The Masai are perhaps the most politically aware tribe on the entire continent, IMO. They will survive and perpetuate their herdsman lifestyle while pocketing vast amounts of U.S. and Euro dollars. I wish them well.

I had a Tanzanian PH tell me a few years ago, "Tourism is our oil." Tanzania has nothing but tourism and since the continuing deterioration of Kenyan tourism, only an idiot or someone totally ignorant of the situation would spend tourist dollars and expose themselves to the increasing chance of violence in Kenya.

When I was in Tanzania last month, there was word of a government investigation of the Arabs who are supposedly killing everything in sight. Of course, a few well-placed bribes will nullify that, I'd wager. It is, of course, Africa.

And the 300,000-odd head of cattle driven into Tanzania from Kenya by the Maasai a few months ago certainly doesn't help the situation.

yeep AAW

I read with interest the comment of jetdrvr that Arabs are killing everything. It has been reported that Al-Quaeda is very active in Kenya and also reading that cattle are being driven into Tanzania makes me wonder. (Don't 300,000 cattle do something to grazing for plains game -to say nothing of "Arabs" killing whatever walks -and therefore harming sport hunting? - and therefore might make Tanzania adopt "sharia"?) Of course, I'm just in one of my stages of paranoia -but I make it a rule never to underestimate my enemy - and radical Islam always intends to win -by whatever subtle means necessary. (The "Death of a thousand cuts" is not just a Chinese idea)

Tanzania: Loliondo Residents Criticise Govt
Florence Mugarula
10 September 2009


Three children have gone missing, while 16 youths are in prison following a conflict over land between Loliondo residents and hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), it has been alleged.

Participants of a gender festival were told yesterday in Dare es Salaam that there was an operation going on in Loliondo to evict villagers .

Some 50 representatives from the affected villages in Ngorongoro district claimed that OBC had teamed up with the police and district officials to conduct the operation, which they termed illegal.

They wondered whether top government leaders were aware of what was happening or not.

"The government has successfully executed its operation, they have torched out houses so that OBC can hunt without any interference... are President (Jakaya) Kikwete's children sleeping outside like ours?" queried Kooya Timan, one of the 50 Maasai herdesmen who represented their colleagues at the festival.

"Are we Tanzanians or refugees?" she asked noting that during the operation, the government did not care about them. "We feel that it was in the investor's interests that the government reacted."

Another representative, Ms Pirias Maingo, insisted that the Maasai community around Loliondo were not treated humanely by their government.

Ms Maingo said that there were several cases of violations in the area but the residents were helpless since the government had turned against them.

She added that four women have suffered miscarriage due to stress, while one woman was raped by a police officer and that no legal actions had been taken against the culprits.

She claimed there were many problems facing Loliondo residents including hunger and poverty but instead of being helped, they were beeing mistreated and moved from their land.

"We are facing many problems in our own land, our children are disappearing, the women are being raped and the government is silent, we need to be told if we are Tanzanians or not," she insisted.

Moreover, the Maasai woman asked President Kikwete to visit the area if he 'really feels about his people'.



"We want to see President Kikwete, we want to ask him if his wife and children are also experiencing what our children are going through, we need him to witness the reality on the ground," said Ms Maingo.

Reports from Loliondo further say that members of the dreaded Field Force Unit were involved in the operation to evict the villagers from their homes.

It was reported that houses were torched, animals killed as the authorities tried to clear the land for the hunting company.

Ms Maingo said that her community was facing hunger as they were without food and livestock.

But authorities in Ngorongoro district and those from OBC maintain that the evictions were carried out humanely to protect water sources.

Insanity on a rampage!

Denmark wants end to human rights abuse in Loliondo
By Bernard James

From The Citizen
September 12, 2009

The forced eviction of Maasai pastoralists from their homes in Loliondo, described as one of the worst acts of human rights abuse in Tanzania's history, has provoked international condemnation.

In a development that signals growing impatience among the country's major donors over the violent land evictions in Ngorongoro District, the Danish government is pushing for an "end to the human rights abuses and unfair trials surrounding the Loliondo evictions."

Denmark, which is among Tanzania's biggest bilateral donors, is now calling on the Government to launch an independent investigation into the human rights abuses witnessed during the recent operation to remove Maasai pastoralists.

The Danish ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Bjarne S�rensen, said in Ngorongoro yesterday that �the Government must be open and transparent in its actions to secure the rule of law and fundamental human rights for all Tanzanians.�

He was addressing hundreds of Maasai pastoralists in the district at the closure and handing over of Ereto, a 15-year project that fought poverty and improved lives of pastoralists in Ngorongoro.

Denmark and Tanzania initiated the Ereto-Ngorongoro pastoralist project in 1998 in response to the growing concern about the unprecedented and rising levels of poverty among pastoralists in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

The project has recorded significant progress in key issues like water supply, animal health-care, restocking livestock, women's economic groups and HIV/Aids awareness.

However, in 1992 the Government secretly leased over 4, 000 square kilometres of the Loliondo Game Reserve to an Arab Sheikh, Brigadier Mohammed Adulrahim Al-Ally of United Arab Emirates for hunting purposes through the Ortello Business Corporation (OBC).

The move sparked off the Loliondo evictions which have since provoked public outcry against the Government.

Denmark, together with four other countries' representations, last week had a delegation which went to Loliondo to see what the reports were about. But, according to ambassador S�rensen, Local Government Authorities failed to facilitate their visit in the affected villages.

"However, through consultation with others we were able to see and hear that evictions and burnings of bomas indeed have taken place," he said.

"I would like the Government to be open in this dialogue to secure the rule of law," he said yesterday during the handover ceremony before hundreds of Maasai in the area.

In a speech the envoy said the violent evictions, which have seen homes burnt down, overshadowed the support Denmark had been providing the Maasai communities in the area. Mr S�rensen took a swipe at the Government for not ending the evictions.

He said evictions are a matter of great concern to the Danish people, European Union member states and the African Commission on Human Rights.

"The media and NGOs have brought to my attention reports about the ongoing operations to evict pastoralists from their land of customary rights. I call on the Government to stop all the evictions and associated actions," he said.

The Danish envoy urged dialogue involving regional officials and members of parliament to resolve the issue.

Apparently, the Government's key development partner is frustrated about the fact that all its support to the pastoralists over the past decade could be erased.

"With regret it seems that our support to Loliondo District through Ereto has failed as, apparently, an environment of fear and intimidation seems to exist," the ambassador lamented.

He said Denmark's support had assisted in a better way to organise the pastoral community, and enabled them to participate in the ongoing dialogue on how to support conservation efforts in the area.

In addition, Mr S�rensen said Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark, who visited Tanzania less than a year ago where she had contact with the Maasai, was impressed by their efforts to conserve nature in their surroundings.

However, the ambassador said he remains convinced that the Government would continue to see sustainable improvement where conservation and development are promoted hand in hand.

The forced evictions of the Maasai from the land to which they have customary rights has in recent weeks became a subject of international and local condemnation.

On Wednesday over 50 victims of the forced evictions urged the Government to immediately stop the operation and help them with basic needs like water, food and health facilities.

At a gender festival held in Dar es Salaam, they lashed out at the Government for treating them inhumanely. They accused the police and district authorities of teaming up with OBC to illegally remove them from their ancestral land.

Following the evictions, there have been reports of missing children. A village representative recently alleged that four women had suffered miscarriage due to stress.

He also claimed that an unidentified police officer had raped a woman during the evictions, but no legal action had been taken against him.

TCRA sends investigators to Loliondo

From This Day News
September 14, 2009


THE Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has launched an investigation into communication interference on telephone, Internet, and electronic media frequencies being allegedly done by a United Arab Emirates (UAE) communication company, Etisalat, in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region.

The move by the communication watchdog follows reports of interference on local mobile phone networks taking place around the Loliondo game-controlled area, inside a hunting block leased by UAE company Ortello Business Corporation (OBC).

TCRA Communication Manager Innocent Mungy has told THISDAY in Dar es Salaam that the authority has already dispatched a team of technicians and a communication vehicle to the area.

�Our team of experts is already there. But let me not disclose too much information on what is going on, since that could jeopardize the investigation,� Mungy said in a phone interview.

Visitors entering the OBC-run safari camp, at a place called ’Arabiya’ by the locals, are greeted with the message: �Dear guest, welcome to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Enjoy the best network coverage and other unmatched services only with Etisalat. Have a pleasant stay in the UAE.�

It is understood that all local networks in the area are blocked in favour of Etisalat. Locals have complained that they either can’t make local phone calls or are charged very highly as if they were making international calls.

The area in question, located within the Loliondo game-controlled area (LGCA), is almost like a territory within a territory with members of the police force’s Field Force Unit (FFU) providing 24-7 security and unauthorized visits strictly forbidden.

OBC is registered as an international company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It is owned by one Major General Mohamed Abdul Rahim Al Ali. The company started its operations in Tanzania in 1992 when the government granted it a 10-year hunting concession for the LGCA hunting block..

A team of journalists and activists on a fact-finding mission were recently barred from entering the VIP (very important persons) camp within the camp. As the team left, they were tailed by the camp manager and FFU police for some distance.

A few kilometres from the Loliondo township of Waso, the team was stopped by a police inspector identified as Isaack Manoni, who told them not to publish any photographs they may have taken of the camp.

According to OBC Managing Director Isaac Mollel, TCRA is aware of the presence of Etisalat’s network in the area.

�The network has been there even before other local networks came...Moreover, Etisalat is a parent company of ZANTEL and thus I see no problem,� said Mollel.

Govt in dilemma over land occupancy riddle
By The guardian reporter

14th September 2009

It revolves around skirmishes that saw villagers march to State House on Saturday


The government has announced measures to make the spectre of years of disputes over land occupancy in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area history.

Natural Resources and Tourism minister Shamsa Mwangunga said at a function here on Saturday that investigations have begun to establish the root cause of the problem and find a lasting way out.

The minister made the remarks when officiating at the handing over to Oloirobi Village in Ngorongoro District of the 15-year-old Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project (Ereto), jointly funded by Denmark and Tanzania.

The wrangles revolve around lucrative hunting blocs in the natural resource-rich LGCA and have been pitting Ortello Business Company (OBC) against indigenous villagers, mostly Maasai pastoralists.

The company wants the villages evicted from the area “under their control” ostensibly for the good of the ecosystem and to make it possible for hunting activities to run smoothly. However, the villagers have vowed not to leave what they view as the rightful land of their ancestors.

Things came to a head recently with reports of massive destruction of villagers’ property, including farms, livestock and houses (bomas), most burnt down allegedly to protect the company’s right to the land.

Efforts by both district and divisional authorities to find an amicable end to the differences of opinion are understood to have come to a dead end.

As a result, disgruntled villagers staged a peaceful march to the State House in Dar es Salaam on Saturday for an audience with President Jakaya Kikwete on the matter. However, their mission was not accomplished.

Minister Mwangunga explained that the government was intent on finding out whether indeed local residents have been periodically harassed as a way of forcing them to relocate from LGCA as reported recently by the media.

She called on all concerned “to have trust in the government’s intentions” of ensuring that justice would be done.

It is part of the government’s responsibility to ensure that legal investments were adequately protected while also safeguarding the interests of wananchi “without allowing a few individuals, organisations or institutions to foment unrest”, she said.

Mwangunga revealed that the Natural Resources ministry as well as that of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development and the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) will “very soon” embark on land use planning in Ngorongoro District, “with a view to clearly demarcating land for use by local residents and as wildlife protected areas”.

“This will be done in a most participatory manner in line with the legal frameworks relating to the three offices,” she said.

In earlier remarks at the function, Danish Ambassador to Tanzania Bjarne Sorensen said any attempts to evict Maasai pastoralists from their ancestral land would be one of the worst acts of human rights abuse in Tanzania’s history.

He noted that, as one of Tanzania’s biggest bilateral donors, Denmark would like to see the government launch an independent investigation into the incident.

The envoy underlined the need for the government to continue to move transparently and ensure the rule of law, enabling wananchi to enjoy basic human rights without let or hindrance.

He said Ereto had played a key role in Tanzania’s war on poverty and done a lot to improve the lives of Ngorongoro District pastoralists.

Denmark and Tanzania initiated the pastoralist project in 1998 in response to growing concern about escalating levels of poverty among pastoralists in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

The project has recorded significant progress in areas like water supply, animal health care, restocking livestock, supporting women’s economic groups and promoting HIV/AIDS awareness.

In 1992 the government leased over 4, 000 square kilometres of the Loliondo Game Reserve to a United Arab Emirates sheikh, Brigadier Mohammed Abulrahim Al-Ally, for hunting purposes through OBC.

The move later led to the gradual eviction of Loliondo villagers, which has since provoked a public outcry.

A delegation representing Denmark and four other countries last week went to Loliondo for an eyewitness account of the situation but, according Ambassador to Sorensen, the local governments authorities there would not facilitate their visit to the affected villages.

He said sources told the team that there had indeed been cases of villagers being harassed as reported, and recommended “dialogue” – preferably involving regional officials and Members of Parliament – as the best way out.

He described the reported evictions as a matter of great concern to the Danish people, the European Union member states and the African Commission on Human Rights.

“The media and NGOs have brought to my attention reports about the ongoing operations to evict pastoralists from their land of customary rights. I call on the government to stop all the evictions and associated actions,” he said.

LGCA, part of which comprises hunting blocs, is an important water catchment area supplying water to areas of the Serengeti National Park and other parts of the

Loliondo pasture land as well as a buffer zone for the expansive park.

It is a key corridor for wildebeest breeding and migration between Kenya’s Maasai Mara, which links NCA to the Serengeti. Additionally, it is a most prime hunting block that generates over 500m/- to the government and contributes over 300m/- to surrounding communities every year.


SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN