This is a guest post by Sironka Ole Masharen.
It seems land problems will never cease to haunt the Maasai community wherever they may be found in the region. Many are quite aware of the controversial Anglo-Maasai Agreements of 1904 and 1911 in which the community lost close to half of their former lands.
In Tanzania, the Maasai pastoralists have been embroiled in a ceaseless tug-of-war with the outgoing government of Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete over the alleged arbitrary expropriation of community lands ostensibly for conservation purposes. The Maasai have had history of losing land since the British moved them in 1959.
In what came to be popularly known as “Loliondogate,” the traditional pastoral Maasai in Loliondo division. Residents originally stayed in Serengeti plains before being relocated to Loliondo by colonialists. The dispute started when government allocated a portion of the area which has got water sources and greater pastures to an investor in 1992 for game hunting and other business.
The investor started restricting the entry of the Maasai community who had depended on the area for grazing and accessing water for their animals. In effect, forceful evictions have been taking place the latest being in February 1915. Tanzania human rights activists including NGO’s have sited torture, destruction of property, rape, confiscation of animals and extra-judicial killings.
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