Winfrith Hikloch Ogola
New Member
- Jan 31, 2022
- 4
- 16
“LOLIONDOGATE” IS BACK WITH CLIMATE CHANGE BITING DEEP IN MAASAILAND
Young Maasai boy walks behind herd of cattle (Credit: Pixabay)
Young Maasai boy walks behind herd of cattle (Credit: Pixabay)
By Winfrith Hikloch Ogola
Sendeka Ole Njolayi is normally a happy, talkative and socializing Maasai warrior but on hearing the word OBC which stands for Otterlo Business Corporation, he turns wild and swears bitterly: “I rather resist to my last blood drop than relinquish my land to that uncouth”.
Njolayi is among 70,000 Indigenous Maasai pastoralists from eight villages in Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region who are set to be evicted from their ancestral land if the government orders issued by the Region’s Regional Commissioner, John Mongela to evict the Maasai is implemented.
The Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) on January 26th issued an urgent alert in which Mongela is reported saying on January 11th that the government of Tanzania is going to make tough decisions to remove the Maasai people from their 1,500 km2 area of village lands any time in 2022, “even if this will be painful to the Maasai”.
The announcement in his abortive tour of Loliondo Division has sparked wide wild resentments from Maasai communities and their indigenous civil society organizations (CSOs) to human rights activists and international organizations all recalling past bloody incidents in the 30-year protracted conflict that has cost hundreds of lives and property worth millions of Tanzania shillings.
The Arusha Regional Commissioner (RC), John Mongela, holding a meeting with Councilors, Village and Ward Executive Officers, village and sub-village Chairpersons in Loliondo must have realized that his eviction plans fell on deaf ears when Maasai leaders declined to sign the participants’ list to the meeting and refused to accompany him and his entourage to visit the 1,500 Km2 of disputed land.
It is bitter for the indigenous Maasai pastoralists to bear the brunt of their government that has shamelessly and repeatedly used state forces against them instead of seeking their free, prior and informed consent. The most disturbing and resented element of the conflict, however, is that in the past four attempts to evict the Maasai, the government is driven by a covert intention to give the said land to a foreign hunting firm called Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) owned by Prince Brigadier Mohamad Al-Ali of Dubai for leisure hunting purposes.
The Legal Battle Rages On
Lawyer and Human Rights activist Elly Aman says the planned eviction is unjust and discriminatory under national law and international human rights obligations and commitments of the Government of Tanzania.
He argues that if the government evicts the 70,000 indigenous Maasai people and their almost 200,000 herds of cattle from their ancestral land in Loliondo “it will put Tanzania at the top of world record for breaching Indigenous Peoples human rights and paint a negative picture on Tanzania’s international track record for “peace and love”.
A leader of a Maasai pastoralist non-governmental organization (NGO) who prefers anonymity for security reasons says John Mongella must resign from his position as the Regional Commissioner (RC) for his unjust and discriminatory utterances that overlook the fact that the 1,500 km2 land encompassing eight Maasai villages is a customary and ancestral land of the Maasai who also have rightful village land tenure rights under the Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999.
According to the alert by IPRI and IWGIA, if the eviction takes place it will contravene a number of legislations including: (i) Article 6 (d) and 7 (2) of the East African Community (EAC) Treaty. (ii) Article 15 (1) of the Protocol on the Establishment of the EAC Common Market. (iii) Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. (iv) The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania. (v) The Village Land Act of 1999.
Under the international law, forced evictions are considered a gross violation of human rights that can only be justified in the most exceptional circumstances, and only then if they comply with specific standards and respect specific legal processes.
The latest eviction threat constitutes a clear violation of numerous international human rights instruments, including the (i) African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights. (ii) The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (iii) The Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which include the Right to food and the Right to Adequate Housing. (iv) The Covenant for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Justice Is Not Seen As Working
Under proper democracy, no one should interfere with judicial proceedings but the way the authorities treat eviction attempts evokes suspicions over state interests in the issue. While the contested land legally belongs to the Indigenous Maasai people, it is the Director of Wildlife who since 1992 has been issuing permits for hunting activities to OBC in return for estimated billions of Tanzania shillings said to blind officials from taking just decisions
The government was forced to halt plan to evict the Maasai from the contested land in 1992 after the Maasai people protested and employed legal machinery culminating in a big national scandal then termed the ‘Loliondogate”. However, the IPRI and IWGIA alert show that since 1993 the Maasai people in the area have become victims of serious human rights violations inflicted by state machineries and OBC agents while OBC continues to hunt in Maasai legally registered villages.
In an unprecedented move the government in July 2009, announced that the Maasai in Loliondo had to vacate their land because they stated it was within the Hunting Block belonging to OBC. The announcement started invasion of Maasai villages by police force and OBC agents setting fire on homes and destroying property in a fracas associated with rape cases and reports of gross violation of human rights.
Suspiciously, a report of the Parliamentary committee on Land and Natural Resources to investigate the 2009 outcry has neither been released nor published instead, the IPRI and IWGIA alert says, in 2010 /2011 OBC a fraudulent manner funded the Land Use Planning Commission to draft a land use plan proposing to turn the coveted 1,500 km2 village lands into a Game Controlled Area where people and livestock would not be allowed. To the relief of the Maasai people, the Ngorongoro District Council rejected the proposal.
In yet another suspicious move in 2013, the then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki announced the government plan to allocate the contested land lying east of the Serengeti National Park for wildlife preservation. The then Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, declined and declared the village land as belonging to the Maasai people.
In August 2017 conflict escalated when residents of the coveted 1,500 Km2 land received state orders to vacate the land and, like in 2009, the orders were immediately followed by forceful removal of cattle and burning of homes forcing Ololosokwan, Olorien, Kirtalo and Arash village Councils to file a legal case with the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) against the government for its actions concerning the land.
The Kirtalo village Chairman says the January 2022 eviction pronouncement by the Arusha Regional Commissioner, John Mongela, is translated by many as a continuation of the long conflict between tourist-revenue and human development. Unfortunately the conflict is raging at a time when other natural factors feed on it to amplify poverty among the Maasai people.
The Olorien village Chairman, Parmaari Merika says a second court stop order has been put in place last week of January by EACJ and hopes it will provide ample time for national leaders to find a permanent solution to the problem so that “we can participate effectively in other development issues”.
Climate Change Exacerbates the Conflict
The Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) is concerned the eviction threat comes at a worse time ever as climate change (CC) bites deep into the livelihoods and social welfare of the Maasai and their life-supporting resources.
Recent media reports quote scientists as saying CC is responsible for the unusually prolonged periods of droughts that have dried pasture and water leading to the death of over 50,000 cows of the Maasai people and hunger for over 200,000 people in the past one year alone.
JET’s concern is that the eviction, if ever implemented, will exert further human and livestock population pressure on already fragile rangelands as large numbers of the Maasai and their cattle continue to be pushed to ever congested areas and so amplify food shortages and scarcity of social services that have recently been dwindling.
There are fears if the contested 1,500 km2 land belonging to Ololosokwan, Oloirien, Kirtalo, Arash and four other villages is given to OBC for hunting purposes, its ecological value will depreciate. Most Maasai people and environmentalist say the land is very well managed through the customary landscape management practices of the Maasai pastoralists.
As a result of effective indigenous land management skills, there are plentiful of protected springs and other water sources. In addition, due to Maasai cosmology, wildlife is not hunted, and this results in a large wildlife population, including massive wildlife herds that migrate across the area making it very suitable for OBC hunting leisure.
History Witnesses the Fate of the Maasai
The persistent conflict between tourist-revenue and people-centered development has survived two previous heads of state and now put the current Tanzania President Samia Suluhu to great test because she has to settle the dust by deciding for one development option if her government is to be seen as working fairly.
In 1958 the British colonial regime in Tanganyika forcefully evicted the Maasai people to give room for the creation of the over 14,000 Km2 Serengeti National Park. The Maasai were left with only 4,000 Km2 Loliondo Game Controlled Area in which they co-exist with wildlife. To evict them from another 1,500 Km2 is to be unfair to a ever growing human population.
