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"WE'LL FIGHT FOR OUR LAND TO THE END"
By Esther Mngodo, The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. A global civic organisation, Avaaz, says it will mobilise two million people to sign an online petition against a reported plan by the government to evict more than 40,000 Maasai people from their land in Loliondo in order to give it way to a hunting company owned a royal family in Dubai.
A statement issues yesterday by Avaaz called for world-wide condemnation of the plan and said its petition was to bring the matter to the attention of President Jakaya Kikwete and to force a revision.
“Within hours, Tanzania’s President Kikwete could start evicting tens of thousands of the Maasai from their land so hunters can come and kill leopards and lions. Last time Avaaz raised the alarm, the President shelved the plan. Global pressure can stop him again,” said Mr Richard Lee from the organisation that has become known for its online petitions against injustice around the world. The land in question is a 1,500 square kilometre “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti national park.
The government is yet to react to a report by UK’s Guardian on Monday that it had rescinded a decision not to evict the Maasai in favour of Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), a luxury safari company set up by a UAE official close to the royal family.
Reports say Maasai leaders from Loliondo were expected to meet the Prime Minister in Dodoma since Tuesday to raise the matter. No official word has come out if they indeed met the PM over the planned eviction.
Last year, when word first leaked about this plan, almost one million Avaaz members rallied to defeat it. The organisation said the plan has been revised after international attention had died.
“President Kikwete may not care about us, but he has shown he’ll respond to global media and public pressure -- to all of you. We may only have hours. Please stand with us to protect our land, our people and our world’s most majestic animals, and tell everyone before it is too late. This is our last hope,” Avazaar quoted elders as pleading in the petition that went up yesterday.
They said the government claims this new arrangement is some sort of accommodation, but its effect on the Masaai people’s way of life will be disastrous. There are thousands of people who could have their lives uprooted, losing their homes, the land on which our animals graze, or both.
Unlike last year, according to the Guardian, the government is offering compensation of Sh1 billion to be channelled into socio-economic development projects. The Masai have reportedly dismissed the offer.
“I feel betrayed,” said Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”
Nangiria said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.”
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