor Siloma said that this report would be taken to the president and not any minister. On 4^th April, the committee that apparently has grown to about 60 members issued a press statement urging Minister Pindi Chana to start working on Ngorongoro land disputes by doing the following: “to stop smear campaigns and vile propaganda against the people of Ngorongoro especially those from the Maasai ethnic group, secondly to stop all on-going activities and give the opportunity for member of the society to be heard, third to ban intimidation and arbitrary arrests of innocent members of the society, community leaders, and human rights defenders who are working tirelessly to defend the rights of the society, to stop harassment against independent journalists who are doing a noble job to inform the public about the situation in Ngorongoro, four, to ban any malicious utterance against members of the Ngorongoro society branding them non-Tanzanians, five to order provision of basic services to the people of Ngorongoro division, six to meet with members of this committee and to start to collectively strategize on the way forward.”

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

On 21^st March, UNESCO issued a statement regarding Ngorongoro saying, “UNESCO has never at any time asked for the displacement of the Maasai people.” This is said by the main instigator for evictions and worsened living conditions. While there are other actors operating in the shadows, like tourism industry, other international organizations, and “Germans”, the Tanzania government has through the years used UNESCO’s threats of delisting Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a World Heritage Site, its repeated population panic, and distaste for agriculture of any kind, or “modern” buildings, as an excuse to worsen the human rights situation. As late as 15^th March, Tanzania’s worst long-term anti-Maasai “newspaper”, the Jamhuri, wrote about how UNESCO support the government’s eviction plans. Not that this is a credible source in any way, very much the contrary, but other evidence is overwhelming.

When the Multiple Land Use Model review proposal was presented in September 2019, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had once again visited Ngorongoro in March the same year and in their report repeated that they wanted the MLUM review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. They did also recommend the State Party to continue to, “promote and encourage voluntary resettlement by communities, consistent with the policies of the Convention and relevant international norms, from withing the property to outside by 2028”.  As known, unlike recommendations about vehicles, the MNRT loves this kind of recommendation, and the resulting MLUM review proposal was so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District.

The MLUM review report proposes to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti and Empakaai where grazing these past few years has been banned through order (residents in Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted in 1975 after a change in the Act in 1974). This has led to losing 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards. The proposal is to do the same with Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts, like Selela forest and Engaruka historical site) and the 1,500 km² in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost perfectly to the wishes of OBC. Only 18% of NCA would remain for people and livestock. Is there any sincere person who would dare to say that this can be achieved through “voluntary” relocations?

I should plough through all UNESCO’s writing about Ngorongoro, and will do so when I get the time, but I’ve had a look at their decision about Ngorongoro in the 44^th session of the “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage World Heritage Committee” from July 2021. Still in this decision UNESCO are requesting the State Party to provide information about “the status of agricultural activities in the property” when even the smallest kitchen garden has been banned since 2009, because of UNESCO’s repeated “deep concern” which has led to malnourishment. They continue being concerned with, “challenges resulting from the significant increase in the number of people residing in the property since its inscription”

UNESCO has never expressed any concern, deep or otherwise, about that the MLUM review proposes a cultural genocide. When you keep inciting an authoritarian government that values tourism revenue above human rights, is prone to violence and lawlessness, and full of pathological liars, to do something about too many people, you’re complicit to crime, however much you keep mentioning consultations with stakeholders and rightsholders, and international norms.

UNESCO’s general secretary in Tanzania, Dr Hamisi M. Malebo, on 28^th February in a zoom meeting about developments in the tourism sector with one year of Samia Suluhu Hassan as president, explained that children in Ngorongoro can’t go to school and mothers can’t fetch firewood safely for the risk of being snatched by wild animals like lions, leopards and hyenas (in the original version he mentioned cheetahs as well ..), so UNESCO’s recommendation to the government is to find the Maasai other places to live to avoid these challenges. He didn’t say anything about that NCAA should stop blocking the construction of schools.

It's good that UNESCO have been rattled to the extent of writing that statement, or are they just trying to wash their image because they know that a crime that they support, and even have instigated, could be committed?

My recommendation to UNESCO is to delist Ngorongoro as soon as possible and then shut forever up about Maasai land.

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

On 25^th March in Dar es Salaam, Minister Ndumbaro met with ambassadors, heads of international organisations, and development stakeholders to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo. Very little of what he said has been shared online, but what’s available is all about the construction of houses in Handeni to where people will be “voluntarily” moved. Ndumbaro insisted on that it’s against human rights to prevent anyone from leaving Ngorongoro. Who has prevented anyone from leaving Ngorongoro? The threat is, obviously, very much the other way.  I’m worried about what Ndumbaro could have said about Loliondo, since he has earlier engaged in very dangerous lies about the status of the land that OBC lobby to have alienated from the Maasai. It was reported that the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Liberata Mulamula, insisted on how important it was to give the ambassadors correct information, since there were fabrications by people inside and outside the country (which is sadly true, but the fabrications by the government side are both wilder and more dangerous, and the government’s main worry is about those telling the truth).

Also reported was that the German ambassador, Regina Hess, supported the government's efforts to protect conservation and the environment in the Ngorongoro area to address the impacts of climate change. Several people, this blogger included, have since 26^thMarch sought confirmation in social media if it’s true that the ambassador, and Germany, support the government’s eviction plan, but there still hasn’t been any kind of reply. Germany does have a long history of working against Maasai land rights, through Frankfurt Zoological Society, and of staying silent when Tanzanian government officials claim to have German support against the Maasai, like in the case of development fund subject to the condition of alienating the 1,500 km² in Loliondo (see above). The German Embassy doesn’t say anything, but on 5^th April, the MNRT published a picture of the new minister Pindi Chana handing over a gift to Ambassador Hess who was visiting her office in Dodoma to discuss cooperation to improve the tourism sector.

The Germans must be stopped!

Support by Kenyan senator

The Kenyan senator Ledama Olekina of Narok County on 22^rd March, in senate proceedings warned that if evicted, Maasai from Loliondo and Ngorongoro are likely to seek refuge in Narok and Kajiado counties, and that they will be very welcome, but straining the counties' economy. The senator has also tweeted calling on the government of Samia Suluhu Hassan to stop any eviction plans, and participated he in a Twitter Space about Ngorongoro. In 2017 Ledama Olekina, during the illegal mass arson invasion of village land, took a delegation from Ololosokwan to meet with the then leader of Kenyan opposition, Raila Odinga, a close friend of President Magufuli, and Raila phoned his friend, which was followed by, maybe causing, the replacing of Maghembe with Kigwangalla.

Someday I must write a blog post about how incomprehensible cross-border solidarity is to many Tanzanians, notably government supporters. One sorry anti-Maasai example, with good command of English, interpreted the senator’s word as “proof” that Ngorongoro was full of Kenyans. He just couldn’t understand that the senator was talking about Tanzanians.

Bye, bye Ndumbaro

The removal of Ndumbaro as Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism is good news. He was a shameless liar, an anti-pastoralist, and maybe also authentically stupid. However, his deputy Mary Masanja isn’t any better at all, and she stays. Then, obviously, the biggest threats are apparent psychopath (non-professional diagnosis) PM Majaliwa, and President Samia herself. From what I’ve so far heard about Pindi Chana, she seems to be a CCM careerist.

On 2^nd April at the installation of new ministers, the despicable Majaliwa told Chana, after talking about tourism and learning from different countries, “We have conservation work. And you start with Ngorongoro”, and then he laughed. The PM said, “It’s going well. We are educating the pastoralist and they understand. The exercise registering themselves for voluntary relocation is going well.” President Samia commented on Chana’s diplomatic experience as useful in her new function. Some interpret this as that she will be better than Ndumbaro at listening to all sides, while others interpret it as that she will be better at lying to foreign missions and organisations. The former appear to already have been overrun by reality.

As mentioned, on 5^thApril Chana met with the German ambassador. Yesterday, 6^th April, there were reports that she would be in Loliondo, and later in the evening the MNRT quoted her, "I have visited Ngorogoro Conservation Area and Loliondo to see the great work being done to preserve, protect the wildlife, develop tourism activities and rehabilitate the infrastructure that the government has been providing funding for.I thank the NCAA leadership for managing so well and I have seen the great work going on.”She added that the government will continue to ensure that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is protected by all means as one of the most important World Heritage Sites and the source of government revenue from tourism activities. Then Chana of course thanked president Samia for The Royal Tour. 

Leave Ngorongoro in peace!

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

Rest in peace Anny Daniel Laizer. My condolences to family and friends.

In the latest blog post, among several other issues, I mentioned that in addition to decades of other restrictions and harassment, obviously meant to drive the Maasai out of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, since 2021 the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) has been blocking all new, already funded, public service projects. While writing (now long ago), I was asking for more details about what projects were being blocked, and since then such a list has been shared, and later letters were made public in which schools in Ngorongoro Conservation Area were being ordered to send Covid-19 funds already in their accounts to the account of Handeni District Council. On 13^th April, the Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai, spoke up in the national assembly, and in a confident way fought off several intervening ministers.

Update:on 6th May, Lendukai Kimaay, who was one of those writing the report on community views to be handed to PM Majaliwa, was arrested in Karatu and then taken to Arusha for interrogation. He was released on the 7th.

Update: On 6^th May. the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on the government of Tanzania to immediately cease efforts to evict the Maasai people from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Meanwhile, I’m worried that not enough attention is given to protect the 1,500 km²in Loliondo that this year has been seriously threatened by both the Arusha RC, the PM and the former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, and as reported in the latest blog post, in a new turn of the Loliondo police state the councillor of Arash was arrested, or abducted, by his own CCM party for speaking up. On Easter Eve the illegal arrests of councillors continued with those from Malambo, Piyaya, and Maaloni. The councillors of Arash and Malambo must keep reporting to the police. The latest I heard is that the Malambo village chairman and a traditional leader are summoned to the Loliondo police tomorrow, 6th May.

In President Samia’s own “documentary” The Royal Tour, the words about the Maasai were as if preparing for evictions from Ngorongoro, and in a related interview she now also mentioned Loliondo, trying to engage in the usual anti-Loliondo rhetoric by the MNRT and investors, without getting even that right.  

In this blog post:

Blocked public services in Ngorongoro Division

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

NCA developments since 2021

Public services as weapon of war

Intimidation continues, but Loliondo is not back to silence, I hope

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

The Royal Tour

First remember that:

In NCA, an 8,292 km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the purposeful poverty-inducing rule and restrictions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and since 2019 there’s a genocidal eviction plan, that extends to annexing some surrounding areas, the area under threat in Loliondo included. Current government efforts focus on “voluntary” relocation and disinformation, while an ethnic hate campaign rages in media and in parliament. This is about Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District.

In Loliondo OBC, that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km² of important grazing land, village land belonging to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area. This caused illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017. A local police state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from NCA. This concerns Loliondo and parts of Sale divisions of Ngorongoro District.

The interest in Ngorongoro has reached unprecedented levels nationally and internationally, which is good indeed. Though most articles get at least something wrong, while some old misleading articles are circulating again.

Blocked public services in Ngorongoro Division

During the one-party parliamentary debate on the budget estimates of the Prime Minister’s office, on 13^th April, the MP for Ngorongoro brought up the issue of new, already funded public service projects - all of them - being blocked in Ngorongoro division and the money sent to Handeni to where the government want the Maasai to relocate “voluntarily”. One after one, several ministers intervened to say that there are indeed new public service projects in Ngorongoro District (or similar interventions) and Shangai responded with confidence and great patience to their not so innocent ignorance. Those intervening were Innocent Bachungwa, Minister of State in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI), Juma Aweso, Minister of Water and Irrigation, Godwin Mollel, Deputy Minister of Health, and Kundo Methew, Deputy Minister for Communication and Information Technology.

There is a long list of public services in water, education and health for which there are funds, but which since last year are being blocked (not given permits) by NCAA. I was mostly in vain asking for examples for my latest blog post, but now there is a list.

photo

On Easter Sunday, two frankly disgusting letters were revealed, one from DED Jumaa Mhina to the headteachers of Endulen, Misigyo, and Essere primary schools, and another one from the same to the Embarway, Nainokanoka, and Ngorongoro Girls secondary schools. These letters, dated 31^st March, refer to a letter from the TAMISEMI permanent secretary, Riziki S Shemdoe, ordering Covid-19 funds already in the accounts of the Ngorongoro schools for the construction of classrooms and dormitories to instead be transferred to Handeni District Council! There were instructions with the account number of the Handeni District Council for transferring the money before 5^th April.

The lawlessness of the Tanzanian government is apparently without boundaries. Though the good thing with these letters is that it’s unusually strong evidence, unlike when crimes are being committed while the rhetoric is saying the opposite.

On 19^th April, MP Shangai shared a picture together with the TAMISEMI permanent secretary, as “photo of the day”. Though nothing transpired of what had been said.

The dirty war against the Maasai is being fought at all levels. The Controller and Auditor General, Charles Kichere, again, when presenting his report on 19^th April, parroted chief conservator Manongi’s anti-Maasai rhetoric about too many people and livestock, permanent infrastructures and motorcycles – yes, motorcycles and not the traffic jams formed by tourist vehicles – while throwing in claims about violation of sections of the NCA Act, totally ignoring the blatant and brutal violation of NCAA’s function, “to safeguard and promote the interests of Masai citizens of the United Republic engaged in cattle ranching and dairy industry within the Conservation Area;” These are issues about which the CAG can’t possible have much knowledge or understanding, and the one-sided copying of the anti-Maasai campaigners is more than obvious.

On 24^th April, PM Majaliwa was again visiting the hurried construction of houses in Msomera Village in Handeni, while local villagers looked on agape, and nobody knows where the money is coming from, except for what’s openly stolen from Ngorongoro. Deputy Minister Mary Masanja was of course there talking about how dangerous it is to live with wild animals, as if moving to an overpopulated district, infamous for its clashes between pastoralists and cultivators, would be safer. Anti-Maasai people online used to very frequently bring up such clashes, but I haven’t heard them since the Handeni scam was made public, maybe since they’re so enamoured with the idea of moving the Maasai. Masanja also said that the president has provided funds for 400 more houses.

There has been some international news coverage of Ngorongoro, often mixing things up with Loliondo, and other misunderstandings. These articles make it sound like evictions are imminent. I hope they are very wrong, even if the government seems determined and united. Perhaps most important is that eight UN Special Rapporteurs wroteto the Tanzanian government, and to the UNESCO World Heritage, IUCN, and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) already in February, about their concern about the threats of evictions and further restrictions against the Maasai of NCA. I didn’t see these letters until the Oakland Institute wrote about them on 11^th April. 

While the anti-Maasai hate rhetoric has this year been more virulent than ever, the solidarity expressed by Tanzanians from all walks of life, at least online, has also reached levels never previously seen, not even during the most brutal and illegal mass arson operations. Thank you and please keep it up.

On 24^th-25^thApril the committee that’s collecting community views about the conflict concerning the 1,500 km² in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (to hand over to PM Majaliwa) held a press conference to say that they’re finalizing this task. This committee of representatives from Ngorongoro and Loliondo has by some been seen as dancing to the extremely dangerous and manipulative PM’s tune. At the protest meeting in Arash on 19^th March it was declared that the report would instead be handed to the president, but in parliament on 13^th April the Ngorongoro MP was again mentioning the PM, and so did the committee members at their press conference.

The committee’s advice to the government were the following:

1. "We urge the government, through the Prime Minister, to condemn the arbitrary arrests of leaders, including councillors, community members, leaders and human rights defenders who stand up for human rights, as well as to prevent threats against journalists who report information and community views concerning this conflict.”

2. "We urge the government to stop any propaganda against the people of Ngorongoro, especially the Maasai community, and to suspend all ongoing processes to allow for listening to the views of the community in order to provide a peaceful solution to this conflict."

3. "The government should return all development projects and social services that have been blocked in Ngorongoro Division."

On 28^th April, in the social media app Clubhouse the government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa cried crocodile tears about the Ngorongoro Maasai and wildlife, “crocodile” because all problems are caused by the government itself. Then he said that stakeholders had recommended blocking social services in NCA so that “the problem isn’t increased”. He also said that the removal of the Maasai would be done slowly and educating them about the necessity of doing this. He made it clear that the interest of tourism is to be given precedence.

The Minister of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye, on 30^th April, in the same social media app, defended the refusal to deliver postcode services to Ngorongoro Division with that it’s for where the government has agreed that there are formal residences, and not where there is conflict. Then he went on to complain about false propaganda about Ngorongoro and blocking of services, asking Tanzanians not to let neighbouring countries stir things up … Nape continued saying that nobody is being prevented from talking to journalists, that there are rules and regulations in Ngorongoro that journalists must follow, and then they will be allowed to do their job, but what’s not acceptable is to engage in activism. He claimed that the government is treating Ngorongoro issues very well, assisting those who want to relocate. Then he said that under the presidency of Samia there is press freedom, but your freedom ends where another person freedom begins.

Unfortunately, any Tanzanian minister will say stupid things like this, or worse.

On 2^nd May, the eve of World Press Freedom Day, Nape forced the Darmpya online news outlet to apologise for not getting the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority’s view before accurately reporting sudden rises in mobile data prices.

The Royal Tour film premiered and among the words about the Maasai by President Samia and the reporter Peter Greenberg “primitive tribes” wasn’t the worst (see below for more about The Royal Tour).

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

Remember that the Maasai already lost access to over 14,000 km² when evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, and as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying the 8,292 km² Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife, and in case of conflict the interest of the Maasai would take precedence. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest.

Ngorongoro has become Tanzania top source of tourism revenue and many wildlife numbers have increased, with he Maasai living there, in their home.

For decades the Maasai have suffered restrictions, more and more purposefully designed to impoverish them and force them out of Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In 1975, after a change in the NCA Act in 1974, they were brutally evicted from residing in Ngorongoro crater and all cultivation was prohibited. The cultivation ban was lifted in 1992, but brought back in 2009, after many “grave concerns” by UNESCO and IUCN. Now not even the smallest kitchen garden is allowed, which together with loss of access to grazing areas has led to malnutrition. They are not allowed to build permanent houses and suffer all kinds of harassment by NCA rangers, that want to restrict motorbikes, building materials, or demanding permits for just anything.

In 2017 – by order (not a change in the NCA Act) and after a visit by PM Majaliwa in December 2016 - the Maasai lost access to the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti, and Empakaai,which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards.

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) once again visited Ngorongoro in March 2019 and in their report repeated that they wanted the Multiple Land Use Model review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. They did also recommend the State Party to continue to, “promote and encourage voluntary resettlement by communities, consistent with the policies of the Convention and relevant international norms, from within the property to outside by 2028”.

In the previous blog post I wrote my reply to UNESCO’s claim that they have never at any time asked for the displacement of the Maasai.

In September 2019, chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public a Multiple Land Use Model review report proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. The MLUM review report proposes to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters, Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts, like Selela forest and Engaruka historical site) and the 1,500 km² in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost perfectly to the wishes of OBC. Only 18% of the expanded NCA would remain for people and livestock.

Uncountable protest meetings and statements against the MLUM review proposal followed in 2019 and 2020. Several promises were issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to do the exercise afresh in a “participatory” manner, but then the same genocidal proposal kept being brought back.

NCA developments since 2021

Shortly after taking office in March 2021, in a speech on 6^th April President Samia said that something had to be done about too many people and livestock, or it was “bye, bye Ngorongoro”. Little more than a week later, demolition notices were made public, ordering the demolition within 30 days of over a hundred buildings, private houses, but also those built by the government, like schools, dispensaries, and the Endulen police station. Two churches and a mosque were included. Further, 45 people accused of having returned from Jema to where they were relocated in 2006, were ordered to leave, also within 30 days, and 174 families were listed as “illegal immigrants”. After big protests these demolition and eviction notices were withdrawn until further notice.

In May 2021, the NCAA headquarters were abruptly relocated to Karatu. Then, the first days of June, Chief Conservator Manongi and other NCAA representatives held a promotional event on parliament grounds in Dodoma, handing out goodie bags with t-shirts, leaflets, and whatever. On 30^th June, deputy minister Mary Masanja flew to Ngorongoro with 35 MPs for domestic tourism.

On 3^rd September 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and tourism uploaded a video in which Deputy Minister Mary Masanja complains about having seen livestock, and chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war, that the pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists must “start” developing conspiracies.

On 6^th September, under heavy police deployment and with several arrests to prevent any kind of protest, President Samia came to Ngorongoro to film the documentary The Royal Tour. She has still not met with Ngorongoro people.

In August and September 2021, NCAA rangers assaulted several young herders and killed four sheep with a vehicle, which led to protests on 23^rd September, which lasted for several days. An uprising seemed to be on the way, but then everything was put on hold when MP Olenasha sadly passed away on 27^th September.

Also in September 2021, the Stefan Oswald, Head of the Africa Department at Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany was having a nice time in Serengeti with deputy minister Mary Masanja and the Germans were – again - giving away millions for sustainable natural resource and ecological sustainability development in the Serengeti ecosystem. Grzimek and Nyerere were “present” in spirit and as cut out figures.

On 17^th October President Samia held a speech in Arusha talking about how important Ngorongoro is for tourism and that “we” can’t continue considering people’s interests while destroying it. She was accompanied and supported by the imposter Lekisongo from Monduli, who pretended to represent the Ngorongoro Maasai while supporting relocations. Several protest statements were issued by Ngorongoro Maasai against this individual.

2022 started with a leaked plan – apparently written on New Year’s Eve - for “voluntary” evictions from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to be fully prepared to begin in February.

Then, as mentioned above, on 11^th January RC Mongella visited Loliondo and issued a land alienation threat that made even the biggest traitors speak up, but contrary what had been feared, he didn’t make any announcement about NCA.

Habib Mchange’s Jamvi la Habari paper, that focuses on fabrications and slander of opposition politicians, initiated a hate campaign against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social media, was joined by crazed sports presenters, Maulid Kitenge and friends, and then the old anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper with Deusdatus Balile and Manyerere Jackton. These “journalists” started an organization with its sole focus on evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro and were treated as serious actors by other media. Though Tanzanians in social media who had earlier not paid much attention to Ngorongoro saw what was going on, were appalled, and started speaking up.

On 3^rd February, six journalists were detained and harassed after having attended a community rally in Nainokanoka.

In parliament on 9^thFebruary MPs competed in being wilfully ignorant, hateful, and calling for evictions from Ngorongoro, and Loliondo, there was much laughter and table banging, while only three MPs (all Maasai) spoke up for the Maasai. Majaliwa said that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act would be reviewed, but first there was to be a seminar for the MPs and he would meet with people in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism uploaded to its Instagram account some of the worst clips of MPs. On 12^th February a one-sided “seminar” about Ngorongoro was held for the MPs who continued their hateful and defamatory incitement against the Maasai.

On 13^th February, the new anti-Maasai organisation, formed by “journalists”, held a loathsome press conference, adding to their many crazed and dehumanizing “theories” one saying that there were no graves in Ngorongoro, which had earlier been heard in parliament. The Darmpya online news, asked questions, like how come the “allowances” for attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and for what purpose.

In NCA many people stopped sleeping and started praying incessantly at combined prayer and protest meetings.

On 17^th February Majaliwa held a brief agenda-driven meeting at the NCA hall, for leaders and closed to the public. There was confusion and thorough registering of the attendants. Two journalists were arrested and released later the same day. The local people who were locked out stayed outside the hall singing.

On 5^th March, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to Ngorongoro, to celebrate tourism, CCM, or supposedly International Women’s Day. Meanwhile Maasai women climbed Mount Makarot to pray for their land.

On 10^th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai from other areas, without any connection to Ngorongoro, led by the denounced fraudster Lekisongo. The PM was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. All had already left the district years ago and are apparently now looking for compensation money. The following day the PM boasted about this meeting in parliament, and on the 12^th real traditional leaders from Ngorongoro held a press conference to denounce the fraud, but journalist didn’t want to cover it after having been advised otherwise by Majaliwa.

On 13^th March, Majaliwa made a much-publicised visit to Msomera Village in Handeni where houses are hurriedly being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro, without consulting them, and apparently without consulting people from Msomera that’s a legally registered village, with its land use plan (I hope to soon have more information about Msomera, which some people are working at). Majaliwa was to visit Ngorongoro on the 15^th, but it was postponed.

NCAA informers are reportedly moving around trying to convince people to register to be relocated. Most (all in the first list that was made public) who are doing so have already left and are now looking for compensation money.

On 25^th March Damas Ndumbaro, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and his ministry reported that the German ambassador supported the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, which has still not been publicly denied by any German representative.

On the 31^stPresident Samia replaced Ndumbaro with Pindi Chana who within a few days was off to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo, without meeting with residents.

On 3^rd April, the NCAA had found some real traitors to show off, unlike the previous imposters from other places than Ngorongoro, even if long-gone people are still looking for a compensation deal. And they are of course not traitors for wanting to relocate, but for lending themselves to the dirty war against their own people. These few, and very dubious, people keep being paraded in media.

Some evidence emerged about how blocked funds for social services in Ngorongoro division are being transferred to Handeni and on 13^th April the Ngorongoro MP denounced this in parliament.

And as mentioned, a committee will hand over community views to PM Majaliwa, as if he would care.

Public services as weapon of war

In the previous blog post I wrote about how development projects, often basic social services have always been used as a weapon, but I forgot one way in which it has been done.

The projects are always used as a CCM party event, and the president is personally thanked in the most embarrassing way. In Loliondo people have been humiliated and forced to receive social services as charity from the violent anti-land rights investors – OBC and Thomson Safaris– who use it in their propaganda. Because of this, Mondorosi Village was refusing charity from Thomson for years, and the chairman was severely harassed, arrest included, until he “changed”. Similar used to happen earlier in NCA where chief conservator Manongi could compromise anyone with development money. In 2017, Minister Jumanne Maghembe said that German development funds would only be released on condition of turning the 1,500 km² into a protected area, which led to protests against receiving this money, but then it was revealed that the district council chairman had done so anyway.  After two years of German silence, representatives of the development bank denied any such conditions. The funds, or any other, have still not been used in the 1,500 km² though. Lately PM Majaliwa has used water projects in other areas of Loliondo as an argument for alienating the 1,500 km², while pretending not to know that people live there or that it’s essential grazing land.

Social services were one of the weapons strategically used to – with 100 % success - bring back opposition councillors to CCM in 2017-2018, including removing planned for projects in opposition wards.

Now, as seen, social services 600 kilometres away in Handeni are much trumpeted as a benefit for Ngorongoro Maasai, while the same in Ngorongoro Division is not only being blocked, but the funds are, in some cases openly, redirected to Handeni.

Intimidation continues, but Loliondo is not back to silence, I hope

Even if in large part caused by outspoken threats by national leaders – the Arusha RC, PM Majaliwa, and former Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Ndumbaro - against the 1,500 km² that the government so many times have tried to rob the Maasai of, this year has in many ways seen a remarkable change for the better with big protests in January and then again in March. As reported in the previous blog post, on 19^th March, the since 2017 painfully disappointing councillor of Arash, who was district council chair 2015-2020, spoke up with great seriousness describing PM Majaliwa as a liar (which is well-known by most Tanzanians) and declaring that the Maasai would never cooperate with anyone who wants to demarcate the 1,500 km² with beacons, which is what the PM had ordered.

On 23^rd March Methew Siloma and the councillor of Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, were summoned to the CCM ethics committee at the party’s office in Loliondo, after which the police entered and Siloma was arrested – or abducted – and taken to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service), which TISS do not have a mandate to do. On 25^th March, Siloma was released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police. Later Siloma has in social media said that he was locked up, interrogated and threatened in an unknown building, not at the police station.

On Easter Eve, 16^thApril, the councillor of Malambo was arrested and so were the councillors of Piyaya and Maaloni. They were released the following day, but Joel Reson from Malambo was told to report to the police in Arusha, which he did on 22^ndApril and then he was locked up at Arusha central police station, interrogated, released on bail the following day, and told to continue reporting to the police.

The silence achieved by the Loliondo police state continues and there’s a very noticeable difference between how Maasai from Loliondo and NCA are speaking up in social media, but I’m happy to say that the councillors from Arash and Malambo reportedly appear to be in high spirits and even participated online with NCA people, sharing what they were interrogated about (somewhat old school Loliondo police state, but now done in Arusha). All focus was apparently laid on making them stop defending the land and “confess” to having received millions from the Kenyan Senator for Narok County, Ledama Olekina and that this would be the reason that they were speaking up against any plans of turning the 1,500 km² of vitally important grazing land into a “protected area”.

I doubt it’s by chance that the latest article by OBC’s “journalist” Manyerere Jackton had a focus on “Kenyans”, in a re-hash of some of his over 60 articles viciously inciting against the Loliondo Maasai, and that he’s active again with his anti-Loliondo hate campaign after lying low since OBC’s director had a long stay in remand prison accused of “economic sabotage” in 2019.

These recent arrests differ from the illegal arrests of 2015-2019 in that CCM councillors are targeted and not so much NGO staff (now silenced, but still two of them have been arrested this year and must keep reporting to the police) or real or assumed activists (they now apparently only exist in NCA). Councillors and village chairs have been targeted before, but not as those worst hit, and have been somewhat protected by the party. Siloma and Reson were lured to the CCM ethical committee. It’s suspected that the recent arrests have been ordered by the Arusha RC, John Mongella, and another change is that those arrested are taken to Arusha for interrogation instead of being held in Loliondo. The recent illegal arrests are not as prolonged as the earlier ones that used to last for over a week.

The Loliondo local police state never ends, and after years of almost complete silence following the terror of 2018 when extreme abuse was taking place and not one single leader spoke up, I fear silence and can never assume that it means that nothing is happening. It’s painful to know that anyone can be silenced, and that too many can be compromised. That’s why just a few confident words by those harassed mean so much.

Then in an interview with Peter Greenberg of The Royal Tour (see below), published on 30^thApril, President Samia when asked to define “sustainable tourism” tried to repeat the anti-Loliondo rhetoric, but mixing it up with the Mara River.

The Malambo village chairman Moitiko Risanda and the traditional leader Simon Ndare are summoned to Loliondo police station on 6^th May.

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

Since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km² Loliondo hunting blocks (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate scandal covered by Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, and agricultural areas, so OBC have lobbied to have it reduced to their core hunting area bordering Serengeti National Park, and to make it a protected area, which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

In 2008, then Ngorongoro DC Jowika Kasunga coerced local leaders into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km² osero was illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.

The Maasai moved back, and some leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the village land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united, and the draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

In 2013, Minister Kagasheki lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km²meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This ugly trick did not work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped Kagasheki’s threats.

After the unity, efforts to buy off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land. Though nobody signed any MoU.

The investors (OBC and Thomson Safaris) had for years used the local police state that through the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will threaten anyone who could speak up about them and engage in defamation and illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with Magufuli in office, and there were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical areas” under protests in each village. The proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad compromise that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

Maybe since the Maasai showed such weakness, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision, on 13^th August 2017 an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested loudly. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

The illegal operation wasn’t stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would have left Tanzania before 2018, but it was very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri). Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, and would of course be contempt of court.

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince), and in April OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually made permanent with donations from the NCAA.

In June 2018, the OCCID and local police tried to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for the applicants' main counsel. On 25^th September 2018 – a year after the illegal operation - the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated. In November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by President Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC toned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out, and after a while back to work, reportedly due to plea bargaining. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Bernard Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

In September 2019, a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km² and turn it into a protected area allowing hunting was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ.

On 11^th January 2022, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km², or to sign the attendance list, which could have been used to claim that they’d agreed to something. On 13^th-14^th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected, because of the crazy anti-Maasai hate campaign, and parliamentarians calling for tanks to be sent to Ngorongoro.

Three days later, on 17^thFebruary in NCA, not Loliondo, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then Ndumbaro on 8^thMarch re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with DW Kiswahili, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

Placing beacons to mark the 1,500 km² osero would be a serious invasion of village land, contempt of court, and only serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. Any attempt must be dealt with without delay!

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993. On 27^thApril when visiting Arusha, Kinana was dress up in a kind of Maasai outfit. This is something that the enemies of the Maasai have been doing since forever, but it appears to have become a trend that’s irresistible to all the worst of the worst.

On 6^th April, the new minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo.

Then as mentioned, CCM councillors that have spoken up against plans of robbing the Maasai of the 1,500 km² osero are, after a protest meeting in Arash on 19^thMarch being intimidated, arrested, and summoned to be “interrogated” in Arusha. Currently the councillors of Arash and Malambo must keep reporting to the police, and a laigwanani together with the village chairman of Malambo have been summoned to the Loliondo police.

The committee has maybe already handed over their compilation of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km²osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa. I do hope - and expect - that they’ve learnt not to dance to Majaliwa’s tune. In 2017, the results of doing so were catastrophic.

The Royal Tour

President Samia travelled to the USA for 10 days for the premier of The Royal Tour, the “documentary” in which reporter Peter Greenberg travels a country with the head of state as his tour guide, and even better -it seems - if this is an authoritarian leader with no regard for human rights. The researcher Alex Dukalskis in his book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship describes President Kagame of Rwanda’s use of The Royal Tour as “authoritarian image management”, recommended by consultants who specialize in this. Who recommended Samia to do the same? How was it funded? Who are the Tanzania Forward Foundation? What has been established is that Tanzania paid for it, allegedly via the private sector, and that Peter Greenberg has the copyright (since he’s used it against at least one Youtube account that uploaded it), but that’s not what this blog is about.

On 28^th April, The Royal Tour was shown in Arusha in an exaggeratedly spruced up venue.

When the president in September 2021 was to film the part showing Ngorongoro, there was heavy police deployment, and nobody was allowed near, while in other areas, like Moshi and Karatu, Samia addressed the public from atop her vehicle. Three staff members of the NGO Pastoral Women’s Council, together with the ward councillor and special sets councillor of Piyaya, and two people who were being given a lift, were detained until the evening, suspected of having planned to make protest signs out of a flip chart, and then they had present themselves to the police for further investigation.

During the president’s US visit some members of the Tanzanian diaspora held a manifestation outside the Tanzanian embassy to demand constitutional reform. This is safe to do in the USA, but still they were very few. One of them was the woman who for years, together with her American husband, was employed by Thomson Safaris as their very aggressive PR person for their neo-colonial land grab, a participant in the local police state, in charge of Thomson’s charitable branch and of compromising councillors. Years after having left Thomson, she appeared in social media as a moderate fence sitter and friend of the most crazed Magufuli supporters. Then she got another account and reinvented herself as a freedom fighter, which is a commendable thing to do. However, she and other participants in the manifestation were wearing t-shirt against Maasai eviction from Ngorongoro, which is taking hypocrisy too far, when she’s still excusing Thomson with that there was conflict since Tanzania Breweries used the land (and then almost two decades later fraudulently got a right of occupancy that they sold to Thomson), and that they would have wanted to switch it for another area, as if there were empty land lying around for a “private nature refuge”. Thomson Safaris worsened the situation a thousand times or more, and copied OBC’s use of the local police state, with even worse repression of their critics.

The Maasai, who in Ngorongoro are threatened by cultural genocide by Samia´s government, are shown off in The Royal Tour as a tourist attraction for four minutes. No other tribe or group of people are shown this interest. The president says that the Maasai are the “newest arrivals” in Tanzania, migrating from the “Nile valley” in the 1700s. Greenberg says, “At lower attitude it was fascinating to see this primitive tribes still holding on to their traditional values. But at higher attitude, a different perspective, it was fascinating to see how many villages they were”.“Many” compared to where? Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, or any rural area? The first sentence is to attract tourists, even if most will cringe at exactly that racist sounding choice of word, and the second one to attract support for evictions. The use of the word “primitive” has led to somewhat widespread negative reactions online. Later Greenberg mentions that “it is not uncommon for a Maasai man to have 18-20 children”. Anyone who’s spent some time online encountering discussions about any kind of African issue will have encountered non-Africans whose final argument or response to everything is that “they” have too many children, so we’re doomed. Greenberg says that the government has tried to turn the Maasai into farmers or ranchers, but that they have clinged on to their “ancient ways”. Now they may be forced to change, he adds, without explaining that he’s making a propaganda film about the person who wants to force them, not to change, which they have always done, but to extinguish their culture via mass evictions. President Samia uses the word “genocide” earlier in the film, but then she’s referring to elephants …

On 30^th April, Greenberg published a radio interview with President Samia. Greenberg mentions “overtourism” and asks the president for her definition of “sustainable tourism”. The only thing she can think of is to try to repeat the anti-Loliondo rhetoric of the worst of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and investors. Samia says that we must come up with strategies to protect the whole ecosystem, so that tourist attractions last for a longer time, and gives the example of Loliondo that’s bordering Serengeti, claiming that Loliondo is close to the Mara River (it’s not) and that we can’t allow the river to dry up, since there will not be the migration and Serengeti will not be the same.

Then,

The claim by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, that the German ambassador supports the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, has still not been publicly denied by any German representative.

A brightly shining rising defender of Ngorongoro is lost forever.

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

Another delayed blog post that’s too long, since too much is happening when I am about to publish, some information is impossible to obtain, I can’t keep up, and it must be put in context to avoid the confusion that will happen anyway. The president continues as a most significant threat to the Ngorongoro Maasai, OBC’s director has broken his media silence, harassment goes on, and then the Oakland Institute published a report about the anomalous relocation plans. “Community recommendations” on NCA and Loliondo/Sale have been handed over to PM Majaliwa to whose tune it’s not advisable to dance, which everyone has understood long ago, I hope. The NCA report is available and impressive. I must write more about it in another post.

In this blog post:

NCA:

The president insulting the Maasai and her hosts

The president’s Ngorongoro fixation

A reminder of the efforts for “voluntary” evictions

Dangerous dance with Majaliwa

Oakland report on resettlement plans

Some of NCAA’s “preparations” the past year

Transfer of local NCAA workers

Ngorongoro youths arrested by SENAPA rangers

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

Loliondo:

OBC’s director Mollel breaks his long media silence

The confusion

OBC’s “journalist” again

This year’s Loliondo arrests

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

Since the mix-up continues, I must still repeat:

In NCA, an 8,292 km² multiple land use area, the Maasai live under the purposeful poverty-inducing rule and restrictions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, and since 2019 there’s a genocidal eviction plan, that extends to annexing some surrounding areas, the area under threat in Loliondo included. Current government efforts focus on “voluntary” relocation and disinformation, while an ethnic hate campaign has raged in media and in parliament. This is about Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District and the government’s aim is to get rid of as many Maasai as possible.

In Loliondo OBC, that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km² of important grazing land, village land belonging to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area. This caused illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017. A local police state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from NCA, even if protests erupted when threats were renewed this year. This concerns Loliondo and parts of Sale divisions of Ngorongoro District and the government’s aim is to rob the Maasai of 1,500 km².

The president insulting the Maasai and her hosts

On 13^th May, President Samia Suluhu Hassan continued her habit of publicly attacking the Maasai of Ngorongoro. She did this as guest of honour at the 10^th anniversary of Tanzania Human Rights Defenders’ Coalition (THRDC). This invitation may seem like inviting the hyena to the biannual goat convention, and to me it’s terribly unsettling. THRDC’s subsequent reporting from this anniversary was far from reassuring.

THRDC have always stood firmly on the side of the Maasai, and at times served as the only outlet covering local protests. I was personally helped in 2015, when I was illegally arrested, or kidnapped, and THRDC’s director sent lawyers. There could of course be some strategic reason that I don’t understand (I tried to ask). THRDC’s bank accounts were frozen by the government leading up to the 2020 “elections” and not unfrozen until seven months later when Samia had come into office.

The president mentioned the government’s efforts to protect the World Heritage Site while expressing her displeasure with the human rights defenders’ insistence on instead defending the human rights of those who (according to her rhetoric) are putting it in danger. “What is most important between letting people continue endangering our world heritage or supporting the preservation of the heritage and relocating those people to a better place?”, Samia asked. She added that she left it to the human rights defenders to sit down and discuss this, which sounds like a threat when coming from the head of an authoritarian government.

On 16^th May a group of Ngorongoro youths spoke with great seriousness on Sessan online media. No other outlets were interested.

Finally, on 27^thMay, in connection with the handing over of community views to PM Majaliwa, THRDC’s director Onesmo Olengurumwa described the president’s stance as if she had recognised that human rights defenders defend the human rights of people, and that she has given the organisations the opportunity to offer advice to the government.

The president’s Ngorongoro fixation

It shouldn’t be forgotten that violence and repression were worse under Magufuli, and even Kikwete (against pastoralists, particularly during his first term), but those presidents didn’t personally engage in the rhetoric of the enemies of the Ngorongoro Maasai like Samia does in an obsessive way. The terrible statements have been accompanied by hurried “voluntary” relocation plans, blocking of new, already funded, public services and illegal transfer of funds from NCA to Handeni, a feverish ethnic hate campaign in the press and in parliament, staged spectacles featuring imposters not from Ngorongoro, and repression of reporting (resembling that in Loliondo). All this added to the continued restrictions that worsen each time that UNESCO and IUCN express their “grave concerns”, openly wanting the Tanzanian government to do something about the population figures (actually low even in the most inflated versions) and the more discreet pressure from the tourist industry and some diplomatic missions, with Germany as the most notable suspect. Samia’s fear is that the value of the prime tourism real estate would decrease if deregistered as a World Heritage Site. UNESCO should just remove this status from Ngorongoro (as I said in the blog post from 7^th April, under the heading, “UNESCO denying responsibility for the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal and everything else”). The genocidal proposal of the Multiple Land Use Model review report, presented in September 2019, after UNESCO’s insistence that it should be finalized, has still not been thrown into the rubbish bin where it belongs.

Shortly after taking office in March 2021, in a speech at the swearing in of newly appointed Permanent Secretaries and heads of public institutions at State House in Dar es Salaam, Samia said that the Maasai of Ngorongoro and their livestock had become too many, that she didn’t know how or if people should be evicted, but concluded that something had to be done, or it was “bye, bye Ngorongoro”.

Little more than a week later, demolition notices were made public, ordering the demolition within 30 days of over a hundred buildings, private houses, but also those built by the government, like schools, dispensaries, and the Endulen police station. Two churches and a mosque were included. Further, 45 people accused of having returned from Jema to where they were relocated in 2006, were ordered to leave, also within 30 days, and 174 households were listed as “illegal immigrants”. After big protests these demolition and eviction notices were withdrawn until further notice.

On 6^th September, under heavy police deployment and with several arrests to prevent any kind of protest, President Samia came to Ngorongoro to film the documentary The Royal Tour with the presenter and producer Peter Greenberg. In December she came unofficially to complete the filming but has still never met with local leaders or addressed people in Ngorongoro.

On 17^th October 2021, Samia held a speech in Arusha talking about how important Ngorongoro is for tourism and that “we” can’t continue considering people’s interests while destroying it. She was accompanied and supported by the imposter Lekisongo from Monduli, who pretended to represent the Ngorongoro Maasai while supporting relocations. Several protest statements were issued by Ngorongoro Maasai against this individual, which didn’t deter him from later showing up acting as an imposter at spectacles together with PM Majaliwa and RC Mongella.

When The Royal Tour finally premiered in April 2022, the Maasai featured prominently as a tourist attraction, but almost every word seemed geared towards Samia’s bad wishes for Ngorongoro. Greenberg mentions being fascinated by how “many villages” there are, which is a strange thing to say. Compared to where? Then it’s mentioned that, “it is not uncommon for a Maasai man to have 18-20 children”, obviously to further drive home the population panic. The Maasai are described as stubbornly clinging on to their ancient ways, but that they will be forced to change. The president further calls the Maasai “newest arrivals”. Though Greenberg isn’t as smooth delivering this product as would be expected, since he uses the word “primitive” about the Maasai, which even anyone not at all familiar with the threats against the Maasai will find racist and out of touch in 2022. Similarly out of touch is a kind of joke about Maasai women being impressed by Greenberg jumping. I have written about The Royal Tour in several blog posts but will have to dedicate something exclusively to this authoritarian image management. In a radio interview in connection with the premiere, Samia also made a confused, but not so innocent comment about Loliondo.

And as mentioned, on 13^thMay Samia had complaints about human rights defenders that defend the human rights of those she wants out of Ngorongoro.

A reminder of the efforts for “voluntary” evictions

2022 started with a leaked plan for “voluntary” relocations of Ngorongoro Maasai to be finalized very hurriedly before the end of February. Even if the documents aren’t signed, they seem directed from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) to Damas Ndumbaro, then still Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, on how to implement President Samia’s instructions on evicting the Ngorongoro Maasai. In the plan the Kitwai and Handeni Game Controlled Areas are named as the areas for relocation and misleadingly described as protected areas that will be declassified. Did the NCAA really believe this and were then when on the ground in Msomera, Handeni, surprised to find a registered village with its land use plan and bewildered villagers looking on as houses were speedily being built for Ngorongoro Maasai? Allan Kijazi, (then) Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (and head of TANAPA) was described as lacking the right vision to oversee the project, and was shortly after transferred to the ministry of lands. Arusha RC John Mongella was mentioned as the recommended overseer. The plan recommends seeking permission to use COVID-19 money allocated for the development projects to fund the eviction of Ngorongoro Maasai (and then on 31^st March the DED sent letters to Ngorongoro headteachers ordering them to transfer COVID-19 funds to Handeni), and warns about “Kenyan” NGOs, particularly PWC, in the style of the old Loliondo police state.

When Mongella visited Loliondo on 10^th January 2022, there was fear of what he would announce about NCA, but instead he issued a threat against the 1,500 km² in Loliondo that led to protest by local people who had been silenced by intimidation for years.

A crazed anti-Maasai hate campaign had raged in media for over a month when in parliament on 9^th FebruaryMPs competed in being wilfully ignorant, hateful, and calling for evictions from Ngorongoro, and Loliondo, the Mtwara MP screamed that tanks were needed, there was much laughter and table banging, while only three MPs (all Maasai) spoke up for the Maasai. The arguments, besides the old population panic, ranged from dehumanizing colonial fantasies to crocodile tears about poverty and backwardness, to lies that rich people not from Ngorongoro, but from town or the neighbouring country, would own the livestock in NCA, to blaming Kenya for being behind the anti-eviction resistance with the aim of sabotaging tourism in Tanzania. Majaliwa said that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Act would be reviewed, but first there was to be a seminar for the MPs and he would meet with people in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism uploaded to its Instagram account some of the worst clips of MPs, not with any comment of distancing or warning, but obviously to show off the support from parliamentarians in the war against the Maasai. On 12^th February a one-sided “seminar” about Ngorongoro was held for the MPs who continued their hateful and defamatory incitement against the Maasai. At this seminar, one non-Maasai MP supported the Ngorongoro Maasai: Professor Kitila Mkumbo, MP for Ubungo.

In NCA many people stopped sleeping and started praying incessantly at combined prayer and protest meetings.

On 17^th February Majaliwa held a brief agenda-driven meeting at the NCA hall, for leaders and closed to the public. There was confusion and thorough registering of the attendants. Two journalists were arrested and released later the same day. The local people who were locked out stayed outside the hall singing.

On 5^th March, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja brought a caravan of 600 women in diesel guzzling vehicles to Ngorongoro, to celebrate tourism, CCM, or supposedly International Women’s Day. Meanwhile Maasai women climbed Mount Makarot to pray for their land.

On 10^th March in Arusha, Majaliwa held a meeting with Maasai from other areas, without any connection to Ngorongoro, led by the denounced fraudster Lekisongo. The PM was handed a list of 86 households or 453 persons “willing” to relocate from Ngorongoro. All had already left the district years ago and were apparently now looking for compensation money. The following day the PM boasted about this meeting in parliament, and on the 12^th real traditional leaders from Ngorongoro held a press conference to denounce the fraud, but journalists didn’t want to cover it after having been advised otherwise by Majaliwa.

Imposters

On 13^th March, Majaliwa made a much-publicised visit to Msomera Village in Handeni where houses were hurriedly being built to relocate Maasai from Ngorongoro, without consulting them, and without consulting people from Msomera that’s a legally registered village. Majaliwa was to visit Ngorongoro on the 15^th, but it was postponed.

Does not look empty.

On 25^th March Damas Ndumbaro, then still Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and his ministry reported that the German ambassador supported the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, which has still not been publicly denied by any German representative.

On 31^st March, President Samia replaced Ndumbaro with Pindi Chana who within a few days was off to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo, without meeting with residents. This was quickly followed by a visit to Msomera where Chana heaped praise on the relocation project.

On 3^rd April, the NCAA had found some real traitors to show off, unlike the previous imposters from other places than Ngorongoro, even if long-gone people were still looking for a compensation deal. And they are of course not traitors for wanting to relocate, but for lending themselves to the dirty war against their own people. These few, and very dubious, people keep being paraded in media, and the star is a special seats councillor, Foibe Lukumay, whose by Ngorongoro standards luxurious house was up for demolition without compensation and at her own cost in the halted orders from April 2021. Now she’ll get compensation and could get a house in Handeni, where she will hardly live, since her family reportedly owns real estate in Arusha.

Evidence emerged about how blocked funds for social services in Ngorongoro division are being transferred to Handeni and on 13^th April the Ngorongoro MP denounced this in parliament. Then letters were made public in which schools in NCA were being ordered to send Covid-19 funds already in their accounts to the account of Handeni District Council.

On 24^th April, PM Majaliwa was again visiting the hurried construction of houses in Msomera Village in Handeni.  Deputy Minister MaryMasanja talked about how dangerous it is to live with wild animals, which has become quite popular in the anti-Maasai rhetoric that earlier used to bring up clashes between pastoralists and cultivators in Handeni, of all places … Masanja also said that the president has provided funds for 400 more houses.

On 6^th May, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on the government of Tanzania to immediately cease efforts to evict the Maasai people from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Then the president, at Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition’s own 10-year anniversary, expressed her displeasure with human rights defenders defending Ngorongoro Maasai and not her genocidal plans, and was covered with praise …

Dangerous dance with Majaliwa

As mentioned, a 60-member committee, dressed in matching clothes, on 25^th May finally (the PM kept postponing this meeting) handed over a report on community recommendations to PM Majaliwa, who perhaps is the most dangerous person in Tanzania.  Knowing Majaliwa, he won’t read the report, but use it to further pretend to be working with the Maasai and even if the main recommendation would be to roll him in tar and feather, Majaliwa will interpret it as support.

The NCA part of the report isn’t shy to tell the truth and over-ambitious considering the time restraint. Its dedication says, 

Further, the report identifies the main environmental threats as being caused by tourism investment.

Though I have big worries, hopefully totally unfounded, about the Loliondo/Sale part.

I’ve been told that Majaliwa just spoke “as usual” (and that isn’t good) but said he will work on recommendations. According to the press, the PM told the committee members to keep believing in the government, and ignore nonsense by irrelevant people, since it can’t have bad plans for its citizens, as if those present didn’t have first-hand knowledge of both the government’s bad plans and its bad actions. Unsurprisingly, Majaliwa spoke about Msomera where 103 houses are being built and 400 more are on the way, and he mentioned how the government is strengthening the livestock sector. Apparently, Majaliwa didn’t say anything about Loliondo where he earlier that year (when in NCA) ordered beacons to be erected to demarcate the 1,500 km2 that the government want to alienate from the Maasai. Though it seems like he didn’t really say anything about what’s happening in NCA either.

A press conference by the committee members the following day, confirmed that there hadn’t been any time to present their findings in a power point, so as suspected, there was one-way communication from Majaliwa. They were however very thankful that he received the report, and brought up some problems, like the transferral of local Maasai NCAA staff (see below)

I don’t think anyone has forgotten Majaliwa’s glowing reports on Magufuli’s health when the president hadn’t been seen for weeks and was dying, or already dead. Even more unforgettable are his catastrophic interventions in both NCA and Loliondo in 2016-2017.

As mentioned in the previous blog post, one of the committee members, Lendukai Kimaay, was arrested on 6^thMay, taken to Arusha for interrogation, and is supposed to continue reporting to the police.

The NCA report

Oakland report on resettlement plans

On 24^th May a report by the Oakland Institute was released. It,“examines resettlement plans for Maasai from NCA and identifies serious flaws with the resettlement process, feasibility of selection sites, and major discrepancies between government promises and the actual situation on the ground.” 

Anonymous people have conducted a fact-finding mission to Msomera village where – as reported frantically, and unquestioning, for months now – houses for relocation are being built, and Kitwai A and B that’s the other hurriedly planned for areas, but where construction has not yet begun. The researchers were told that only after construction had already commenced, the government allegedly informed the Handeni District Council that the houses would be for NCA residents who have “volunteered” for resettlement. In Kitwai B, the village, ward and district leaders had no knowledge that their village had been chosen as a resettlement site. No social or environmental impact assessments appear to have been conducted prior to choosing the relocation areas – but how would anyone even have had the time for that? As late as in December, NCAA didn’t know that there were villages in Handeni and Kitwai GCAs, at least judging from their leaked documents. One traditional leader is quoted, “We didn’t agree with the government plan to give our land to Ngorongoro people but we have no objection on that, as the government authority is too big, we can’t fight[against them].”

The anonymous researchers also found serious problems with access to water and grazing in Msomera and Kitwai, and requests for information about a dam project (much celebrated in the press) in Msomera from Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) have not received a reply. Further, promises for social services in Msomera do not seem to have materialized on time. The risk for conflict is obvious.

Some of NCAA’s “preparations” the past year

The NCAA chief conservator, Fredy Manongi, has for years organized fancy workshops for editors and senior journalists, domestic tourism included in the package, and they have uncritically reported his views that the Maasai and their livestock are “too many” and something must be done. This is just an incomplete listing of the increased effort this past year:

In May 2021, the NCAA headquarters were abruptly relocated to Karatu. Then, the first days of June, Manongi and other NCAA representatives held a promotional event on parliament grounds in Dodoma, handing out goodie bags with t-shirts, leaflets, and whatever. On 30^thJune, deputy minister Mary Masanja flew to Ngorongoro with 35 MPs for domestic tourism.

On 3^rd September 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and tourism uploaded a video in which Masanja complains about having seen livestock on the way to Oldupai together with parliamentarians – as if it would have been something terrible and unexpected … - and Manongi says that conservation is a war, that the pastoralists have many “conspiracies” and sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists must “start” (when did they stop?) developing conspiracies.

In August and September 2021, NCAA rangers assaulted several young herders and killed four sheep with a vehicle, which led to protests on 23^rd September, which lasted for several days. An uprising seemed to be on the way, but then everything was put on hold when MP Olenasha sadly passed away on 27^th September.

Towards late January 2022, Habib Mchange’s Jamvi la Habari newspaper, that focuses on fabrications and slander of opposition politicians, initiated a hate campaign against the Maasai of NCA that spread all over regular and social media, was joined by crazed sports presenters, Maulid Kitenge and friends – who soon appeared in Ngorongoro, in a NCAA vehicle, with Kitenge screaming in horror about everything he saw, basically including his own shadow. The old anti-Maasai Jamhuri paper with Deusdatus Balile and Manyerere Jackton who in over 60 articles has incited against the Maasai of Loliondo, soon joined in, and the “journalists” started an organization with its sole focus on evicting the Maasai from Ngorongoro - and were treated as serious actors by other media. Though many Tanzanians in social media who had earlier not paid much attention to Ngorongoro saw what was going on, were appalled, and started speaking up.

On 3^rd February, six journalists (obviously not from the anti-Maasai group) were detained and harassed after having attended a community rally in Nainokanoka.

As mentioned, on 9^thFebruary, the anti-Maasai hate feast spread to parliament, and following days to a seminar for MPs, in some extreme way, and mostly hidden from a world that doesn’t speak Swahili.

On 13^th February, the new anti-Maasai organisation, formed by “journalists”, held a loathsome press conference, adding to their many crazed and dehumanizing “theories” one saying that there were no graves in Ngorongoro, which had earlier been heard in parliament. The Darmpya online news, asked questions, like how come the “allowances” for attending the press conference were so extraordinary heavy, who funded it, and for what purpose.

Then, as mentioned, PM Majaliwa made his non-listening visit to Ngorongoro, organised non-Ngorongoro imposters in Arusha to show off support for planned relocations to Handeni, to where he also made a much-publicised visit, and boasted about it all in parliament.

On 25^th March 2022, Damas Ndumbaro, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, met with ambassadors to tell them the “truth” about Ngorongoro and Loliondo, and his ministry reported that the German ambassador supported the government’s efforts in Ngorongoro, which has still not been publicly denied by any German representative. In September 2021, the Germans had – once again – showered Tanzania with money for “sustainable natural resource and ecological sustainability development in the Serengeti ecosystem”, and Stefan Oswald, Head of the Africa Department at Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany had a nice time in Serengeti with the notorious deputy minister Mary Masanja.

On 31^st March, President Samia replaced Ndumbaro with Pindi Chana who within a few days was off to visit Ngorongoro and Loliondo, without meeting with residents, followed by a visit to Msomera.

NCAA had since 2021, by not issuing permits, been blocking already funded new social services in Ngorongoro division. On 31^st March headteachers received letter from DED Mhina instructing them to send COVID-19 funds already in the school accounts to the bank accounts of Handeni District Council.

I’ve mentioned how the NCAA have impacted on President Samia, and it can’t be overstated.

The genocidal MLUM review proposal has still not been scrapped.

Transfer of local NCAA workers

The latest NCAA activity that has been reported is that at least ten local Maasai NCAA employees in early May have received letters of transferral to other parastatals within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, like TTB, TAWA, BASATA, TARURA, and TANAPA. I would have thought that they’d like to use these employees for divide and rule, but it’s been explained to me that the NCAA leadership just hates the Maasai and wants to get rid of them.

Ngorongoro youths arrested by SENAPA rangers

Saturday evening 21^stMay, five young men were arrested by TANAPA/SENAPA rangers in the Imbarbali or Lemuta area in NCA when they were looking for lost sheep and had entered Serengeti National Park. The following day they were taken to Mugumu in Serengeti District at the other (west) side of the national park, while 62 sheep were seized and kept at the site. The youths were fined 200,000 TShs each (the police first accepted 100,000, but senior officers insisted on 200,000), the sheep 20,000 TShs each, and 100,000 TShs for the person holding the sheep during the arrest, and they were not released until 25^th May (some say 26^th or 27^th), and then returned home on the 27^th, since they were looking for fares.

The rangers could have issued tickets without taking the youths all the way to Mugumu, or better, not issued any fines at all. This is part of the general pattern of harassment and disrespect, and in Loliondo many people have suffered the same, often illegally without even having entered the National Park, and not only during the brutal and illegal operation in 2017 of which SENAPA was the main implementor.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area brief background

Remember that the Maasai already lost access to over 14,000 km² when evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, and as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying the 8,292 km² Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife, and in case of conflict the interest of the Maasai would take precedence. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest.

Ngorongoro has become Tanzania top source of tourism revenue and many wildlife numbers have increased, with the Maasai living there, in their home.

For decades the Maasai have suffered restrictions, more and more purposefully designed to impoverish them and force them out of Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In 1975, after a change in the NCA Act in 1974, they were brutally evicted from residing in Ngorongoro crater and all cultivation was prohibited. The cultivation ban was lifted in 1992, but brought back in 2009, after many “grave concerns” by UNESCO and IUCN. Now not even the smallest kitchen garden is allowed, which together with loss of access to grazing areas has led to malnutrition. They are not allowed to build permanent houses and suffer all kinds of harassment by NCA rangers, that want to restrict motorbikes, building materials, or demanding permits for just anything.

In 2017 – by order (not a change in the NCA Act) and after a visit by PM Majaliwa in December 2016 - the Maasai lost access to the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti, and Empakaai, which has led the loss of 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural saltlicks for livestock in these wards. Supplementary artificial saltlicks were provided by the NCAA, but these were found to be adulterated, and reportedly causing cattle deaths.

pic

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) once again visited Ngorongoro in March 2019 and in their report repeated that they wanted the Multiple Land Use Model review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. They did also recommend the State Party to continue to, “promote and encourage voluntary resettlement by communities, consistent with the policies of the Convention and relevant international norms, from within the property to outside by 2028”.

In September 2019, chief conservator Freddy Manongi made public a Multiple Land Use Model review report proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. The MLUM review report proposes to divide Ngorongoro into four zones, with an extensive “core conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters, Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts, like Selela forest and Engaruka historical site) and the 1,500 km² in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost perfectly to the wishes of OBC. Only 18% of the expanded NCA would remain for people and livestock.

Uncountable protest meetings and statements against the MLUM review proposal followed in 2019 and 2020. Several promises were issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to do the exercise afresh in a “participatory” manner, but then the same genocidal proposal kept being brought back.

OBC’s director Mollel breaks his long media silence

On 17^th May, the website Toward Freedom published an article about Loliondo by the Kenyan reporter Charles Wachira. This article contains some confusion that I’ll have to straighten out - since I’m writing about it - but most interesting, the reporter had got some words from OBC’s director Isaack Mollel, which if I remember correctly, hasn’t happened since 2017, but somewhat regularly before that, including starring in two “documentaries” by then reporter, later DC (Arumeru and then Ikungi) Jerry Muro. In 2017 Mollel apparently sat back to watch the horror unfold, in 2018 OBC’s love relation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism was publicly reaffirmed after the fallout with Minister Kigwangalla in October/November 2017, but with Mollel keeping a low profile, and in 2019/2020 Mollel had a very long stay in remand prison for economic sabotage.

In the article, Mollel is presented and OBC’s “spokesperson” and under his other names, “Isaya Lesion”. He keeps to his old rhetoric that the government, not the Maasai, owns the land, and has placed OBC there, but now he’s gained some sophistication telling the reporter that, “all the land in Tanzania belong to the public and the president holds the land in trust of the citizens and may intermittently change its usage for the benefit of the country”.

To further drive home his point, and perhaps to be more threatening, he reminds of some evictions known for their massive human rights crimes, “It has happened before in Ihefu Basin, Mtwara and Kilombero, just to name a few places where evictions by the government have happened to pave the way for development on behalf of the nation.” “The wider interest of the nation” was indeed what RC Mongella claimed to be defending when he in January this year renewed the threat against the 1,500 km² of important grazing land that OBC lobby the government to have converted into a protected area.

Then Mollel lashes out against CSOs that are opposed to the eviction plans saying that they, “turned the Maasais into their milking cows, using them to secure funding from external donors. It’s a lucrative business and the key players, who disproportionately live in urban centers, live large as the Maasais continue languishing in poverty.” This time he doesn’t call these NGOs (that in Loliondo were silenced through intimidation years ago) “Kenyan”. Maybe because he was talking to a Kenyan reporter. Such is the talk of the Loliondo police state, and it’s been copied in NCA.

Mollel is OBC’s director since 2007 and has through the years been a driving force behind the land threats, extreme violence, divide and rule, and the local police state that for some time silenced absolutely everyone. Though he hasn’t succeeded in having OBC’s 1,500 km²core hunting area turned into a “protected area” and in 2019 he ran into serious misfortune when he was arrested for economic sabotage.

One theory about why Mollel in 2019 was no longer untouchable says that he was used to send a message from Magufuli to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana and by extension to Bernard Membe. Though Mollel also had serious clashes of egos with RC Gambo and with Kigwangalla.

Initially, the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau seemed intent on dealing with the Loliondo police state at the service of investors and its enormous corruption, but were soon stopped and Mollel, while truly evil and far from innocent, became a scapegoat. PCCB arrested District Security Officer Issa Ng’itu to whose SIM card Mollel ha sent money, but Ng’itu was quickly released and promoted to RSO in Rukwa. Some Pakistani OBC workers after losing a lot of time waiting for court hearings were finally fined for having worked without permits and deported. Then Mollel’s case, mostly related to the importation of vehicles, was just drawn out while he languished in remand prison and sought plea bargaining. Mollel was released on 2^nd October 2020 and, reportedly after some time in Dubai, he was back to work.

After the arrest, OBC’s activities on the ground were for some time down to a minimum, while their staff and supporters kept saying that the case was about Mollel personally, not OBC, and that Sheikh Mohammed would soon visit. In 2021, OBC laid off a lot of staff and new people were hired. Among those laid off was the local traitor who since 2015 had been OBC’s assistant director, and since 2020 councillor for Ololosokwan. Some say he was let go because OBC didn’t trust him, and others say that he left on his own accord since being employed by OBC hindered his political ambitions. Anyway, it seems like his enormous treason during the years of worst repression hasn’t cost him anything at all.

I hope the reason that Mollel is now talking to media again is not that he’s feeling more confident about his lobbying for land alienation from the Maasai.

The confusion

As said, the article in Toward Freedom contain some confusion, which is something it has in common with almost all articles about Loliondo. This is a failure for this blog that exists to combat such confusion, misinformation and not least disinformation, but there isn’t any way that I can force people to read.

Part of the confusion is mixing up Loliondo with NCA, which is something that this year has spiralled out of all control, and is found in many articles. The article is about Loliondo, but suddenly, out of nowhere, the reporter starts writing about NCA (and UNESCO etc.) as if it were the same thing. In this case it seems like those interviewed have been talking about both issues and the reporter has mixed it up. He writes, “The government plans to lease to OBC the NCA, which encompasses the Loliondo division, among others.”No, OBC has since 1993 had the hunting block (permit to hunt) that encompasses Loliondo and part of Sale division of Ngorongoro district. NCA is the same as Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District, and hunting is not allowed there. The threat is about reducing the 4,000 km²hunting block to OBC’s 1,500 km² core hunting area and making this into a protected area. Confusion is also caused by the fact that the MLUM review proposal for NCA includes the proposal to annex the 1,500 km²in Loliondo to NCA which would require a change in the NCA Act, and that without Maasai, NCA could be turned into a National Park or a Game Reserve, and the latter alternative allows, or almost requires, hunting. Reportedly, there is also hunting in Kakesio where NCA is being encroached by Mwiba Holding that has hunting block in the neighbouring Meatu district. I wrote about this a decade ago, and apparently it continues.

Some misinformation that’s very unnecessary is writing that there were evictions in Loliondo in “2009, 2013, and 2017”. No, there were most definitely not any evictions in Loliondo in 2013. This is something that an otherwise most serious international organisation started writing this year, and other are copying.

The article claims that OBC is owned by “a group of Dubai royal families” and attributes this information to those behind a petition earlier this year. Since 1992, the named owner has been the businessman Major General (or Lt. General) Mohammed Abdul Rahim Al Ali (he used to be called “brigadier”), and Dubai has only one royal family, the Maktoums.

The reporter quotes the article from 2017 that has misled so many people into believing that the government ended a deal with OBC in November 2017 and was then never followed up. As known, it was Kigwangalla who said that OBC would leave before January 2018, but they didn’t goanywhere (Mollel’s brother and the assistant director were quite rude about this) and on 6^th December 2017 PM Majaliwa declared that OBC would stay. This is salvaged by further down quoting an article by Chris Lang of Redd Monitor who quite uniquely made corrections.

There’s a mention of a hunting ban that was lifted in November 2018, but that ban restricted resident hunters, and not trophy hunting tourists.

I really should write like this about all articles, this one was far from the worst, but I neither have the time, especially now when there are so many articles, nor can I afford the unpopularity that it sometimes leads to.

OBC’s “journalist” again

On 17^th May the Jamhuri newspaper published yet another article in which Manyerere Jackton calls for evicting the Maasai from OBC’s 1,500 km² core hunting area in Loliondo, “Kwa nini kigugumizi Ngorongoro, Loliondo?” He’s been conducting his dirty campaign in over 60 articles, but laid low when Mollel was arrested in 2019 and until this year 2022.

Except for a worry that The Royal Tour missed the wildebeest migration, which could lead to the neighbouring country appropriating it in their own Royal Tour, and a confused wish for more patriotism in palaeoanthropology, Jackton was full of praise for President Samia’s noble intention for reaching five million tourists by 2025, and her understanding that the way is through “conservation” (eviction of Maasai). The journalist wanted it speeded up in Ngorongoro, and of course in Loliondo. He mentioned that for Ngorongoro this needed time and money for efforts like that in Handeni, but he couldn’t understand why beacons hadn’t been erected in Loliondo already. The cost of complaints by some people was well worth it for the wider interest of the nation, he wrote. The message from this “journalist” is that beacons must immediately be erected to “save” what’s OBC’s core hunting area and to attract guests. Otherwise, it will serve as an example for any Tanzanian to oppose anything beneficial for the nation … He’s seen those opposing the plan in social media saying that they have support inside the government. I hope that’s true …

This article was restrained by Jackton’s standards.  In over 60 articles he has been spewing out unhinged hate rhetoric against the Maasai of Loliondo and campaigned for taking the 1,500 km² away from them. He has claimed that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private persons that his “sources” consider to be “Kenyan”. His slandering of those speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for land rights, has been vicious and insane. Besides this, he’s capable of fabricating any story for apparently no reason at all. This year, the Jamhuri joined Habib Mchange and Maulid Kitenge in their hate campaign against the Ngorongoro Maasai.

Even worse is that I’ve experienced first-hand how Jackton likes to boast about being directly involved in arrests of innocent people. He’s been boasting quite publicly, published photos of the phones of those illegally arrested, and used to email me rude one-liners when someone was about to be arrested. This appeared to be continuing when Manyerere Jackton’s article from mid-March engaged in the same wild “theories”, as the arrested councillors had been interrogated about.

This year’s Loliondo arrests

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, following a protest meeting 19^th March, on the 23^rdMethew Siloma councillor of Arash and the councillor of Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, were summoned to the CCM ethics committee at the party’s office in Loliondo, after which the police entered and Siloma was arrested – or abducted – and taken to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service), which TISS do not have a mandate to do. On 25^th March, Siloma was released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police, which has reportedly lately calmed down. Later Siloma has in social media said that he was locked up, interrogated and threatened in an unknown building, not at the police station.

On Easter Eve, 16^thApril, the councillor of Malambo was arrested and so were the councillors of Piyaya and Maaloni. They were released the following day, but Joel Reson from Malambo was told to report to the police in Arusha, which he did on 22^ndApril and then he was locked up at Arusha central police station, interrogated, released on bail the following day, and told to continue reporting to the police.

As mentioned by Siloma and Reson themselves in social media, all focus of the “interrogations” was laid on making them stop defending the land and “confess” to having received millions from the Kenyan Senator for Narok County, Ledama Olekina and that this would be the reason that they were speaking up against any plans of turning the 1,500 km²of vitally important grazing land into a “protected area”.

While these arrests have been “mild” compared to what was happening in 2016 (or even 2015) to 2019, I worry that the affected councillors then didn’t speak up about anything in media, which could be because the focus was on delivering a report to PM Majaliwa, which was done on 25^th May, even though Siloma at the protest meeting said that nothing would be handed to the liar Majaliwa, but to the president directly. On the other hand, reporters have allegedly also been receiving “instructions” from the PM.

At a press conference the day after handing over community recommendations from NCA and Loliondo/Sale to Majaliwa, Joel Clement Reson said that the conflict in Loliondo was caused by OBC, and that the company had insisted on placing beacons on people’s land. He reminded the government of that the Maasai don’t eat wildlife and said that if the government love OBC they can come to do business, but not force people to relocate. The councillor also engaged in some praise of Majaliwa …

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

Since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km² Loliondo hunting blocks (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate scandal covered by the reporter Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, and agricultural areas, so OBC have lobbied to have it reduced to their core hunting area bordering Serengeti National Park, and to make it a protected area, which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

In 2008, then Ngorongoro DC Jowika Kasunga coerced local leaders into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km² osero was illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.

The Maasai moved back, and some leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the village land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united, and the draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

In 2013, Minister Kagasheki lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km²meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This ugly trick did not work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped Kagasheki’s threats.

After the unity, efforts to buy off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land. Though nobody signed any MoU.

The investors (OBC and Thomson Safaris) had for years used the local police state that through the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will threaten anyone who could speak up about them and engage in defamation and illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with Magufuli in office, and there were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical areas” under protests in each village. The proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad compromise that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

Maybe since the Maasai showed such weakness, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision, on 13^th August 2017 an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested loudly. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

The illegal operation wasn’t stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would have left Tanzania before 2018, but it was very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri). Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, and would of course be contempt of court.

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince), and in April OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually made permanent with donations from the NCAA.

In June 2018, the OCCID and local police tried to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for the applicants' main counsel. On 25^th September 2018 – a year after the illegal operation - the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated. In November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by President Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC toned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out, and after a while back to work. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Bernard Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

In September 2019, a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km² and turn it into a protected area allowing hunting was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ. The case against Thomson Safaris in the Tanzanian court of appeal, however, was in 2022 killed using a law that was introduced after the case was filed.

On 11^th January 2022, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km², or to sign the attendance list. On 13^th-14^th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected, because of the crazy anti-Maasai hate campaign, and parliamentarians calling for tanks to be sent to Ngorongoro.

Three days later, on 17^thFebruary in NCA, not Loliondo, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then Ndumbaro on 8^thMarch re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with DW Kiswahili, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

Placing beacons to mark the 1,500 km² osero would be a serious invasion of village land, contempt of court, and only serves the interests of those who want to rob the Maasai of this land. Any attempt must be dealt with without delay!

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

On 6^th April, the new minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo.

Then as mentioned, CCM councillors that have spoken up against plans of robbing the Maasai of the 1,500 km² osero are, after a protest meeting in Arash on 19^thMarch being intimidated, arrested, and summoned to be “interrogated” in Arusha. Currently the councillors of Arash and Malambo must keep reporting to the police, even if this seems to have calmed down, and a laigwanani together with the village chairman of Malambo have been summoned to the Loliondo police and are to return when the OCD is there.

On 25^th May a committee handed over their report of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km²osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa, which Siloma had said they would not do. I hope the Loliondo/Sale part is as good as that for NCA, but I’ve had some worries. In 2017, the results of dancing to Majaliwa’s tune were catastrophic.

The case in the East African Court of Justice is in its very final stages. A win should be certain, but I have some hopefully unfounded worries.

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

On 3^rdJune, in her budget speech for 2022-2023, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana said that her Ministry expects to upgrade Loliondo Game Controlled Area to a Game Reserve. This is not only a criminal threat of violence and destruction of thousands of lives and livelihoods, but if in any way implemented, contempt of court in the case, in its final stages, in the East African Court of Justice. This comes only days after local leaders, on 25^thMay, in their futile dance to PM Majaliwa’s tune - at the same time as those from NCA – handed in explanations that the land is theirs, that they need it, that they care for it, and that they aren’t going anywhere. As if Majaliwa, or anyone in the government would listen … There must be loud protests, more court cases, perhaps even a reclaim of Serengeti if the government continues like this.

This blog post is about Loliondo and Sale Divisions, not to be mixed up with Ngorongoro Division (NCA), even if the issues are closely related.

In this blog post:

Chana’s land grab attempt via budget speech

Earlier criminal attempts

Escalation in 2022

How?

Chana’s land grab attempt via budget speech

As mentioned, Pindi Chana in her budget speech indicated that the Ministry expects to upgrade the status of several Game Controlled Areas including Loliondo and Lake Natron into Game Reserves. I assume (it wasn’t specified) Chana was referring to the 1,500 km²of the old 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area, which is the core hunting area of Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, and that for years have been lobbying the Tanzanian government to have their hunting block since 1993 (the whole of Loliondo GCA, first contract signed in 1992 without involving local people) reduced to these 1,500 km² and turned into a “protected area” to evict the Maasai and their livestock. This lobbying has led to two major illegal mass arson invasions of village land, ordered by the DC’s office in 2009 and 2017, and a local police state in which anyone who criticises the “investors” (OBC and Thomson Safaris) will be severely harassed.

The 4,000 km² old/former Loliondo GCA consists of the entire Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District, and Piyaya and Malambo wards of Sale Division. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, agricultural areas, forest reserves, hospitals, a teachers’ collage, a military camp, and a “private nature refuge” claimed by the deeply unethical American Thomson Safaris. The 1,500 km² that OBC uses as their core hunting area is essential dry season grazing land, the home of many people, and legally registered village land, on which the new Wildlife Conservation Act No 5 of 2009 prohibits the establishment of Game Controlled Areas.

Each Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism has tried to assist OBC in their own way, but still the Maasai keep their land. Pindi Chana’s strategy is apparently to issue a demented massive attack against almost all Maasai grazing land in Tanzania’s northern zone and beyond, all at the same time. In one sentence she announced not only that Loliondo GCA is to be upgraded to a Game Reserve, but that her ministry expects to do the same with the GCAs of Lake Natron – part of it is in Ngorongoro district and there’s also a threat of annexation to NCA.Other Game Controlled Areas to be upgraded are Kilombero, Lolkisale, Longido, Muhuwesi, Umba River, Mto wa Mbu, Simanjiro, Ruvu Masai, Ruvu Same and Kalimawe; and the Forest Reserves of Litumbandyosi and Gesimazoa.

A Game Reserve, like a National Park, has a strict ban on all activities by local people, while tourism is strongly encouraged, but with the difference that unlike in a National Park hunting by tourists is allowed, or not only allowed, but it’s the purpose of a Game Reserve.

Somewhat outdated map of hunting areas, but the old Game Controlled Areas are the same, and even if not all of them are included, it gives an image of the insanity. Loliondo (27 and 28), Lake Natron (29), Longido (30), Mto wa Mbu (31), Lolkisale (38), Simanjiro (39-42), Ruvu Same (44), Ruvu Masai (45), Kilombero (55,56). Does anyone have a better map?

The announcement would require evictions from such huge areas of Tanzania that it just can’t be seriously meant but could be a strategy to make old mass eviction plans seem measured. There’s been some reactions in social media, but in regular media it isn't mentioned at all. This contrasts with the attention given to a statement issued by the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) on 5^th June temporarily lifting a ban on exports of live wild animals. Just one day later Pindi Chana reinstated the ban to allow further consultations.

Fortunately, Ngorongoro has an MP, Emmanuel Oleshangai, and in parliament he reminded the Minister and indeed the government that Loliondo representatives have handed over their report of recommendations to the PM as he asked them to do, and the MP asked the Ministry to go through them and those from Ngorongoro division. He wondered why the Ministry didn’t want people in any part of Ngorongoro - Loliondo, Lake Natron or NCA - to be able to exist. Then they go to Mto wa Mbu GCA, wherever that is (it’s a town). Everywhere people will cry because of the Ministry, from Monduli to Longido to Lolkisale to Simanjiro to Kilombero. For whose benefit are such protected areas? Protected areas that make Tanzanians cry every day have no benefit. The conflict in Loliondo has lasted for 30 years. About 307,800 km2 of Tanzania are already protected areas. Let people continue their lives in the rest of the country.

Old Game Controlled Areas do not restrict local human activities and can, and do, overlap with village land. Though in Wildlife Conservation Act 2009, that came into effect in 2010, GCAs are defined as the same as Game Reserve. Per the 2009 Act they are no longer allowed to overlap with village land, and they were to be reviewed within one year of the Act coming into operation, which didn’t happen anywhere, so all GCAs are now to be considered defunct. Though after the illegal mass arson operation in 2009, OBC tried the “legal” (not really) way and funded the surveying of a new draft district land use plan, which unsurprisingly proposed turning their 1,500 km² core hunting area into the new kind of GCA that would not allow local Maasai and livestock. This proposal was strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011, but then several attempts to impose it anyway have followed:

Previous criminal attempts

In 2013 Kagasheki attempted the strategy of shameless lying, saying that the 4,000 km² were a protected area, that the Maasai were landless, and that the government was generously gifting them with 2,500 km², when the actual plan was to steal 1,500 km². At this time the Maasai were united in an exemplary way, raised support from both ruling party and opposition, and PM Pinda stopped the Kagasheki-style land grab attempt.

With Nyalandu followed the strategy (already widely practised but intensified) of divide and rule and buying off local leaders. This was frightfully successful in some cases, but not to the extent that anyone signed anything about the land.

Next came increased repression with lengthy illegal arrests, which continued between 2016 (or 2015) and 2019, and this is where Majaliwa entered the Loliondo land grabbing circus. In 2016 he tasked then Arusha RC Gambo with setting up a select committee to solve the conflict. Local leaders were weakened to the extent that when the committee reached the compromise proposal of a Wildlife Management Area, that in Loliondo had been successfully rejected when the government and FZS tried to impose it in the 2000s, and even when there were spontaneous protests in village after village against Gambo’s committee, they regarded it as a victory.

While everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision, on 13^th August 2017 an “unexpected” illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested loudly. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

A few weeks after Kigwangalla had been appointed as minister, he stopped the illegal operation, and for at least a couple of days, he appeared to be a completely new kind of minister. He complained that OBC’s director Isaack Mollel had tried to bribe him more cheaply than he had bribed his predecessors and said that OBC would have left Tanzania before January 2018. Though OBC didn’t show any signs of packing, and on 6^th December 2017 Majaliwa announced that they were staying. The PM also announced his decision that was something terrifying, but vague, about a legal bill and forming a special authority to manage the land. This decision was celebrated by OBC’s journalist Manyerere Jackton, but then it fortunately kept being delayed.

In 2018, OBC reaffirmed their love relation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism with yet another gift of 15 vehicles. In Loliondo a military camp was set up and later made permanent in Lopolun near Wasso with donations from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. Then followed the most inexplicable silence during an attempt by the OCCID and local police to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice, filed during the illegal operation of 2017, when only the main counsel, and not any local leaders spoke up. The silence continued during strange and brutal attacks by the soldiers stationed at Lopolun against several groups of local people. On 25^th September 2018 – a year after being filed - the court finally granted the injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants while the main case continues, but this injunction was soon brutally violated when in November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan, while nobody at all dared to speak up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by President Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC toned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out, and soon back to work. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Bernard Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

Now some local leaders claim that after the arrest of Mollel everything was calm until 2022, which isn’t true at all. It was they who had been silenced. In September 2019, the genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km²Osero from Loliondo and Sale divisions and turn it into a protected area, while allowing hunting, was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal has since been met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo. Then 2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working hard to make the village chairmen of Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien and Arash withdraw the case in the East African Court of Justice, but they stood their ground.

Escalation in 2022

On 11^th January 2022, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km² Osero, or to sign the attendance list. On 13^th-14^th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but with a friendlier tone, and not being too specific. Three days later, on 17^th February in NCA, not Loliondo, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then former Minister Ndumbaro on 8^th March re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with DW Kiswahili, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects (outside the 1,500 km2, pretending that the land was only needed for water) in Loliondo when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha regarding “voluntary” relocations from Ngorongoro Conservation Area, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

At a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19^th March, several leaders spoke up in defence of the land, among them the Arash ward councillor Methew Siloma, who as district chairman 2015-2020 had been a disappointment, spoke up very clearly and strongly. The message from this meeting was:

-PM Majaliwa is a liar.

-The Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.

-They request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.

Following the protest meeting 19^th March, on the 23^rd councillor Siloma and the councillor of Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, were summoned to the CCM ethics committee at the party’s office in Loliondo, after which the police entered and Siloma was arrested – or abducted – and taken to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service), which TISS do not have a mandate to do. On 25^th March, Siloma was released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police, which has reportedly lately calmed down. Later Siloma has in social media said that he was locked up, interrogated and threatened in an unknown building, not at the police station.

On Easter Eve, 16^thApril, the councillor of Malambo was arrested and so were the councillors of Piyaya and Maaloni. They were released the following day, but Joel Reson from Malambo was told to report to the police in Arusha, which he did on 22^ndApril and then he was locked up at Arusha central police station, interrogated, released on bail the following day, and told to continue reporting to the police.

As mentioned by Siloma and Reson themselves in Clubhouse, all focus of the “interrogations” was laid on making them stop defending the land, “confess” to having received millions from the Kenyan Senator for Narok County, Ledama Olekina and that this would be the reason that they were speaking up against any plans of turning the 1,500 km2 of vitally important grazing land into a “protected area”.

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

On 6^th April, the new Minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo, but nothing has transpired of what she said or did.

This year has seen the return of OBC’s journalist, Manyerere Jackton, to incitement against the Loliondo Maasai. The past years he’s parroted chief conservator Manongi’s rhetoric about NCA, but he’s lied low about Loliondo following the arrest of OBC’s director Mollel, after previously in over 60 articles having engaged in extreme incitement, slander and fabrications. Also, Mollel himself has returned to sharing his views in the press, even if only in one international article. His message is that the president can change the land use anywhere in Tanzania to benefit the nation, naming a couple of brutal evictions operations to exemplify, and adding that urban NGOs use the Maasai as milking cows.

President Samia has repeatedly threatened the Maasai of NCA, but she has also mentioned Loliondo. On 30^thApril, in connection to the premier of The Royal Tour, Peter Greenberg published a radio interview with her in which she includes a threat against Loliondo when being asked a somewhat unrelated question. Peter Greenberg mentions “overtourism” and asks the president for her definition of “sustainable tourism”. Then Samia uses the occasion to respond that we must come up with strategies to protect the whole ecosystem, so that tourist attractions last for a longer time, and gives the example of Loliondo that’s bordering Serengeti, claiming that Loliondo is close to the Mara River (it’s not) and that we can’t allow the river to dry up, since there will not be the migration and Serengeti will not be the same …

Contrary to what had been announced at the meeting in Arash, on 25^th May the committee handed over their report of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km²Osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa. The 60 members of the two parts of the committee weren’t allowed to make any presentation. Instead, as usual, there was one-way communication from Majaliwa who, as far as I’ve found out, didn’t say anything at all about Loliondo, and went on about houses that are being built in Handeni for “voluntary” (see previous and coming blog posts) relocation from NCA to Handeni. The PM said that he will work on the recommendations. He told the committee members to keep believing in the government, and ignore nonsense by irrelevant people, since it can’t have bad plans for its citizens, The following day the committee members held their own press conference. While speaking up strongly and making it clear that they aren’t going anywhere, they were also grateful for the opportunity to hand over community views to Majaliwa.

Then, in her budget speech on 3^rd June, Pindi Chana, announces that her ministry expects to “upgrade” Loliondo GCA to a Game Reserve!

How?

How can local leaders again and again fall into the trap of dancing to Majaliwa’s tune? He’s such a monumental liar, known by almost all Tanzanians as having said that Magufuli was working hard with heaps of folders on his desk, when the late president had been gone for weeks and was dying or already dead. In 2016-2017 dancing to his tune in Loliondo was followed by unexpected extreme brutality and then a dangerous and disappointing decision, and in NCA his visit in December 2016 led to loss of access to the craters of Ngorongoro, Olmoti and Empakaai. One explanation is of course that all local leaders are CCM members, but some professionals in the committee preparing community reports are opposition supporters. One CCM member explains it as, “The Maasai want peace, and they think negotiations will bear fruit. Just because he is in the government, they have no alternative. The only good thing is Malijwa lies all the time (he gets trapped in his own lies)”.A non-CCM-member, from NCA, not Loliondo says (regarding the latest committee), “Their intention was not only to hand these reports to Majaliwa. It was beyond it. They made an advocacy tool for life and forever.” This was referring to the NCA report. The Loliondo/Sale report is partly impressive as well, but some grave and unnecessary mistakes made me angry.

Meanwhile in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on 4^th June, the CCM youth wing UVCCM, has made a 1,000-headed fossil fuel guzzling tourist visit using 140 vehicles, celebrating their Mama Samia, The Royal Tour (see previous blog post) and this unbelievably destructive industry. The same was already done by Deputy Minister Masanja and her caravan of women, and it couldn’t be made clearer that the eviction threats against the Maasai have absolutely nothing to do with environmental concerns.

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

Never ever again dance to Majaliwa’s tune! It ends in tears however much he smiles and however clearly you explain everything to him!

Updates at the end.

Today, 8^th June 2022 (now it's so late that it was yesterday), high numbers of police vehicles from the anti-riot Field Force Unit, were in the morning sighted in Wasso town in Loliondo division of Ngorongoro district. The FFU, and others, have now set up camp in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan and in Sanjan sub-village of Malambo. Unconfirmed reports also mention camps in Oloipiri and Arash*. Fears were (now confirmed) that the plan is to erect beacons to demarcate 1,500 km² of vitally important, legally registered, village land that the “investor” OBC, and others, want turned into a “protected area”. FFU were saying that they are sent to erect beacons for a TAWA area (Game Reserve), which confirmed the fears, later further confirmed in a nauseating clip by RC John Mongella. Such an exercise is a heinous crime and contempt of court. Reports say that in Oloosek there are 18 vehicles from the FFU, two from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (that has a camp in Olopolun near Wasso), some from the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA)/Jeshi Uhifadhi, and others. In Sanjan there are 11 FFU vehicles, 3 from TAWA and 2 unknown. Numbers may not be exact and others may arrive. Reportedly, the FFU are also saying that they will extend OBC’s hunting area, also known as the Osero, into Serengeti National Park, which seems unlikely, and they may not have been properly briefed.

*Soit Orgoss in Oloipiri confirmed.

Today in Ololosokwan, people gathered to pray in protest of the unexpected police invasion.

Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), that organises hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, have for years lobbied to have 1,500 km² of important grazing land, village land belonging to the local Maasai, turned into a protected area. This caused illegalmass arson operations in 2009 and 2017. A local police state had, until recently, silenced all local leaders and activists, and still people from Loliondo are much more silent in the debate than those from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), even if protests erupted when threats were renewed this year, and then community recommendations were handed over to PM Majaliwa (who had asked for them) on 25^th May. There’s an ongoing case, in its final stages, in the East African Court of Justice, filed during the brutal illegal operation of 2017. The land under threat is in Loliondo Division and Piyaya (or Piaya) and Malambo wards of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District. While not unrelated, this is NOT THE SAME issue as the threat of “voluntary” relocation to Handeni from NCA (Ngorongoro Division).

In 2010/2011 draft district land use plan funded by OBC proposed the alienation of the 1,500 km²of village land. This was strongly rejected by Ngorongoro District Council. In 2013 Minister Kagasheki brought it back via vociferous and shameless lies but was stopped by PM Pinda thanks to the then exemplary unity and seriousness shown by the Maasai. Divide and rule and attempts at buying off local leaders worsened. Some were gravely corrupted but none to the extent of signing off the land in any way at all. Repression worsened with Magufuli as president. PM Majaliwa attempted to “solve the conflict” via a select committee set up by Arusha RC Gambo. This was in 2017 followed by an unexpected, extremely brutal and illegal invasion of village land like the one in 2009, ordered by the DC. The crime continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others (in 2009 the FFU and OBC rangers had been the main implementors). People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while many others protested loudly.

Oloosek 13th August 2017

In December the same year, Majaliwa announced a terrifying but vague decision that fortunately was delayed and forgotten until the MLUM review proposal for NCA in 2019 was announced and catered to OBC’s wishes for Loliondo.

By 2018, local leaders were silenced to the extent that they didn’t speak up when soldiers, without any official order, tortured people and set fire to bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. In 2019 some thought the hostility by the government had lessened when OBC’s director was locked up in remand prison for economic sabotage. Though in September the same year a Multiple Land Use Model (MLUM) review proposal for NCA included OBC’s wish for a protected area allowing hunting, and in this case also annexing the 1,500 km² to NCA. Compared to leaders and activists from NCA, those from Loliondo have been remarkably quiet about this MLUM threat, except for two joint statements by the councillors in 2019 and 2021 and a press statement by village chairmen in September 2021.

Current reports seem to keep to the map from the MLUM threat that proposed alienating a 1,038 km²area along the boundary to Serengeti National Park, and a 462 km²area in the southeast end of the old Loliondo GCA (therefore the FFU camp in Sanjan) bordering NCA. Though this time the NCA annexation isn’t mentioned but the aim seems to be to create an equally illegal TAWA area (Game Reserve).

The confused build-up to this this year’s Osero grab attempt

In January 2022 there were fears about leaked documents with plans (later confirmed) for NCA, but instead Arusha RC Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km² Osero, or to sign the attendance list. On 13^th-14^th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

Already in January, TAWA set up camp in Sanjan, which led to fears that they were planning to erect beacons, and people protested until the TAWA rangers left. Since then, several other meetings have been held and local leaders have suffered harassment from authorities.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but with a “friendlier” tone, and the attendants were far too soft on him. Three days later, on 17^thFebruary in NCA, not Loliondo, Majaliwa lied that the 1,500 km²is “empty” (there are both permanent and seasonal bomas). The PM said that, if the problem is water, we have the minister here, and boreholes can be drilled elsewhere (unsurprisingly, on 1^st-2^nd March, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Jumaa Aweso, visited Loliondo to announce water projects), Just three days earlier, the Ngorongoro MP had very clearly explained the area’s importance for grazing. Excising the 1,500 km²from the 4,000 km² old Loliondo GCA (Loliondo division and parts of Sale) signifies destruction of lives and livelihoods. The remaining area has two towns, with district headquarters and hospitals, agricultural areas, forest reserves, and the horrible American company Thomson Safaris claiming their own private nature refuge. Majaliwa ordered a demarcation exercise of the disputed 1,500 km² to be initiated to “know the boundaries”! There aren’t “boundaries”, since the area is part of the village land and has not been grabbed! No boundaries are needed, unless there are bad intentions. And bad intentions are now certainly being shown!

On 11^th March. Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects (outside the 1,500 km²) pretending that the land was only needed for water, when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha regarding “voluntary” relocations from Ngorongoro Conservation Area, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

At a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19^th March, several leaders spoke up in defence of the land, among them the Arash ward councillor Methew Siloma spoke up very clearly and strongly. The message from this meeting was:

-PM Majaliwa is a liar.

-The Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.

-They request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.

Following the protest meeting 19^th March, on the 23^rd councillor Siloma and the councillor of Malambo, Joel Clement Reson, were summoned to the CCM ethics committee at the party’s office in Loliondo, after which the police entered and Siloma was arrested – or abducted – and taken to Arusha accompanied by Security Officer Hassan. In Arusha family and lawyers weren’t allowed to see Siloma. The Regional Commanding Officer said that it was a political case, and the councillor was being interrogated outside the police by TISS (Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service), which TISS do not have a mandate to do. On 25^th March, Siloma was released on bail, without charges, but he must continue reporting to the police, which has reportedly lately calmed down. Later Siloma has in social media said that he was locked up, interrogated and threatened in an unknown building, not at the police station.

On Easter Eve, 16^thApril, the councillor of Malambo was arrested and so were the councillors of Piyaya and Maaloni. They were released the following day, but Joel Reson from Malambo was told to report to the police in Arusha, which he did on 22^ndApril and then he was locked up at Arusha central police station, interrogated, released on bail the following day, and told to continue reporting to the police.

Though the illegal arrests of this year of been “mild” compared to those of 2016 (or 2015) to 2019 that were lengthier and included torture.

As mentioned by Siloma and Reson themselves in Clubhouse, all focus of the “interrogations” was laid on making them stop defending the land, “confess” to having received millions from the Kenyan Senator for Narok County, Ledama Olekina and that this would be the reason that they were speaking up against any plans of turning the 1,500 km²of vitally important grazing land into a “protected area”.

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

On 6^th April, the new Minister Pindi Chana visited Loliondo, but nothing has transpired of what she said or did.

This year has seen the return of OBC’s journalist, Manyerere Jackton, to incitement against the Loliondo Maasai. The past years he’s parroted chief conservator Manongi’s rhetoric about NCA, but he’s lied low about Loliondo following the arrest of OBC’s director Mollel, after previously in over 60 articles having engaged in extreme incitement, slander and fabrications. Also, Mollel himself has returned to sharing his views in the press, even if only in one international article. His message is that the president can change the land use anywhere in Tanzania to benefit the nation, naming a couple of brutal evictions operations to exemplify, and adding that urban NGOs use the Maasai as milking cows.

President Samia has repeatedly threatened the Maasai of NCA, but she has also mentioned Loliondo. On 30^thApril, in connection to the premier of The Royal Tour, Peter Greenberg published a radio interview with her in which she includes a threat against Loliondo when being asked a somewhat unrelated question. Peter Greenberg mentions “overtourism” and asks the president for her definition of “sustainable tourism”. Then Samia uses the occasion to respond that we must come up with strategies to protect the whole ecosystem, so that tourist attractions last for a longer time, and gives the example of Loliondo that’s bordering Serengeti, claiming that Loliondo is close to the Mara River (it’s not) and that we can’t allow the river to dry up, since there will not be the migration and Serengeti will not be the same …

Contrary to what had been announced at the meeting in Arash, on 25^th May the committee handed over their report of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km2 Osero in Loliondo and Sale to PM Majaliwa. The 60 members of the two parts of the committee weren’t allowed to make any presentation. Instead, as usual, there was one-way communication from Majaliwa who, as far as I’ve found out, didn’t say anything at all about Loliondo, and went on about houses that are being built in Handeni for “voluntary” (see many blog posts from this year) relocation from NCA to Handeni. The PM said that he will work on the recommendations. He told the committee members to keep believing in the government, and ignore nonsense by irrelevant people, since it can’t have bad plans for its citizens! The following day the committee members held their own press conference. While speaking up strongly and making it clear that they aren’t going anywhere, they were also grateful for the opportunity to hand over community views to Majaliwa. IF Majaliwa has had a look at the community recommendations (which he of course hasn’t), he will see that the land belongs to the Maasai, that they need it, that they care for it, and that they aren’t going anywhere. Though this is something that has been explained to him many, many times for years!

Then, in her budget speech on 3^rd June, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana, announces that her ministry expects to “upgrade” Loliondo Game Controlled Areas to a Game Reserve! Not only this, but the plan is to do the same with a long list of other old Game Controlled Areas, which are huge areas of village land. Her words were so ignorant and demented that nobody could take them seriously. They would mean that the whole northern zone from Serengeti to Kilimanjaro would become a Game Reserve, and many other areas below. Still, except for the Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai, this blogger, and some people in social media, there wasn’t any reaction at all! The other MPs from areas mentioned in her speech didn’t utter a word, and nothing at all was written in the press. Is this the reason that it was seen as safe to send the FFU to invade Loliondo?

Messages from the perpetrators of crime

A video clip of RC Mongella is being circulated in which he repeats Kagasheki’s old – since long stopped and disproven - lie that the old 4,000 km2 Loliondo GCA would be a protected area, but that the government out of the kindness of its heart would have decided to give people living there 2,500 km2! And that 1,500 km2 are being “kept” for conservation! To make matters worse, he pretends that the exercise is “participatory” through many visits by government officials. He seems to have forgotten what he was told when he issued his threat in January! And it wasn’t exactly subtle.

Further, in a press release dated 7^th June, Pascal Shelutete, Tanzania National Parks Authority´s public relation’s manager,writes that RC Mongella at a meeting in Karatu called on the people of Arusha Region to support the Government's efforts in conserving Loliondo GCA, and called on those spreading false information to stop doing so, since the government's goal is to preserve the area for the benefit of Tanzanians and the economy of the country as a whole.

This must be the same meeting in Karatu yesterday, to which the Ngorongoro District Executive Director (DED) summoned all ward and village executive directors via a letter dated 6^th June. Just one day’s notice. This DED Jumaa Mhina, who arrived in in Ngorongoro in 2021, has been a destructive force indeed trying to make village chairs abandon the ongoing case in the East African Court of Justice.

I certainly didn’t expect this invasion! Not now!But now all local leaders and activists, together with national and international allies, must speak up in unison, while trying to keep to facts (I will help with that if anyone listens).

Never ever again dance to Majaliwa’s tune! It ends in tears however much he smiles and however clearly you explain everything to him!

Please alert everyone and share all information that you have!

Updates:

9^th June:

There are protests in Ololosokwan.

Protests in Kirtalo after all these years of torture and silence.

Pindi Chana has landed in Karatu to inspect the illegal exercise in Loliondo.

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

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!

*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.

What makes this attack worse than any other is that beacons are being planted, and that local leaders, unlike in the past, don’t get any support from the ruling CCM party, which has turned into an anti-Maasai monolith. Opposition parties support the Maasai, but there's a one-party parliament. The whole country has copied the Loliondo Police State, every government supporter has – to some extent – learnt the old narrative about “Kenyans” and NGOs, breeding grounds and water sources. On the other hand, most thinking Tanzanians now understand what’s going on. Some have been very supportive since early this year, with Maria Sarungi Tsehai at the forefront.

Protest statements from international organisations are so many that I can’t keep up and haven’t had the time to analyse the level of support (“form a commission and sit down at the same table”, isn’t that supportive), but the Oakland Institute and Survival International have distinguished themselves for their speed and Survival for going to the roots by rattling Frankfurt Zoological Society. The much-maligned Kenyan Maasai have shown solidarity by treating wounds and feeding those who are fleeing across the border (they are many). They organize protests in different ways, showing love while bickering with each other.

The crime

In her budget speech on 3^rdJune, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana, announced that her ministry expects to “upgrade” Loliondo Game Controlled Areas to a Game Reserve. She never mentioned the 1,500 km² area (at least not in the written version), and the only Loliondo GCA that has ever existed is the 4,000 km² - the whole of Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division (Piyaya and Malambo wards) - since Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 defunct, Loliondo GCA that in its totality overlapped with village land and didn’t restrict local people’s land use in any way. It delineated the hunting block, and that’s the only thing it continues to do. Further, Chana didn’t put any stress on Loliondo, but mentioned it in a long list of other (defunct) GCAs to be turned into Game Reserves, which would mean that the whole northern zone from Serengeti to Kilimanjaro, and many other areas. The whole of Longido District would become a Game Reserve. This just couldn’t be taken seriously. Except for the Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai, this blogger, and some people in social media, there wasn’t any reaction at all. The other MPs from areas mentioned in her speech didn’t utter a word*, and nothing was reported in the press.

*Olesendeka from Simanjiro spoke up on 20th June. 

As mentioned in my latest blog post written the same day (with updates since then), on 8^th June, in the morning (but abnormal activities had been noticed already the previous day) there was an alarm about heavy presence of vehicles from the anti-riot Field Force Unit (FFU) in Wasso town. The FFU went on to set up camp in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan, in Sanjan sub-village of Malambo, Soit Orgoss in Oloipiri, and Olchoroibor in Loosoito (later Arash was added). Another camp was set up at the DC's office. Other forces confirmed as participating are Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), Serengeti and Tanzania National Parks Authority (SENAPA/TANAPA), soldiers from Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ) that have a camp in Olopolun near Wasso since 2018, OBC’s anti-poaching, and local police. Other on the ground participants in this crime are not yet confirmed.  

It surfaced that on 2^ndand 6^th June, the Arusha Regional and Ngorongoro District Security Committees had held closed-door meetings in Arusha and Karatu. It was in connection with these meetings that Arusha RC Mongella made a video clip explaining what he termed as the 'exercise'. A letter from the DED summoning all ward and village executive officers (WEOs and VEOs) to Karatu on the 7^th had already been leaked. They were asked to come with the stamps of the ward and village offices. WEOs and VEOs are government employees working under the DC, and not representing local people in any way. 

The video clip featuring RC JohnMongella was uploaded and unquestioningly reported in regular Tanzanian media, and in this clip the RC repeats Kagasheki’s old – since long stopped and disproven - lie that the old 4,000 km2 Loliondo GCA would be a protected area since 1951, but that the government out of love for its people decided to give those who had moved in 2,500 km2, while 1,500 km2 are being “kept” for critical conservation. To make matters worse, he pretends that the exercise is “participatory” through many visits by government officials. He seemed to have forgotten what he was told when he issued his threat in January! This:

Further, in a press release dated 7^th June, Pascal Shelutete, Tanzania National Parks Authority´s public relation’s manager, writes that RC Mongella at a meeting in Karatu called on the people of Arusha Region to support the Government's efforts in conserving Loliondo GCA, and anticipating protests called on those spreading false information to stop doing so, since the government's goal is to preserve the area for the benefit of Tanzanians and the economy of the country.

In Ololosokwan, people gathered to pray in protest of the unexpected police invasion. Meetings to deliberate what action to take were reportedly held in several villages.

On 9^thJune, the Maasai gathered for more protests and were approached by armed FFU that wanted to “explain” the operation to them. The FFU also gate-crashed social gatherings to do the same. The FFU’s explanation – repeating the RC’s words - was that they were there to demarcate 1,500 km² as a Game Reserve - the vital threat that decades of land rights struggle had managed to avert.

Significantly more pictures than during other illegal operations started circulating, taken by people sitting in the grass at a distance. However, a picture taken from a vehicle behind FFUs confronting Maasai, is obviously not from now, but taken by a journalist when a committee was unexpectedly met by protests in March 2017 (so stop using that one).

In Kirtalo women with pangas and men with bows and arrows made a video clip as a message to show that they were ready to die for their land.

The councillors of Ololosokwan (worked as OBC’s assistant director for years), Oloipiri (big friend of OBC when he was village chairperson), Oloirien, Maaloni, Arash, Piyaya, Malambo, and two women’s special seats councillors, Kijoolu Kakiya and Taleng’o Leshoko were arrested after being lured to a meeting by the DC. Nothing was known of their whereabouts until the 16^th (see below).

Reportedly, Parmwaari Merika, Oloirien village chairman, had been arrested already on 7^th June, but there are such differing views on where he is now that I just don’t know.

The night before 10^th June, the land grabbing forces started planting illegal beacons on village land in Ololosokwan. They Maasai uprooted the beacons and in the morning the FFU attacked them with teargas and live bullets. People were arrested and the FFU destroyed several motorbikes. The injured were taken across the border to Kenya for treatment, some needing surgery. Pictures of injuries were shared, some may not find it ethical, but they made an impact on Tanzanians online. The latest number of injuries I’ve heard, compiled by Kenyan doctors, was 128, but many people are missing.

The over 70 years old Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen with bullet wounds and detained by the FFU is not seen on the list of those charged with murder and not found anywhere else.

One FFU officer was killed by arrowshot (or arrowshot is what RC Mongella said). While human life is always irreplaceable, this is a clear case of self-defence. He was 36, not 18, aware of what his profession entailed, and that when sent with hundreds of colleagues to plant boundary beacons on Maasai land, he knew that he was sent to commit a crime.

In parliament, PM Majaliwa’s “explanation” was expected from someone who when Magufuli was dying or already dead declared that the president was working hard with loads of files on his desk. He claimed that beacons are being placed to protect the environment and that the local Maasai will not be affected. He warned people of ill will who are spreading a video with false information, referring to the clip from Kirtalo, saying that the Maasai weren’t pointing their arrows at any police, while missing the point that it was a message sent to himself. Speaker Tulia Ackson, said that the government has explained the operation, that those spreading false information will be dealt with, and that Tanzania is in an economic war with other countries.

On 11^thJune, RC Mongella arrived in Loliondo with the regional security committee to repeat Kagasheki’s old lie about the land status in Loliondo, a lie that was put stop to already in 2013, but that the government now is set to keep repeating again and again. He said that the illegal operation was going just fine, while confirming that one police was the previous day killed by arrowshot and putting emphasis on that it happened after PM Majaliwa’s statement. Then he posed in photos planting illegal beacons.

On ITV and Channel 10 doctors from Wasso stood saying that they didn't have any injured people, and Tanzanian media has since continued showing an appalling lack of professionalism, sticking tightly to the government disinformation narrative.

The stream of pictures stopped, and reporting became sporadic.

Violence continued in Ololosokwan and more people were injured.

One elderly man in Malambo died when hit by a FFU vehicle.

In the evening there was teargas and illegal planting of beacons in Oltulelei area of Maaloni. People were arrested and beaten, and the FFU set fire to three motorbikes.

At night the FFU fired shots in all directions in Mairowa in Ololosokwan, not in the 1,500 km²area that’s being targeted by illegal demarcation. Houses were searched and people were beaten. Many ran away into the bush to hide. More people fled to Kenya.

Albert Selembo, legal officer at the organization IDINGO was arrested and then kept being held at Loliondo police station, on unknown charges, until appearing on the murder charge sheet together with the councillors.

International media started reporting to an extent that was hard to keep up with. Some had problems not mixing up this illegal operation with the speeded spin, deprivations and restrictions taking place in Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Some repeated the incorrect information that OBC’s licence would have been cancelled in 2017, and other confusion.

In the WhatsApp group CCM Yetu, and maybe elsewhere, an “article” about me was being shared, in which I was accused of being an international spy, working with a Kenyan senator, and the councillor of Ololosokwan (unlikely) providing young people with smartphones. Further, I had earlier bought arms for the Maasai in the conflict with the Sonjo, created an elephant poaching network, and whatever. Later, I was informed that similar accusations had been entertained in a Clubhouse room with government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa. I haven’t even listened to the recordings.

On 12^thJune, at the funeral of the FFU officer, Ngorongoro DC, Raymond Mwangwal – who unlike previous DCs seemed to earlier have left much repression work to the DED - told media that those talking online, instigating things that aren't true, will be found wherever they are, in classic Loliondo police state style. Head of police operations, Liberatus Sabas, declared that anyone involved in the killing of the police who died from arrowshot will be hunted down day and night.

On 13^th June, Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro, arrived in to Loliondo to make his contribution to the illegal demarcation, accompanied by RC Mongella. Sirro said that the demarcation operation is going just fine, but there are some people, politicians included, who are stirring things up, using the Maasai for their own benefit. Sirro too posed with illegal beacons, and with some clueless mostly non-Maasai young men at the area with shops in Soitsambu.

The government spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa, repeated the same old Kagasheki-style lie – that 4,000 km²are “protected”, but that the benevolent government is just keeping 1,500 km²while generously giving the Maasai 2,500 km², when the whole 4,000 km² is legally registered village land and the 1,500 km²vitally important grazing land - and the same threats against instigators.

The African Commission of Human and People's Rights called for cessation of the eviction.

MP Emmanuel Oleshangai confirmed that at least 31 people (the numbers have since risen) had been seriously injured in the demarcation exercise on village land, and that they are being treated in Kenya after being denied treatment at the Osero clinic in Ololosokwan for lacking the required PF3 form that the police are supposed to provide. He explained that the injured were his voters and not Kenyans. Further, the MP demanded the release of the detained leaders, and made clear that the operation is most definitely not "participatory" since even he had not been informed, despite sitting in the same parliament as the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.

On 14^th June, 30 FFU vehicles arrived in Arash and set up camp in the Emoyokwa area.

The Ngorongoro MP was summoned to the police, and so were Olesendeka, MP of Simanjiro and Kitila Mkumbo, MP of Ubungo. The accusations were of incitement and what the three have in common is that they spoke up during the vicious anti-Maasai hatred in parliament in February. The MPs were questioned and released.

On 15^th June, Edward Hoseah president of Tanganyika Law Society has made a useless, spineless, and shameless statement advising the Ngorongoro MP to report injuries to the police!

Six UN experts warned about escalating violence amidst plan to forcefully evict Maasai from ancestral lands and urged to immediately halt plans for relocation.

Amnesty International called on the Tanzanian government to halt the brutal security operation in Loliondo.

The FFU opened fire at the market in Oltulelei causing fear and panic. In Malambo as well were they firing shots into the air, and they beat up a motorbike rider whom they thought was following them.

Arrests continued in an apparently aimless way. Freddy Ledidi from Oloirien who's District Natural Resources Officer (which may make some suspect he’s a double dealer) was arrested and so was the elder Koyie, brother of who used to be ward councillor for Orgosorok years ago, which led people to first think that the other brother had been arrested. Ledidi and Koyie were locked up at Loliondo Police Station and nobody has been allowed to see them.

Deputy Permanent Representative to the Tanzania Mission to the UN in Geneva, Hoyce Temu, lied in the most malicious way from start to finish denying any state violence, claiming that a 4,000 km² reserved area had been encroached and that the government in peaceful talks with local residents had agreed to divide the area and keep 1,500 km² as a protected area, that a minority against the exercise made recordings while posing threateningly and combined this with unrelated pictures, that the government has called on anyone alleging to have been attacked to come forward for the law to take its course and for treatment, but that  nobody has come forward. The ambassador did literally not say one word of truth.

Meanwhilein Endulen - in NCA, not Loliondo - there was a big spectacle with 20 vehicles carrying RC Mongella and other dignitaries, and the useless press, to witness 6 families who have fallen for the Msomera scam and were demolishing their houses. One of the vehicles hit and injured 14-year old Nemburis Oletombo. For some reason, the government figures seem eager for people not to mix this up with Loliondo, but their supporters do this gladly in social media anyway, and all the time. So do many allies of the Maasai.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Hamad Masauni, arrived in Loliondo in helicopter to make a statement – as if from the warfront - directing Immigration to strengthen border security to prevent illegal entry by foreigners and so avoid incitement activities. He also ordered NGOs to be investigated to make sure they operate within the law and don’t engage in breach of peace. As known to anyone familiar with Loliondo or with this blog, threatening “Kenyans” (anyone who could speak up) and NGOs is the most classic rhetoric of the Loliondo police state. A clip of this was widely shared the following day and the Tanzanian press, that by now has lost all credibility, reported uncritically.

On 17^th June, a solidarity demonstration in Nairobi by Kenyan Maasai was broken up by the Kenyan police and demonstrators taken to the Central Police Station. After a few hours they were freed unconditionally. Another demonstration, in Namanga, went on without incidence.

The Tanzanian government organized its own demonstration using supposed Maasai  without any relation to Loliondo, or Ngorongoro, to demonstrate outside the Kenyan embassy in Dar es Salaam thanking the government for dividing Loliondo so that the Maasai have a place to live(!), and accusing Kenyans and NGOs of inciting conflict. Later it was found that people had been told that 150 Maasai were needed to go and sing for some white people at Dar Free Market Mall and would get 20,000 shillings each. Some Parakuyo Maasai gathered, but most fled when they saw what was being cooked. 

The whereabouts of the nine councillors and the CCM district chairman were not known until 16^thJune when they were sneaked to court without any legal representation and then locked up in Kisongo remand prison. The following day it was revealed that they, and ten other arrested people from Loliondo had been charged with murder contrary to Section 196 of the Penal Code [Cap 16 R:E 2019] in the preliminary inquiry case No 11 of 2022. Remember that the councillors were locked up the day before the FFU officer was killed by an arrowshot.

Reportedly, after a CCM meeting the DC summoned them to the District Security Committee and there was an agreement that they would keep people calm during the demarcation operation. Then the DC announced that a special task force had arrived and that the councillors were needed for individual interrogations. At midnight they were put in a vehicle and driven to an unknown destination that upon arrival was identified as a smaller police station in Arusha town, Chekereni, where they were interrogated regarding sedition and not murder.

The councillors weren’t allowed to contact family or lawyers, until being joined by ten others and secretly taken to court to be read murder charges. The other group had been arrested in their homes, along the road, or in Wasso town. They had been tortured and accused of reporting about violence in Loliondo, interrogated on suspicion of spreading false information, but later they were told a murder charge had been found and they were re-interrogated for murder. While held at Loliondo police station they weren’t allowed to contact relatives, and not fed for four days, until they were taken to Arusha and charged with murder. Not feeding those detained is common practise at Loliondo police station, as I could see from the writings on the wall when I spent 2 nights there in 2015 (I was fed though). Further problems are very low temperatures, no blankets, and plentiful mosquitoes.

The case will be heard on 30^thJune.

The ever patient and negotiating Onesmo Olengurumwa of Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, that had the president as guest of honour at their 10^th anniversary a month ago, tweeted, “It is now officially, our relatives and our leaders in Loliondo have been maliciously charged with murder case. These include those who were illegally detained one day before the killing of the Police officer. This marks the end of any negotiations

@SuluhuSamia”

Memusi Taki, Njoroi village chairman was arrested on 17^th June.

Sadly, since this is Loliondo, even during the most heinous crime, opportunistic traitors will emerge. I wouldn’t mention it without confirmation from sources close to the individual. One Matiko Maoi has been contracted and is driving around on his motorbike looking for women and youths to pay to get involved in a pro-government demonstration.

Immigration Commissioner for Border Control and Administration, Samwel Mahirane came to Loliondo on the 18^thto stand next to an illegal beacon (he too), threatening people who are sabotaging the exercise and have fled. He said they are known and will all be dealt with. He also threatened NGOs.

In Arash, and probably elsewhere, the FFU continue using tear gas and planting illegal beacons.

Very brief and simplified background

In Loliondo (and parts of Sale) Division of Ngorongoro District the Tanzanian government has for many years wanted to alienate 1,500 km² of legally registered village land that’s vitally important grazing land.

The other division of Ngorongoro District is Ngorongoro Division or Ngorongoro Conservation Area where Maasai land rights also are seriously threatened and where they live under restrictions not found in Loliondo. This is a closely related, but separateissue (see many previous blog posts). The government lie about NCA is, “The Maasai are relocating “voluntary” to Handeni” while the government lie about Loliondo is, “The Maasai have been “given” 2,500 km2.” 

Otterlo Business Corporation, that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has had the 4,000 km2 hunting block (permit to hunt on legally registered village land) since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) and kept lobbying the government to turn their 1,500 km² of preferred hunting area into a protected area, including funding a draft district land use plan in 2010-2011.

OBC’s lobbying has led to illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017, ordered by the DC, and to a local police state in which anyone who dares to criticize the hunters (and an American ecotourism company called Thomson Safaris) is severely harassed and slandered, illegal arrests included, often accused of not really being Tanzanian, but from the neighbouring country.

Oloosek 13th August 2017

It should be noted that OBC licence has never been cancelled (except for the first 10-year contract in the mid-1990s that was replaced with regular 5-year hunting block licenses). After having stopped the illegal operation in 2017, for a few days, Minister Kigwangalla was saying that OBC would have to leave before January 2018, but they never left and on 6^th December PM Majaliwa declared that they were staying. In April 2018 OBC again gifted the Ministry of  Natural Resources and Tourism with 15 vehicles. I’ve lost all patience with people who claim otherwise.

The Maasai have celebrated some victories, like in 2011 when the Ngorongoro District Council strongly rejected OBC’s land use plan, and in 2013 when Minister Kagasheki tried to alienate the 1,500 km² via vociferous lies that the whole 4,000 km²was a protected area and the Maasai would be gifted with 2,500 km² (the lie that the government has now picked up again), and he was resoundingly stopped by PM Pinda when both opposition and ruling party supported the protests by the Maasai. On 25^th September 2018 there was another victory when the East African Court of Justice issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but that happened at the point of most panicked fear and could not be that much celebrated.

There have been many low points, like in 2016-2017 when a select committee after sharply increased repression reached a sad compromise proposal (a WMA), that had earlier been rejected by the Maasai, to hand over to PM Majaliwa, which was followed by unexpected illegal mass arson (there may be a pattern here). Or in 2018 when nobody dared to speak up against police efforts to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice filed during the illegal 2017 operation, and then the silence continued when soldiers from a military camp set up in Loliondo the same year tortured people and razed bomas in Ololosokwan and Kirtalo, violating the recently issued court orders. At that time all local leaders thought that the attack had been ordered by the president, but when the RC denounced it in a vague way, they changed to thinking that it was OBC’s director contracting the soldiers.

In 2019, a most terrible zoning proposal for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) included turning the 1,500 km² into the protected area preferred by OBC and annexing it to NCA, was presented by NCA chief conservator Manongi. There have been many protests from every group in NCA against this proposal, but not so many protests from Loliondo, where people had been intimidated into silence.

In January 2022, Arusha RC Mongella came to Loliondo to announce that the government would make a painful decision about the land, for the wider interest of the nation, and this broke the silence and led to protest meetings. This was taking place at the same time as a demented anti-Maasai hate campaign in media and parliament, primarily directed at the Maasai of NCA, but also affecting those from Loliondo who for many years have already been targeted by a hate campaign conducted by Manyerere Jackton in the Jamhuri newspaper. As has happened before, this “journalist”, who this year renewed his incitement after lying low following that OBC’s director in 2019 was kept in remand prison on economic sabotage charges, is now quiet and enjoying the terror that’s unfolding.

On 17^th February, PM Majaliwa, known as a psychopathic liar by virtually all Tanzanians, when in NCA, not Loliondo, ordered beacons to be erected “so that we may know the boundaries” of the 1,500 km², which nobody needs to know unless there are bad intentions. The PM repeated the same in parliament on 11^thMarch. He kept talking about water – and then a spectacle was made about water projects outside the 1,500 km² - when the area’s importance for grazing had been explained to him in Loliondo on 14^th February. Protests followed. At a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19^th March, several leaders spoke up in defence of the land, among them the Arash ward councillor Methew Siloma spoke up very clearly and strongly. The message from this meeting was:

-PM Majaliwa is a liar.

-The Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.

-They request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.

Several local leaders in Loliondo were arrested. The councillors of Arash and Malambo were taken to Arusha and interrogated.

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

Then a committee agreed to hand over community recommendations to the PM, which was done on 25^thMay, and Majaliwa said that he’d work on the recommendations.

On 3^rd June, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana in her budget speech announced that her ministry expected to upgrade Loliondo to a Game Reserve, but she did this while listing huge area of Tanzania for the same expectation, which didn’t make it sound believable or realistic in any way, and there was hardly any reaction, except for an intervention by Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Shangai.

On 9^th June the heavily armed Field Force Unit set up camps in Loliondo, after closed-door meetings by the regional and district security committees and no information at all to local leaders, not even the MP, many of whom were arrested the same day, and have now been charged with murder.

The demarcation started on 10^thJune. Protesting Maasai were teargassed and shot at with live bullets by the FFU, many were injured, arrested, fled to Kenya, or are missing. One FFU was killed by arrowshot. RC Mongella and PM Majaliwa say that the operation is going on just fine, that instigators will be seriously dealt with, and their explanation is a repetition of Kagasheki’s old and disproven lies. The Tanzanian press almost exclusively keep to the government narrative. Ministers and police authorities appear in Loliondo to make statements as from the warfront, threaten “Kenyans” and NGOs, and take photos with the illegal beacons.

There has been substantial, sometimes confused, international media coverage, and a stream of protest statements by international organisations.

The ruling in the East African Court of Justice is expected on 22^nd June.

The constant attacks, the government’s insatiable appetite to - for the conservation-tourism industrial complex - deprive the people who already lost vast areas with the creation of Serengeti National Park, require a new approach. Is it time to reclaim Serengeti?

The illegal beacons planted in blood, and contempt of court, must be immediately uprooted!

-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.

Updates at the end of the blog post. 

The Tanzanian government in its effort to alienate Maasai land in Loliondo has committed illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017, and a local police state has for many years now been in force to silence anyone who could speak up about investors that don’t respect land rights (OBC and the American Thomson Safaris) but the current illegal demarcation operation is the worst threat so far and I’ve written about it in two blog posts that have then been updated. 8th June and 19th June.

Currently it’s hard to keep up with all violence and lies, and I may have missed something significant.

In this blog post:

The government’s huge and shameless lie

Pre-emptive illegal arrests and trumped-up charges

The violence

Government showing off its own crime

Support

Government not getting support from its international allies

Don’t confuse Loliondo with NCA, just don't

Traitors

Tourism as state religion

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

The government’s huge and shameless lie

In the morning of 8^th June, massive joint security forces, most visibly the anti-riot Field Force Unit, had gathered in Wasso town and set off to set up camp in Oloosek area of Ololosokwan, in Sanjan sub-village of Malambo, Soit Orgoss in Oloipiri, and Olchoroibor in Loosoito, while some forces camped at the DC's office. On 14^th June, another camp was set up in the Emoyokwa area of Arash.

Information surfaced that on 2^nd and 6^th June, the Arusha Regional and Ngorongoro District Security Committees had held closed-door meetings in Arusha and Karatu. In connection with this RC Mongella had recorded a clip“explaining” the exercise with some absurd lies that were unquestioningly shared all over regular Tanzanian media. The government had picked up the old lie, used by Kagasheki in 2013, until even then PM Pinda had to recognise that it just didn’t correspond with reality. This lie is to claim that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo hunting block (the whole of Loliondo division and Malambo and Piyaya wards in Sale division) is a “protected area” that has been “encroached” and that the government out of the kindness of its heart is “giving” the Maasai 2,500 km² while only “keeping” 1,500 km². The whole 4,000 km² has been customary owned land since before colonial times and was further protected through Local Government (District Authorities) Act, 1982 and Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999, and is without any kind of doubt legally registered village land. The lie is based on that the land was since the 1950s also a so-called Game Controlled Area that regulated hunting but didn’t interfere with local land use in any way and until Wildlife Conservation Act 2009, that came into operation in 2010, could totally overlap with village land. The Loliondo GCA is now defunct, but there have been attempts, funded by OBC, to convert their 1,500 km² favourite hunting area into a new kind of GCA that’s the same as a Game Reserve, and does not allow any Maasai land use. All such attempts have been strongly rejected by local Maasai and relevant authorities. Believing such a lie is the same as believing that the district headquarters and the DC office have “encroached” on a protected area. Anyone who takes it seriously either supports the demented violence or is a coward who wants to use “it’s complex” as an excuse not to speak up.

Not only did Mongella stand there in his clip repeating the shameless lie, but he also claimed that the demarcation exercise was “participatory”. He of course knew that the response from the Maasai since when he first started announcing the threat in January this year could not have been clearer, that nobody has ever agreed to hand over the land to the government, and illegal mass arrests of local leaders (see below) the following day further showed how very well Mongella knew that he was lying.

In Ololosokwan, and elsewhere, people gathered to pray, protest, and deliberate what action to take. These meetings continued the following day, 9^thJune, and were gate-crashed by armed FFU officers “explaining” that they would demarcate the 1,500 km² to turn it into a game reserve.

In Kirtalo women with pangas and men with bows and arrows made a video clip as a message to show that they were ready to die for their land. A very clear message for PM Majaliwa, which he chose to ignore.

In parliament on 10^th June when violence was exploding, PM Majaliwa (known for his glowing reports on Magufuli’s health when the president was probably already dead) claimed that beacons were being placed to protect the environment and that the local Maasai would “not be affected”. He warned people of ill will who are spreading a video with false information, referring to the clip from Kirtalo, saying that the Maasai weren’t pointing their arrows at any police, while missing the point that it was a message sent to himself. Speaker Tulia Ackson, said that the government had explained the operation, that those spreading false information would be dealt with, and that Tanzania is in an economic war with other countries. Another liar, Arusha RC Mongella, later (see below) tried to justify the PM’s behaviour with that he made the announcements before the FFU officer had been killed.

On 15^th June, five days after the violent attack on the Maasai had started, Deputy Permanent Representative to the Tanzania Mission to the UN in Geneva, Hoyce Temu, lied in the most malicious way from start to finish denying any state violence, claiming that a 4,000 km²reserved area had been encroached and that the government in peaceful talks with local residents had agreed to divide the area and keep 1,500 km² as a protected area, that a minority against the exercise made recordings while posing threateningly and combined this with unrelated pictures, that the government has called on anyone alleging to have been attacked to come forward for the law to take its course and for treatment, but that nobody has come forward. This ambassador later continued lying in a Zoom meeting, and probably in many other places that I haven’t kept up with.

On 17^th June, the Tanzanian government organized its own demonstration using supposed Maasai without any relation to Loliondo, or Ngorongoro, to demonstrate outside the Kenyan embassy in Dar es Salaam thanking the government for dividing Loliondo so that the Maasai have a place to live(!), and accusing Kenyans and NGOs of inciting conflict. Later it was found that people had been told that 150 Maasai were needed to go and sing for some white people at Dar Free Market Mall and would get 20,000 shillings each. Some Parakuyo Maasai gathered, but most fled when they saw what was being cooked.

Authentic Maasai youths in Dar es Salaam issued a statement to denounce the fake demonstration, but were of course not covered by any of the regular press. 

Tanzanian press kept quoting the rector for College of African Wildlife Management Mweka, Prof. Jafari Kideghesho’s lies about the “downsizing” of a protected area in Loliondo. This liar also participated in making the genocidal MLUM review proposal for NCA, as did the Director of Wildlife, Maurus Msuha, who also has been very active lying about Loliondo.

Deputy Minister Masanja, Minister of Constitution and Legal Affairs Ndumbaro, Director of Wildlife, Msuha, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mulamula on 21^st June, stood in front of spineless diplomats telling their blood-soaked, easy to debunk, lies about Loliondo, and about Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In a clip shared by the Tanzanian government, Ndumbaro totally manipulates the diplomats (not shown but heard) making them stand up in silence for the slain FFU officer, clap, and giggle. He lectures them that there aren’t any indigenous people in Tanzania, that nobody owns land, and that human rights aren’t the same in Africa as in Europe, since there are “human and people’s rights”, which I think would mean more rights, but to Ndumbaro it justifies human rights crimes. He talks about a conflict between environmental interests and grazing, but it’s obvious that if had the Maasai used their land in some other way, less compatible with wildlife, they would not now be suffering all this abuse. Ndumbaro shamelessly directs himself to the British high commissioner, thanking the British for having made Loliondo into a protected area that lasts until today – which is the big lie – and the diplomats just laugh and clap. Though maybe this time they had asked not to feature in photos, to avoid situations like in March, when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism declared that the German ambassador supported their “efforts” in Ngorongoro (still not publicly denied by the ambassador). The ministry did however show off the UAE ambassador, and the following day the French ambassador lent himself to a most deplorable spectacle.

Masanja, Ndumbaro and UAE ambassador Khalifa Abdul Rahman Al Marzouqi

In a government propaganda meeting on Zoom on 22^nd June, in which they kept repeating the same lies, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana, went as far as claiming to on 17^th June having gazetted the 1,500 km² into a “Pololeti GCA”– after a week of war against the Maasai, with local leaders illegally arrested, charged with murder for a death the day after they were arrested, and others in hiding. Until then, the government had been talking about a Game Reserve, but finally decided to create a GCA on another GCA, since their lie is that Loliondo Game Controlled Area still exists and is a protected area. The French ambassador participated making some pointless comments about France. He could have been uninformed and not understanding the language, if it weren’t because just the day before diplomats were told the government’s lies in English. On 29^th June, the director of wildlife, Maurus Msuha, held another press conference insisting on the same lies.

Two areas, as in the genocidal MLUM review proposal.

On 29^th June, a group of anti-Maasai religious leaders was announced, led by businessman Azim Dewji (who also made an appearance in the Zoom meeting, sounding authentically stupid, trying to repeat government lies about Loliondo) and including the government favourite imposter, traditional leader Lekisongo. Not much was then heard about this group, except that it wasn’t welcomed in Ngorongoro ward, but Dewji reappeared on 5^th July talking about peace and voluntary relocations from NCA. I may have to return to this individual.

Azim Dewji

A special mention among liars in the war against the Maasai of Loliondo goes to OBC’s journalist Manyerere Jackton. This year has seen his return to incitement against the Loliondo Maasai. The past years he’s parroted chief conservator Manongi’s rhetoric about NCA, but he lied low about Loliondo following the arrest of OBC’s director Mollel in 2019, after in over 60 articles having spewed out unhinged hate rhetoric against the Maasai of Loliondo and campaigned for taking the 1,500 km² away from them. He has claimed that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai would not be Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private persons that his “sources” consider to be “Kenyan” – which he returned to boasting about in his latest article on 28^thJune. His slandering of those speaking up for land rights, or those he thinks could speak up for land rights, has been vicious and insane. Besides this, he’s capable of fabricating any story for apparently no reason at all. This year, the Jamhuri joined Habib Mchange and Maulid Kitenge in their more recent media hate campaign against the Ngorongoro Maasai.

Even worse is that I’ve in the past experienced first-hand how Jackton likes to boast about being directly involved in arrests of innocent people. He’s been boasting quite publicly, published photos of the phones of those illegally arrested, and used to email me rude one-liners when someone was about to be arrested. This year I have however not been contacted by this “journalist”.

Also, OBC’s director Isaack Mollel himself has, after a couple of years of lying low, returned to sharing his views in the press, in at least two international articles. His message is that the president can change the land use anywhere in Tanzania to benefit the nation, naming a couple of brutal evictions operations to exemplify, adding that urban NGOs use the Maasai as milking cows (Toward Freedom), and (after the illegal operation had started) repeating the government’s lie about dividing the land while claiming that there’s no land scarcity in Tanzania (Financial Times).

On 5^th July, when I finally was to publish this blog post, the same lies about Loliondo and NCA were parroted by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments, Angeline Mabula, Kennedy Gastorn, Tanzanian representative to the UN, Adelardus Kilangi, Tanzanian ambassador to Brazil, who thought Tanzania could learn from Brazil (!) opening a whole new chamber of  horrors, solicitor general, Gabriel Malata, and others. They must all be documented and taken to court.

See below for lies and threats by government officials while documenting their own crime, on the ground in Loliondo.

Two parliamentarians, both Maasai, have spoken up against the land grab operation.

On 20^th June, Olesendeka, MP for Simanjiro, spoke up in parliament against the illegal operation in Loliondo and against Chana's talk about GCAs and game reserves on the 3^rd when the minister had engaged in confused talk that would imply turning very extensive areas of the country into game reserves. He was viciously bullied by the speaker, Tulia Ackson, about law paragraphs. Deputy Minister Masanja lied that there aren't any people living in “those areas”, apparently meaning the old defunct game controlled areas, denying the existence of hundreds of thousands of Tanzanians.

On 22^nd June, MP Emmanuel Oleshangai spoke up telling the national assembly in no uncertain terms that land in Loliondo is village land, that when we talk about land we talk about people’s lives, and that what's being done in Loliondo is a land grab that no person or village government has agreed to. He rejected several interventions by ignorant, or worse than ignorant, parliamentarians, one of them Ridhiwani Kikwete. I don’t know how the MP can keep calm and smiling in a house so full of evil. "I know there are people laughing here, but I am talking about the lives of my people, my grandparents, my fathers, my brothers and my younger siblings. It is their land”, he said.

In short, the government is robbing the Maasai of 1,500 km² of mostly less densely populated grazing land, expecting them to squeeze into the remaining 2,500 km² of the Loliondo hunting block where there are towns, agricultural areas, forests, a “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. Further, the government claims that the exercise is “participatory”, while arresting everyone who could speak up against it, which means basically every single Maasai in Loliondo, and this is what’s being done.

Pre-emptive illegal arrests and trumped-up charges

On 9^th June, the day before the illegal demarcation started, the councillors of Ololosokwan, Oloipiri, Oloirien, Maaloni, Arash, Piyaya, Malambo, and two women’s special seats councillors, Kijoolu Kakiya and Taleng’o Leshoko were arrested. At least two of these councillors have until quite recently been working for OBC, against the people. After a CCM meeting they were interrogated by the District Security Committee, and then a special task force arrived to interrogate them individually. The Soitsambu councillor avoided attending the meeting. At midnight they were put in a vehicle and driven to an unknown destination that upon arrival was identified as a smaller police station in Arusha town, Chekereni, where they were interrogated regarding sedition - and not murder.

Nothing was known of the whereabouts of those illegally arrested/abducted until 16^th June when they were sneaked to court without any legal representation and then locked up in Kisongo remand prison. The following day it was revealed that they, and ten other arrested people from Loliondo, had been charged with murder contrary to Section 196 of the Penal Code [Cap 16 R:E 2019] in the preliminary inquiry case No 11 of 2022. The murder concerned a FFU officer who was killed the day after the local leaders were arrested. Later three more people were added to the charges. The other group of ten were arrested on the 10^th, not allowed to contact anyone and held for four days without being fed. They were tortured and accused of reporting about violence in Loliondo, interrogated on suspicion of spreading false information, but later they were told a murder charge had been found and they were re-interrogated for murder. One of those illegally arrested is a student, The case was up for mention in court on 30^th June, but then it was postponed to 14^th July for further “investigation”. Wilsong Kilong and Memusi Taki (Njoroi chairman) had been added to the charges, so now 25 people are victims of this idiocy. One new charge was added: “conspiracy to murder”. Then, on 5^th July, Simon Saitoti, councillor of Ngorongoro ward in NCA, not Loliondo or Sale, was reportedly added to the charges, as was one older, injured man, but this requires confirmation.

The violence

The night before 10^th June, the land grabbing forces started planting illegal beacons on village land in Ololosokwan. They Maasai uprooted the beacons and in the morning the FFU attacked them with teargas and live bullets. People were arrested and the FFU destroyed several motorbikes. The injured were taken across the border to Kenya for treatment, some needed surgery. The Ngorongoro MP later mentioned 31 serious injuries, and Kenyan doctors listed 128. The security forces inflicted bullet wounds, beatings, cuttings and stabbings. 

One of the attackers, a FFU officer, died (according to RC Mongella of arrowshot).

The over 70 years old Oriais Oleng'iyo who was last seen with bullet wounds and detained by the FFU was not on the list of those charged with murder and not found anywhere else. Where is he?

The illegal planting of beacons, shooting and tear gas continued the following day, in Ololosokwan and elsewhere. In Malambo and elderly man died when hit by a FFU vehicle. In the Oltulelei area of Maaloni, people were arrested and beaten, and the FFU set fire to three motorbikes.

On the 11^th, at night the FFU fired shots in all directions in Mairowa in Ololosokwan, not in the 1,500 km² area targeted by illegal demarcation. Houses were searched and people were beaten. The hunt was for those who had participated in protests and those who had shared photos of the government’s violent crimes. Many ran away into the bush to hide. More people fled to Kenya. Thousands of Tanzanians are currently refugees in Kenya. 

Kenyan Maasai have shown great solidary helping with hospital treatment and medicine, feeding and accommodating refugees, and organized protests.

The following day, the Ngorongoro MP was summoned to the police, and so were Olesendeka, MP of Simanjiro and Kitila Mkumbo, MP of Ubungo. The accusations were of incitement and what the three have in common is that they spoke up during the vicious anti-Maasai hatred in parliament in February. The MPs were questioned and released.

The FFU opened fire at the market in Oltulelei on 15^th June, causing fear and panic. In Malambo as well were they firing shots into the air, and they beat up a motorbike rider whom they thought was following them.

The very illegal demarcation exercise in clouds of teargas continued. Besides the FFU, those participating in the crime are Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA), Serengeti and Tanzania National Parks Authority (SENAPA/TANAPA), soldiers from Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ) that have a camp in Olopolun near Wasso since 2018, OBC’s anti-poaching, local police, and others. Eventually it became confused and hard to determine who was doing what.

With all this terrifying violence and lawlessness, there were big expectations for the ruling of the East African Court of Justice on 22^ndJune. Shockingly, just one day before the expected ruling, the court communicated that due to unavoidable circumstances the ruling had been postponed to September. This could just be another case of an overwhelming workload. The years of this court case have been filled of frustration of how everyone involved is too busy to give it the required dedication, but there’s a lingering unease that something more sinister could be at work. Remember that the court on 25^thSeptember 2018, issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, while the case continues. Obviously, this order has been violated to some extreme extent.

There were reports from Malambo that the invading security forces were counting the bomas found inside their illegal demarcation.

On 24^th June, at Ngorongoro District Council – the day after Majaliwa had clapped to soldier songs - village and ward executive officers were instructed to tell people to leave the illegally demarcated area within 24 hours, or their livestock would be confiscated. In the evening, there were pictures and reports from Sanjan in Malambo ward of how the Maasai, under fear and panic, were loading their belongings on donkeys. Then came reports that the same was happening in Arash, Oltulelei in Oloirien, and everywhere. Shots were being fired and people were being beaten, reportedly by both the FFU and soldiers from the national army.

The following days, families, women, children and livestock continued leaving Sanjan with their belongings packed on donkeys.

In Ololosokwan the security forces said that they would never leave and will revenge the death of the FFU officer by killing 15 people. Reportedly a road is being cleared along the illegal demarcation. There were unconfirmed reports of widespread theft committed the security forces.

In Ormanie, Arash ward, on 27^th June, donkeys, calves, and other livestock belonging to Parkimalo Lupa were shot when on the way to the river. Children accompanying the livestock were severely beaten by the security forces.

At least seven people from Serng'etuny sub-village in Piyaya and ten from Ndinyika, Malambo were on 29^th June, arrested and taken to Loliondo police station. Those in Piyaya were reportedly arrested in connection with uprooting beacons.

Mass arrests are spreading to areas in Loliondo far from the illegal demarcation attack. At least 21 people were arrested in Naan, their houses invaded at night, and Ng'arwa in Enguserosambu, several village or sub-village chairmen among them. Also, pregnant women and those with small children. They are "suspected of being immigrants".

Simon Saitoti, councillor of Ngorongoro ward in NCA, was arrested on 1^stJuly. The councillor had two days earlier visited those ridiculously charged with murder and when he returned to Oloirobi he himself was arrested. Reportedly, people in his ward have refused to meet with a religious imposter group. Other councillors from NCA have been remarkably silent during this brutal and illegal operation, while activists from NCA have spoken up more than the terrified ones from Loliondo. Simon was sent to Loliondo and then Arusha, but then his location became unknown, and the police denied having him, until he on 5^th July was reportedly added to the ridiculous murder charges, according to some because he refused to relocate to Msomera.

The night to 2^nd July, 30 people were arrested in Njoroi and 11 in Oloika sub-village, in Ololosokwan ward. They are accused of being "Kenyan”.

In the afternoon of 2^nd July, the security forces started burning seasonal bomas (ronjos) in the Oldoinyorok area of Arash. They had caught and tortured a young herder, forcing him to show them the location. Six ronjos were burned to the ground. At least four more ronjos were burned in the nearby Sindin area.

In Malambo, the security forces are demolishing houses.

Some 477 cows and 650 sheep were illegally seized in Ololosokwan, and the livestock held at Klein’s gate. The owners are being told to pay an extortionate 100,000 TShs fine per head of cattle, and 25,000 per sheep. Though other reports mention 1,130 cows that five families have been charged for. 

Reportedly, on 3^rd July, Thomson Safaris joined the abuse, and I’m trying to obtain exact information.

On 4^th July, the security forces seized cows and sheep from over five bomas in Ildupa sub-village of Ormanie, and drove them to Engutoto sub-village in Arash. Then they went on to extort 100,000 TShs per cow and 25,000 per sheep from the owners.

The police on 4^th July announced having detained 72 people, from Loliondo and Sale divisions, suspected of being “illegal immigrants”, 30 will be taken to court, 13 released, and investigation of 29 others continue. Accusing people of being “Kenyan” and going after NGOs, while at any cost protecting the interests of “investors” that don’t respect land right, is the basics of the Loliondo police state. This time, Immigration is looking for the location of vaccine marks, which reportedly isn't the same in Kenya as in Tanzania.

In Olosirwa sub-village of Kirtalo six people were arrested on 6^thJuly, including a primary school teacher when police in four vehicles invaded the school.

This section of the blog post is impossible to keep exact, and sadly it never ends.

The government showing off its own crime

On 11^th June, RC Mongella arrived in Loliondo with the regional security committee to repeat the shameless lie that stealing 1,500 km²is giving away 2,500 km². He said that the illegal operation was going just fine, while confirming that one FFU officer was the previous day killed by arrowshot. There has of course not been any independent investigation, but if that’s how he died, the archer was defending his home and his land against very dangerous invaders. Then Mongella posed in photos planting illegal beacons.

Many government officials have followed Mongella and they must all be held personally accountable for this crime. I wish I could keep up with everything that has happened. All these criminals must be punished!

On 12^th June, at the funeral of the FFU officer, Ngorongoro DC, Raymond Mwangwala, told media that those talking online, instigating things that aren't true, will be found wherever they are, in classic Loliondo police state style, which he earlier has mostly left to the DED. Then he has stood at the side of most every government official who has come to defend the crime and threaten anyone who could speak up. Head of police operations, Liberatus Sabas, declared that anyone involved in the killing of the police who died from arrowshot will be hunted down day and night.

On 13^th June, Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro, arrived in to Loliondo to make his contribution to the illegal demarcation, accompanied by RC Mongella. Sirro too said that the demarcation operation is going just fine, but there are some people, politicians included, who are stirring things up, using the Maasai for their own benefit.

Sirro in Loliondo

The Minister of Home Affairs, Hamad Masauni, arrived in Loliondo in helicopter to make a statement directing Immigration to strengthen border security to prevent illegal entry by foreigners and so avoid incitement activities. He also ordered NGOs to be investigated to make sure they operate within the law and don’t engage in breach of peace.

Immigration Commissioner for Border Control and Administration, Samwel Mahirane arrived in Loliondo on 18^th June to stand next to an illegal beacon (he too) and posing with a legal Kenya border beacon, threatening people who are sabotaging the exercise and have fled. He said they are known and will all be dealt with. Then he threw in some threats against NGOs.

Commissioner General of Immigration, Anna Makakala, arrived in Loliondo to add her statement from the warfront against the Maasai, announcing that there would be 10 days of flushing out illegal immigrants.

A letter was shared with the information that CCM's National Executive Committee had met on the 21^st under the chairperson Samia Suluhu Hassan, and among other issues nominated a contestant for Ngorongoro District Council chairperson. Normally there would be three contestants, but now there was only Mohammed "Marekani" Bayo, current deputy chairman and OBC's community liaison for many years. The letter was signed by Shaka Hamdu Shaka. On 5^th July, Marekani was “unanimously elected” as district council chairman – with ten of the councillors illegally arrested! It should however not be forgotten that opposition councillors were cleansed out of Ngorongoro district, via threats and bribes, and all returned to CCM well in advance of the bloody 2020 elections. Now there's ethnic cleansing to get rid of the Maasai (by far majority in the district) for the love of the tourist dollar. 

On 23^rd June, PM Majaliwa arrived in Loliondo together with the RC, DC, DED, Minister Chana, Immigration Commissioner Makakala, Awesso, Minister of Waters who’s very much involved in this crime, and other criminals. One of his lies was that the beacons had been planted many kilometres from where people are living, which everyone participating in the crime have with their own eyes seen is not true. The following day a creepy clip was shared in which soldiers from the national army were singing a war song to Majaliwa and the other dignitaries upon landing in Loliondo. I’ve been told that such tropes aren’t deployed without the direct involvement of the commander in chief, President Samia.

On 24^th June, at Ngorongoro District Council, village and ward executive officers were instructed to tell people to leave the illegally demarcated area within 24 hours, or their livestock would be confiscated. In the evening, there were pictures and reports from Sanjan in Malambo ward of how the Maasai, under fear and panic, were loading their belongings on donkeys.

Every single government official who has been telling lies and issuing threats, from the ground, or elsewhere, must be held personally accountable!

Support

I will probably forget many, but the Loliondo Maasai have received statements of support, of varying strength, from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, a group of nine UN human rights experts, Amnesty International, the Oakland Institute, Survival International, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Indigenous People’s Rights International, Cultural Survival, a group of more than 250 scientists, Forest People’s Programme, ICCA Consortium, International Land Coalition, the Sami Parliamentary Council, and

In Tanzania the political parties CHADEMA and ACT Wazalendo have made statements. So has Legal and Human Rights Centre, and illustrious individuals have spoken up, such as Tundu Lissu, Issa Shivji (in a letter speaking up about the ownership of the land), and Maria Sarungi Tsehai tirelessly in social media. Kenyan politicians like Ledama Olekina and Moitalel Ole Kenta, and others, keep speaking up.

Govt not getting support from its international allies

A video called “Serengeti and Ngorongoro shall never die: the truth about the Loliondo situation” (paraphrasing Bernhard Grzimek) was shared, with a plead to international conservation organisations to support the Tanzanian government’s war against the Maasai. It claims that the survival of the Serengeti ecosystem is at stake, describes any talk about forced evictions as lies, repeats the monumental lie about the status of the land, and boasts about that Tanzanian has allocated 32% of its area for conservation. It must feel unfair to the government that the organisations and conservation researchers that have created the ideology and the promises of tourism revenue that inevitably lead to violence then refuse to express any public support for this violence.

It’s not just a few international researchers that have a manic focus on – while deeply embedded with the parastatals of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and with human rights criminals as co-authors – finding any faults with pastoralists at the outskirts of protected areas. “Sucha simplistic view will only lead to solutions that promote violence as in the evictions of the Maasai pastoral households in Loliondo in the last few years”. This time even Frankfurt Zoological Society, that never has said anything about violence for conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem, seriously rattled by Survival International, has expressed shock about the violence in Loliondo and distanced itself from any involvement in the land demarcation, but still claiming that the land status would be “uncertain”. It’s not a secret that FZS has since its foundation, in close cooperation with Tanzanian authorities, been involved in and promoting land alienation and violent conservation. Another unlikely organisation that has expressed concern about the violence in Loliondo and even called on the government to respect the 2018 injunction in the EACJ is the IUCN that has never had any involvement in Loliondo (as far as I know) but together with UNESCO has been a main instigator of the government’s threats against the Maasai of Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The reactions by organisations like this must be seen as a victory for the - mostly silenced through terror - local Loliondo activists and their work through international organisation for land rights and indigenous rights.

However, we don’t know what they conversations behind the scenes look like, and the government is getting plenty of laughs and applause from foreign diplomats.

It’s important that leaders, naively or tempted by big money, when we’ve stopped this land grab, don’t let non-friendly organisations act as any kind of mediators to alienate the land in some less violent and obvious way, the land must be managed by the villages, without any kind of “WMA”.

Don’t confuse Loliondo with NCA, just don’t

While even lying government officials keep asking people not to confuse Loliondo and NCA, the supporters of injustice themselves do so all the time (enjoying it) as do those who support the Maasai, and many journalists. No, nobodyfrom Loliondo will get any alternative land in Handeni. That’s for those relocating from NCA. What the government is trying to do is to steal 1,500 km²of less densely populated mostly grazing land while expecting the Maasai to squeeze into the remaining 2,500 km² of the Loliondo hunting block, where there are two towns, including district headquarters, agricultural areas, forests and a private nature refuge claimed by the horrible American “investor” Thomson Safaris.

On the other hand, the government is also lying wildly about NCA, which I’ve written about in previous blog posts, and will hopefully return to once the illegal beacons in Loliondo are uprooted. Relocations to Msomera in Handeni are hardly “voluntary” when the Maasai in NCA live under intolerable restrictions, permits for already funded public services have the past year been blocked, and COVID-19 funds for schools have illegally been transferred to Handeni. Much of the government’s spectacles showing off those who are relocating don’t involve people with a real relation to NCA. One recent spectacle is the family of former MP Telele who have homes in several cities and agricultural business in Simanjiro. Telele will hardly have to fight with mosquitoes and agriculturalists in the more densely populated Handeni. Many people have through the years tried to explain Telele’s previous treasonous behaviour with that he’s good, but not so bright and aware. I’ve wanted to believe them.

On 30^th June, President Samia appointed the retired chief of Tanzania People’s Defence Forces, General Venance Mabeyo, as chairman of the board of directors of the NCAA.

Traitors

Talking about traitors, such people have sadly often been found in Loliondo. In the previous blog post, I mentioned a young man, confirmed by relatives, who was driving around trying to, in exchange of money, find youths and women to speak up in support of the government. He seems to ha failed in his mission, but others have emerged. An old traitor from the days when the “investor-friendly” group – led by Alais and Killel - in 2014 seriously damaged the land rights struggle seeking personal benefits by praising the aggressors and attacking the activists to whom they left the defence of the land, is the former councillor Raphael Long’oi. He has now emerged in a clip filmed at the start of the illegal demarcation operation, in which he lies that there isn’t any violence and that nobody will be evicted. The most benevolent interpretation is that he was trying to assuage the government, in which he failed, but considering his history, I’d guess that it’s worse than that. Long’oi was joined by the traditional leader Lekakui Kanduli and by Freddy Lindi, chairman of Oloswashi village without land in the 1,500 km² under attack.

I don’t know what the old traitors William Alias and Gabriel Killel are currently doing.

Tourism as state religion

The current state of terror would not be possible without the Magufuli era’s compulsory stupidity and repression of any kind of dissent within the ruling CCM party that in the past used to be divided about pastoralist land rights. This has now worsened considerably with President Samia’s open hostility towards the Maasai of NCA, and less outspokenly also Loliondo. 

The president’s views and the NCAA’s tireless parliamentary lobbying has made it possible that in the national assembly less than a handful of parliamentarians will object to lies, the wildest colonial fantasies, and extreme ethnic hatred against the Maasai. The president’s participation in a cheesy travel tv show that nobody in the USA or Europe has heard about, but that the researcher Alex Dukalskis has described as “authoritarian image management”, has turned into a cult that can’t be questioned and that is said to be attracting tourists, who will be 5 million by 2025. The reporter Peter Greenberg has done the same show with such criminals as Netanyahu and Kagame as his hosts and guides. In the Tanzanian version of The Royal Tour, the only ethnic group that features as a tourist attraction are the Maasai, who at the same time are insulted by Greenberg and Samia as “too many”, “primitive”, “will be forced to change”, with some added sexism.

Most clear is the message of tourism as state religion, and environmental concerns as pure theatre, when for international women’s day, the notorious deputy minister Mary Masanja’s caravan of hundreds of vehicles in the Ngorongoro crater is celebrated as the highest form of patriotism and when the same is repeated in June by the CCM youth wing.

President Samia and Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai

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

Since 1993 (first contract signed in 1992) Otterlo Business Corporation, owned by Mohammed Abdul Rahim Al Ali, that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, has the 4,000 km²Loliondo hunting blocks (permit to hunt), which they got in the Loliondogate scandal covered by the reporter Stan Katabalo in 1993. This area includes two towns, district headquarters, and agricultural areas, so OBC have lobbied to have it reduced to their core hunting area bordering Serengeti National Park, and to make it a protected area, which would signify a huge land loss to the local Maasai, leading to lost lives and livelihoods.

Al Ali

Sheikh Mohammed at Oloipiri Primary, March 2018

In 2008, then Ngorongoro DC Jowika Kasunga coerced local leaders into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC. There were supposed to be talks to coordinate grazing and hunting, but when the 2009 drought turned catastrophic, OBC went to the government to complain, and village land in the 1,500 km² osero was illegally invaded by the Field Force Unit working with OBC’s rangers, with mass arson, dispersal of cattle, and abuse of every kind.

The Maasai moved back, and some leaders reconciled with OBC that went on to funding a draft district land use plan that proposed turning the village land that had been invaded into a protected area. The Maasai were united, and the draft land use plan was rejected by Ngorongoro District Council in 2011.

In 2013, Minister Kagasheki lied to the world saying that the whole 4,000 km² Loliondo Game Controlled Area (Loliondo Division and part of Sale Division of Ngorongoro District) was a protected area and that alienating the important 1,500 km² meant generously giving the remaining land to the Maasai. This ugly trick did not work, since the Maasai were more serious and united than ever, garnered support from both the opposition CHADEMA and from CCM, and then PM Pinda stopped Kagasheki’s threats.

After the unity, efforts to buy off local leaders started creating serious divisions and weakening. Some found it convenient to benefit from openly praising the “investors” and attacking the people who they at the same time expected to take risks to defend the land. Though nobody signed any MoU.

The investors (OBC and Thomson Safaris) had for years used the local police state that through the successive DCs, security committee, and most every government employee will threaten anyone who could speak up about them and engage in defamation and illegal arrests. The repression and fear of this police state became worse with Magufuli in office, and there were lengthy illegal arrests, torture, and malicious prosecution, by 2016 it was so bad that Majaliwa could enter the stage with a select non-participatory committee, set up by RC Gambo. Some of the members were local leaders and other representatives that found themselves at the opposite side of the people when marking “critical areas” under protests in each village. The proposal handed over to Majaliwa was seen as a victory, even though it was a sad compromise (a WMA) that had earlier been rejected for many years of better unity and less fear.

This picture is from March 2017. DON'T use it to illustrate what's happening now.

Maybe since the Maasai showed such weakness, the government went on with the unthinkable and while everyone was still waiting to hear Majaliwa’s decision, on 13^th August 2017 an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2009, was initiated and continued, on and off, well into October. Hundreds of bomas were razed to the ground by Serengeti rangers, assisted by NCA rangers and those from OBC, NCA, TAWA/KDU, local police and others. People were beaten and raped, illegally arrested, and cattle seized. Some leaders were frightfully silent while others protested loudly. Minister Maghembe pretended that OBC’s land use plan would have been implemented and the operation was taking place on some protected land, while the DC, and Maghembe’s own ministry, said it was not about the 1,500 km², since Majaliwa was to announce a decision about that, but that village land was invaded because people were entering Serengeti National Park “too easily”.

The illegal operation wasn’t stopped until late October 2017, a couple of weeks after Kigwangalla came into office. The new minister also made grand promises, like saying that OBC would have left Tanzania before 2018, but it was very soon clear that OBC weren’t going anywhere. On 6^th December 2017, Majaliwa delivered his vague but terrifying decision that was about, through a legal bill, creating a “special authority” to manage the land. He also said that OBC were staying. The decision was celebrated in the anti-Maasai press (the Jamhuri). Fortunately, implementation has been delayed, no legal bill has been seen, and would of course be contempt of court.

In March 2018, Kigwangalla welcomed OBC’s hunters to Tanzania (directing himself to a fake account of the Dubai crown prince), and in April the same year, OBC - once again - gifted the Ministry of Natural Resources of Tourism with 15 vehicles. In March 2018, a military camp was set up in Lopolun, near Wasso in Loliondo, first temporary, but eventually made permanent with donations from the NCAA.

In June 2018, the OCCID and local police tried to derail the case in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) – filed during the illegal operation in 2017 - by summoning local leaders and villagers. Nobody dared to speak up about this, except for the applicants' main counsel. On 25^th September 2018 – a year after the illegal operation - the court finally issued an injunction restraining the government from evictions, destruction and harassment of the applicants, but this injunction was soon brutally violated. In November and December soldiers from the camp in Olopolun tortured people, seized cattle, and burned bomas in Kirtalo and Ololosokwan. This was the lowest point ever in the land rights struggle and I have still not understood how it could happen without anyone at all speaking up. Local leaders claimed to fear for their lives and thought that the brutality was directly ordered by President Magufuli. When RC Gambo in January 2019 condemned the crimes in a very vague way, they changed to thinking that OBC’s director had contracted the soldiers.

There were finally some promising developments in 2019 when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested on economic sabotage charges and OBC toned down (they never left and Mollel was never fired) their activities on the ground, but the local police state wasn’t dealt with and after a lengthy stay in remand prison Mollel was out, and after a while back to work. Speculations about Mollel’s misfortune include his clashes of egos with Kigwangalla and Gambo, and Magufuli wanting to send a message to OBC’s old friend Abdulrahman Kinana (and to Bernard Membe) that nobody is untouchable.

In September 2019, a genocidal zoning proposal for NCA, which included the proposal to annex most of the 1,500 km² and turn it into a protected area allowing hunting was presented. This Multiple Land Use Model review proposal was met with countless protests from every kind of group of people from NCA, but near silence from Loliondo.

2021 brought Jumaa Mhina as new DED and he started working to kill the court cases against land grabbing “investors”. Though the village chairmen have stood their ground and Reference No. 10 of 2017, Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash versus the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania continues in the EACJ. The case against Thomson Safaris in the Tanzanian court of appeal, however, was in 2022 killed using a law that was introduced after the case was filed.

On 11^th January 2022, Arusha RC John Mongella summoned village and ward leaders from villages with land in the 1,500 km² to inform them that the government would make a painful decision for the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, even those who for years had worked for OBC and against the people, refused to accompany the RC for a tour of the 1,500 km², or to sign the attendance list. On 13^th-14th January in Oloirien there was a public protest meeting and a statement by village, ward, and traditional leaders.

On 14^th February, Majaliwa came and wasn’t much better than Mongella, but too well-received, since something worse was expected, because of the crazy anti-Maasai hate campaign, and parliamentarians calling for tanks to be sent to Ngorongoro.

Three days later, on 17^th February in NCA, notLoliondo, Majaliwa ordered the disputed land to be marked by beacons, so that we may know the boundaries – while claiming that this is NOT a trick!

Then Ndumbaro on 8^th March re-introduced Kagasheki’s lies in an interview with DW Kiswahili, and on the 11^th Majaliwa again mentioned beacons and water projects when informing parliamentarians about a fake spectacle that he had set up in Arusha, without people from Ngorongoro, the previous day.

At a huge protest meeting in Arash on 19^th March, several leaders spoke up in defence of the land, among them the Arash ward councillor Methew Siloma spoke up very clearly and strongly. The message from this meeting was:

-PM Majaliwa is a liar.

-The Maasai are not renouncing one square inch of land.

-They request to meet with the president, since Majaliwa can’t be trusted.

On 31^st March Abdulrahman Kinana was brought in from the cold, after having fallen out with Magufuli, and is now Vice-Chairman of CCM mainland. Kinana is one of OBC’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s best and oldest friends since at least 1993.

CCM councillors that had spoken up against plans of robbing the Maasai of the 1,500 km² osero were being intimidated, arrested, and summoned to be “interrogated” in Arusha. The councillors of Arash and Malambo had to keep reporting to the police.

On 25^th May a committee handed over their report of “community views” on both NCA and the 1,500 km² Osero in Loliondo to PM Majaliwa who said that he’s work on the recommendations.

On 3^rd June, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana in her budget speech announced that her ministry expected to upgrade Loliondo to a Game Reserve, but she did this while listing huge areas of Tanzania for the same expectation, which didn’t make it sound believable or realistic in any way, and there was hardly any reaction, except for an intervention by Ngorongoro MP Emmanuel Oleshangai.

Then the brutal, lawless land grab operation erupted, and now there are some 424 beacons to uproot, illegally arrested people that must be freed, and so many criminals that must be punished. And where is Oriais Oleng'iyo?

Susanna Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com

Updates:

7^thJuly

Cows from five bomas and sheep from one boma were seized in Sanjan, Malambo. There was incorrect information on the 6th saying that livestock were seized in Sanjan, which then was denied by people from the area, but on the 7th they were seized, to demand hefty fines, but reportedly the owners have not yet dared to start negotiating. They would get help from the councillor who's arrested, or the village and sub-village chairmen who have fled. (It's as if some people are actively trying to create confusion). The cattle is being held at Orng'oswa.

According to an eyewitness, in the evening, four vehicles arrived in Arash and took two youths who were wearing clothes with the Kenyan flag. The youths are from Arash. Reportedly people were detained in Piyaya as well.

On 6th July the German ambassador scmoozed with on of the main criminals, RC Mongella.

8th July

The criminals, TAWA and police, are demanding 100,000 per cow and 25,000 per sheep for the livestock seized in Malambo on the 7th. They were seized in Ndinyika sub-village and not Sanjan as mentioned earlier, but are being held in Orng'oswa and another area in Sanjan sub-village. 

The livestock in Malambo were released after the owners paid the extortionate ransom fee of 54,000,000 TShs.

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^thJune.

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

NEVER share this without making clear how illegal it is!

 Observe!

This blog post is about Loliondo and Sale Divisions, not to be mixed up with Ngorongoro Division (NCA), even if the issues are closely related. Nobody from Loliondo is moving to Handeni. Those so-called “voluntary” relocations are about Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) where the Maasai are victims of unreasonable restrictions, since last year blocking of funds for social services, and illegal transfer of COVID-19 funds for Ngorongoro schools to Handeni. I must soon get back to reporting about NCA, but currently I can’t even keep up with the massive human rights crimes in Loliondo.

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

Remember that on 8^thJune 2022, vehicles from the anti-riot Field Force Unit (FFU) had gathered in Wasso town in Loliondo and set out to set up camp along the 90-kilometre stretch from north to south in western Loliondo and Sale divisions and in an area somewhat more to the east, in the extreme south in Malambo ward. They were accompanied by Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) rangers, soldiers from the national army (JWTZ) that since 2018 have been stationed near Wasso, local police, rangers from Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, OBC rangers, and non-identified vehicles. The main implementors of the brutal and lawless operation that would unfold are the FFU and TAWA.

The Maasai gathered in several places to pray and to determine what action to take. Information surfaced that on 2^nd and 6^th June, the Regional and District Security Committees held closed-door meetings in Arusha and Karatu. In connection with this, Arusha RC John Mongella filmed a clip“explaining” the operation.

Mongella’s clip was shared all over regular and social media on the 8^th. The message was a rehash of Khamis Kagasheki’s old lie from 2013 that the whole 4,000km²hunting block (all of it legally registered village land) was a “protected area” that had been “encroached” and that the government out of love for its people was giving the Maasai 2,500km², when the actual plan is to fulfil what OBC had been lobbying for – to rob the Maasai of the 1,500km²of vitally important grazing land. This deeply malicious and shameless lie was stopped by PM Mizengo Pinda in 2013, when he confessed that the land without any doubt was village land. Since then, the lie has been repeated by some individuals, like Jumanne Maghembe in 2017, and Damas Ndumbaro earlier this year, but on 8^th June, the whole government had decided on using it again to “explain” the massive crimes that were to take place. To pile one monumental lie upon another, Mongella added that the decision had been “participatory”! Since he first appeared in Loliondo in January to announce hard decisions for “the wider interest of the nation” it had been made clear to him that nobody would participate in such self-annihilation. And the latest “participatory” interaction was when PM Kassim Majaliwa on 25^th May, was handed “community recommendations” that he had asked for and said that he would “work on the recommendations”. These recommendations made it very clear that the land is village land and under no circumstances will the local Maasai participate in demarcating any “protected area”. Further recommendations concerned the removal of OBC.

The Maasai continued holding meetings and prayers on 9^th June, and their worst fears were confirmed when heavily armed FFU officers interrupted the meetings to inform them that they had come to demarcate a “game reserve” on 1,500km² of village land. Pictures and video clips from these meetings, taken from grass level of the interrupting FFU officers, were shared in social media, and in Kirtalo women with pangas and men with bows and arrows made a video clip as a message to show that they were ready to die for their land.

The same day, 9^thJune, all councillors from wards affected by the planned illegal demarcation – except the Soitsambu councillor who fled the DC’s trap instead of attending - were after a CCM meeting and then interrogation, first by the District Security Committee and then a special task force that had arrived, arrested or more exactly abducted, and held incommunicado until the 16^thwhen they were charged with “murder”. This says a lot about how “participatory” the operation is.

At night the illegal planting of concrete boundary beacons began. In Ololosokwan, the beacons were uprooted by the Maasai who stayed around until the morning of the 10^th when the FFU attacked with teargas and live bullets, seriously injuring at least 31 people. They crossed the border into Kenya for treatment and so did many who were fleeing the violence.

The attacks were unusually well-documented with many pictures of the injuries, and a clip showing how teargas was used and bullets fired.

The approximately 80 years old Oriais Oleng'iyo was last seen on 10^th June with bullet wounds and detained by the FFU. Where is he? A habeas corpus was filed.

There were reports that a FFU officer had been killed in the confrontations.

The same day, 10^thJune, PM Kassim Majaliwa (known for his glowing reports on Magufuli’s health when the late president was probably already dead, and for otherwise lying all the time) claimed that beacons were being placed to protect the environment and that the local Maasai would “not be affected”. He warned people of ill will who are spreading a video with false information, referring to the clip from Kirtalo, saying that the Maasai weren’t pointing their arrows at any police, that there wasn’t any confrontation, while missing the point that it was a message sent to himself. Majaliwa further lied that the land that was to be demarcated was “far from the villages”. Since he was speaking in Swahili, I’m not sure who he was trying to mislead. The parliamentarians could hardly have been unfamiliar with the definition of a Tanzanian village, especially a village in a pastoralist area. I suppose he was planting the lie for everyone to tell when addressing foreigners concerned about the human rights crime – lying that the Maasai are just fine squeezed into village centres with their cattle. Sadly, some outsiders, not least diplomats, seem to enjoy being told this kind of lie. Speaker Tulia Ackson, said that the government had explained the operation, that those spreading false information would be dealt with, and that Tanzania is in an economic war with other countries.

On 11^th June, RC Mongella arrived in Loliondo with the regional security committee to repeat the shameless lie that stealing 1,500 km² is giving away 2,500 km². He said that the illegal operation was going just fine, while confirming that one FFU officer was the previous day killed by arrowshot. There has of course not been any independent investigation, but if that’s how this policeman died, the unknown archer was defending his home and his land against very dangerous invaders. Then Mongella posed in photos planting illegal beacons. He was followed by a row of government officials making statements from the warfront against the Maasai, repeating the same lies, issuing threats and posing with illegal beacons.

On 11^th June, at night the FFU fired shots in all directions in Mairowa in Ololosokwan, outside the area that was being illegally demarcated. Houses were searched and people were beaten. The hunt was for those who had participated in protests and those who had shared photos of the government’s violent crimes. Many ran away into the bush to hide, and many children were lost in the chaos (and later found). More people fled to Kenya. Some were arrested, accused of having reported and shared pictures.

The reporting and sharing of pictures became much scarcer, maybe because of the general terror, that the hunt was specifically for those sharing pictures, and because so many people had become refugees in Narok. The illegal planting of beacons, in clouds of teargas accompanied by live bullets continued on the 12^th , in Ololosokwan and elsewhere. In Malambo Parit Nchorro Makesen (I’ve only got his name now, after spending over two months asking for it) was killed when hit by a FFU vehicle. In the Oltulelei area of Maaloni, people were arrested and beaten, and the FFU set fire to motorbikes. The destruction of motorbikes has been a constant in earlier illegal operations and has continued in several locations during this brutal and illegal demarcation. The FFU opened fire at the market in Oltulelei on 15^th June, causing fear and panic. In Malambo as well were they firing shots into the air, and they beat up a motorbike rider whom they thought was following them.

On 12^th June, at the funeral of the FFU officer, Ngorongoro DC, Raymond Mwangwala, told mediathat those talking online, instigating things that aren't true, will be found wherever they are. Head of police operations, Liberatus Sabas, declared that anyone involved in the killing of the police who died from arrowshot will be hunted down day and night.

On 13^th June, MP Emmanuel Oleshangai confirmed that at least 31 people had been seriously injured in the demarcation exercise on village land, and that they are being treated in Kenya after being denied treatment in Tanzania for lacking the required PF3 form. He explained that the injured were his voters and not Kenyans. Further, the MP demanded the release of the detained leaders, and made it clear that the operation is most definitely not "participatory" since even he had not been informed, despite sitting in the same parliament as the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism. The following day, he was summoned to the police, questioned and released.

In Loliondo on 13^thJune, Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro (now ambassador to Zimbabwe) made his contribution to the illegal demarcation, accompanied by RC Mongella. Sirro too said that the demarcation operation was going just fine, but there are some people, politicians included, who are stirring things up, using the Maasai for their own benefit.

Sirro with illegal beacon.

Sirro with land demarcation workers.

On 15^th June, the Minister of Home Affairs, Hamad Masauni, arrived in military helicopter to make a statement directing Immigration to strengthen border security to prevent illegal entry by foreigners and so avoid incitement activities. He also ordered NGOs to be investigated to make sure they operate within the law and don’t engage in breach of peace.

Immigration Commissioner for Border Control and Administration, Samwel Mahirane, arrived in Loliondo on 18^thJune to, like all government officials, pose with beacons, and threaten people who are sabotaging the exercise and have fled. He said they are known and will all be dealt with. Then he threw in some threats against NGOs.

Also on 15^th June, Deputy Permanent Representative to the Tanzania Mission to the UN in Geneva, Hoyce Temu, in a widely shared clip, denied any state violence, repeating the government lie about a “protected area” that had been “encroached” and about “peaceful talks” with local residents that agreed with the government “keeping”  1,500 km² as a protected area, that a minority against the exercise made recordings while posing threateningly and combined this with unrelated pictures, that the government has called on anyone alleging to have been attacked to come forward for the law to take its course and for treatment, but that nobody has come forward. The ambassador will block absolutely everyone who in social media confronts her about her hideous lies and involvement in this crime.

Kenyan Maasai held solidarity demonstrations in Nairobi and Namanga.

On 17^th June, the Tanzanian government organized its own demonstration using supposed Maasai without any relation to Loliondo, or Ngorongoro, to demonstrate outside the Kenyan high commission  in Dar es Salaam thanking the government for dividing Loliondo so that the Maasai have a place to live(!), and accusing Kenyans and NGOs of inciting conflict. Later it was found that people had been told that 150 Maasai were needed to go and sing for some white people at Dar Free Market Mall and would get 20,000 shillings each. Some Parakuyo Maasai gathered, but most fled when they saw what was being cooked. Authentic Maasai youths in Dar es Salaam issued a statement to denounce the fake demonstration, which was not covered by any of the regular press.

As mentioned before, Deputy Minister Mary Masanja, Minister of Constitution and Legal Affairs Damas Ndumbaro, Director of Wildlife, Maurus Msuha, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Liberata Mulamula on 21^st June, stood in front of spineless diplomats telling their blood-soaked, easy to debunk, lies about Loliondo, and about Ngorongoro Conservation Area. In a clip shared by the Tanzanian government, Ndumbaro totally manipulates the diplomats (not shown but heard) making them stand up in silence for the slain FFU officer, clap, and giggle. He lectures them that there aren’t any indigenous people in Tanzania, that nobody owns land, and that human rights aren’t the same in Africa as in Europe, since there are “human and people’s rights”, which would logically mean more rights, but to Ndumbaro it justifies human rights crimes. He talks about a conflict between environmental interests and grazing, when it’s obvious that if had the Maasai used their land in some other way, less compatible with wildlife, they would not now be suffering all this abuse. Ndumbaro shamelessly directs himself to the British high commissioner, thanking the British for having made Loliondo into a protected area that lasts until today – which is the big lie– and the diplomats just laugh and clap. Though maybe this time they had asked not to feature in photos, to avoid situations like in March, when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism declared that the German ambassador supported their “efforts” in Ngorongoro (still not publicly denied by the ambassador). The ministry did however show off the UAE ambassador, and the following day the French ambassador lent himself to a most deplorable spectacle (see below).

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mary Masanja, Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Damas Ndumbaro and UAE ambassador Khalifa Abdul Rahman Al Marzouqi

Masanja explained how OBC win the auction for the hunting block every year.

In a Zoom meeting on 22^ndJune, in which government representatives kept repeating the same lies, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana, claimed to on 17^thJune having gazetted the 1,500 km² into a “Pololeti Game Controlled Area” – after a week of war against the Maasai, with local leaders illegally arrested, charged with murder for a death the day after they were arrested, and others in hiding. Until then, the government had been talking about a Game Reserve, but finally decided to create a GCA on another GCA, since their lie is that Loliondo Game Controlled Area still exists and is a protected area. The French ambassador participated making some pointless comments about France. Not sure what he thought he was doing.

In parliament, MP Emmanuel Oleshangai made it clear that land in Loliondo is village land, that when we talk about land we talk about people’s lives, and that what's being done in Loliondo is a land grab that no person or village government has agreed to. He rejected several interventions by maliciously ignorant parliamentarians. I don’t know how the MP can keep calm and smiling in a house so full of evil. "I know there are people laughing here, but I am talking about the lives of my people, my grandparents, my fathers, my brothers and my younger siblings. It is their land”, he said.

Commissioner General of Immigration, Anna Makakala, arrived in Loliondo to add her statement from the warfront against the Maasai, announcing that there would be 10 days of flushing out illegal immigrants.

In Malambo the invading security forces were counting the bomas found inside their illegal demarcation.

On 23^rd June, PM Majaliwa arrived in Loliondo in military helicopter to celebrate the success in the dirty war against the Maasai, with a big delegation including the Arusha RC, Ngorongoro DC and DED, Minister Chana, Immigration Commissioner Makakala, Awesso, Minister of Waters, and other criminals. It was a military celebration, with the attendants clapping to the songs of stupidly crawling soldiers. Majaliwa and the other attendants continued telling their lies and the PM thanked the useless Tanzanian press for their assistance.  He stressed that the protection of the illegally demarcated protected area would continue.

Crimes committed to uphold and benefit from the illegal protected area

Then followed displacement, illegal demolishment of houses, illegal seizure of cattle with heavy extortion, further mass arrests, a road was cleared along the illegal demarcation, and there was sickening violence.

Around 24^th June, a video called “Serengeti and Ngorongoro shall never die: the truth about the Loliondo situation” (paraphrasing Bernhard Grzimek) was shared, with a plead to international conservation organisations to support the Tanzanian government’s war against the Maasai. It claims that the survival of the Serengeti ecosystem is at stake, describes any talk about forced evictions as lies, repeats the monumental lie about the status of the land, and boasts about that Tanzania has allocated 32% of its area for conservation. It must feel unfair to the government that the organisations and conservation researchers that have created the ideology and the promises of tourism revenue that inevitably lead to violence then refuse to express any public support for this violence. They haven’t got any public support at all from outside Tanzania, not even from their most natural allies, except for from an insignificant South African reporter working for the trophy hunting industry, and less publicly, but very dangerously, from Germany. Inside Tanzania, on the other hand, government supporters apparently love this dirty war.

On 25^th July an open letter from law professor Issa Shivji to Samia Suluhu Hassan was published, setting the record straight about the frequent claim – in parliament and elsewhere – that all land in Tanzania would belong to the public, to the government, or even to the president (as once claimed by Ndumbaro – Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs … - in parliament). Further, Shivji explained that, “the inhabitants of Ngorongoro and Loliondo, especially pastoral communities, cannot be evicted from their land without adhering to legal procedures and for a specific reason which ought to be publicly known and discussed”. There are no signs at all that the president was listening.

On 24^th June, reportedly (I haven’t heard from anyone who was there, and the criminals haven’t written anything) village and ward executive officers were instructed to tell people to leave the illegally demarcated area within 24 hours, or their livestock would be confiscated. In the evening, there were pictures, video clips, and reports from Sanjan in Malambo ward of how the Maasai, under fear and panic, were loading their belongings on donkeys. Then came reports that the same was happening in Arash, Oltulelei in Oloirien, and everywhere. Shots were being fired and people were being beaten, reportedly by both the FFU and soldiers from the national army.

For days, refugees from Sanjan were moving to an area called Olepombo, and to Musurmuny, that's supposed to be for young and sick livestock. They put up makeshift shelters and were in need of everything, including food and water, even if good Samaritans offered some assistance. Some people have continued on the move, with their donkeys, looking for somewhere to live.

Besides the two areas mentioned, cattle from Malambo have been moved to Olbalbal in NCA. Many have been illegally seized on village land that’s been “declared” a fake and illegal protected area and the owners have been forced to pay the same extortionate “fines” as for cattle seized in Serengeti National Park to TAWA, that’s working as a mafia. The ransom fee is 100,000 TShs per cow and 25,000 TShs per sheep or goat. Hungry cows have returned to known areas on what’s to everyone, except the brutal and lawless government, legal village land. TAWA have been particularly active in cattle extortion in the Ndinyika sub-village. Some TAWA invoices for the extortion of cattle owners from Malambo have been publicly shared.

There has been widespread illegal demolishment of houses – both traditional and modern (that need more machinery) - in Malambo, by local police and TAWA, which has only been partially reported.

On Tuesday 5th July, the home of 71-year-old pastor and nursery school teacher William Risando, was demolished in Sanjan, Malambo.

At least seven people from Serng'etuny sub-village in Piyaya and ten from Ndinyika, Malambo were on 29^thJune, arrested and taken to Loliondo police station. Those in Piyaya were reportedly arrested in connection with uprooting beacons.

Thousands of Maasai from Loliondo live as refugees in Narok County in Kenya, assisted by private Kenyans, churches and organisations, but not so much Kenyan authorities. UNHCR from Geneva on 27^th June visited the refugees from Loliondo who have fled to Kenya in Olpusimoru, Naikarra and other areas where the families are hosted. They stayed for three days and saw the wounded and the County Commissioner in Narok. Reportedly, the UNHCR handed over a report to the Kenyan government, which was forgotten in the election frenzy, but the work from the Kenyan side will now be taken up again, I hope.

In Ololosokwan the security forces were saying that they would never leave and threatening to revenge the death of the FFU officer by killing 15 people. Many livestock have been moved across the border to Kenya and others are held in village centre areas. Hundreds of livestock have been illegally seized by TAWA with their extortion that’s the same as demanding ransom fees. The night to 2^ndJuly, 30 people were arrested in Njoroi and 11 in Oloika sub-village, in Ololosokwan ward. They were accused of being "Kenyan”. Houses have been demolished by the security forces in Engong'u in Ololosokwan. On 6^thAugust, 130 cows belonging to the Oloinyo family were seized by TAWA at Eng'ongu and held at Klein's gate. The extortionate and illegal fines were paid on the 9^th and the cows released. On 26^th August, cattle belonging to Cosmas Leitura and Elisha Sananka were seized in Ololosokwan.

Early on, ten people were apparently randomly arrested, then seven more from different areas, and after having been interrogated, tortured, and starved about spreading pictures, they were added to the bogus murder charges.

In Olosirwa sub-village of Kirtalosix people were arrested on 6^th July, including a primary school teacher when police in four vehicles invaded the school. On 25^th July over 700 cattle were illegally seized by TAWA on village land in the Leken area of Kirtalo, and the owners had to pay the very heavy ransom fees to get them back.

I got a compilation of those arrested – and charged - by Immigration: 40 people from Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Mondorosi and Njoroi and 21 people from Enguserosambu, Naan, Ilutulele, Ng’arwa and Orkiu, with different charges. All of them are Tanzanian. This doesn’t include those arrested in Arash, Malambo, and Piyaya.

Most shockingly, in Ormanie, Arashward, on 27^th June, donkeys, calves, and other livestock belonging to Parkimalo Lupa were shot by the security forces when on the way to the river. Children accompanying the livestock were severely beaten by the security forces.

In the afternoon of 2^ndJuly, the security forces started burning seasonal bomas (ronjos) in the Oldoinyo Orok area of Arash. They had caught and tortured a young herder, forcing him to show them the location. Six ronjos were burned to the ground. At least four more ronjos were burned in the nearby Sindin area. Then an unknown number of permanent bomas have been burned in Ormanie, among them the boma of mzee Oltinayio that was first immortalized in a picture with an illegal beacon.

On 4^th July, the security forces seized cows and sheep from over five bomas in Ildupa sub-village of Ormanie, and drove them to Engutoto sub-village in Arash. They went on to extort 100,000 TShs per cow and 25,000 per sheep from the owners. On 7^th July, according to an eyewitness, in the evening, four vehicles arrived in Arash and took two youths who were wearing clothes with the Kenyan flag. The youths were all from Arash. Reportedly people were detained in Piyaya as well. On 15^th August several herds of livestock were illegally seized by TAWA in Olembuya, Arash, and kept at Eng'oswa. I suppose the extortion fees were paid, but I still haven’t got proper updates.

On 18^th August, there were reports that almost 3,000 sheep and 200 cows had been seized by TAWA in Piyaya.

While all councillors from affected wards, except one who’s gone into hiding, in Loliondo and Sale, two special seats councillors, and the district CCM chairman were locked up on bogus murder charges, Mohammed “Marekani” Bayo, OBC’s community liaison officer for many years, was on 5^th July - as the sole candidate, instead of the usual three - “unanimously elected” as district council chairman.