Samia’s War On the Maasai
War is a strong word and many may argue that it is an exaggeration but it is not!
Often wars are fought for territory, usually land territories. In Africa for example, colonial era wars like the Maji Maji and Mau Mau wars were fought to reclaim land taken by colonizers.
What Samia Suluhu Hassan — the president that some try to market as a “reformist” — is doing is grabbing land that belongs to pastoralists, in particular the Maasai. She uses the police, rangers, and army to enforce her will. She has declared war on the Maasai. Samia Suluhu is on record saying that she is doing this for conservation however these “game reserves” are also reserved for trophy hunting.
I do not want to get side tracked in the nuances, or dabble in the whole Dubai Royal Family connections — I recommend that you read more about Loliondo and Ngorongoro here.
So why did I choose to call this a war? Because like every war, there is a war plan, a strategy put on paper. What happened at the beginning of March 2024 is that Samia Suluhu’s war plan was leaked to human rights activists from the Maasai community.
The so-called presentation is called “Preliminary analysis report on the establishment of game reserves in the North” — this presentation is dated January 2024 but clearly it has been a work in progress for a few years
This leaked document was hinted at by human rights lawyer Joseph Oleshangay on his Twitter account. Within 10 days, he was notified that the police and security forces were looking for him. He narrated in #MariaSpaces on March 28, 2024, the terrifying hunt that was conducted to find him in Ngorongoro, in his village and his life is still in danger. The organization where he works, Legal Human Rights Center (LHRC) also issued a statement about concerns for his safety.
Then on March 29, 2024 long time CCM (ruling party) member of parliament, Christopher Ole Sendeka survived an assassination attempt at night. Ole Sendeka has been vocal about the government’s attempt to take away the land of the Maasai in Simanjiro which is now part of the ‘new plan” that was leaked.
So why is this plan causing such a strong reaction from the government of Samia Suluhu? Because the Maasai have managed to show that the plan is to take the ENTIRE Maasai ancestral land in the name of conservation while in reality it is about grabbing it for hotel construction and game hunting.
The leaked plan gives us proof that what was said before and assumed (since 2021) that Samia Suluhu and her gang of opportunistic mercenaries in her government are out to take the land of the Maasai is REAL. Case in point here is the map of the planned land that they aim to name Game Controlled area and Game reserves which would mean the resettlement of the people living there who are in majority Maasai people.
Then let us take a look at the Maasai Land that was demarcated during the colonial times under the British East Africa
And finally let us contrast this with the ancestral Maasai land that was drawn by early European explorers before colonialism
The reality is that the Maasai, and their cattle, are not an environmental threat as the government of Samia Suluhu has tried to portray them repeatedly, but they are excellent stewards of nature and wildlife. It is not a coincidence that, to date, where they have lived, wildlife is abundant. The sad fact is that they are now threatened by the unbridled greed of a cabal of wealthy local and foreign business interests who have captured the state.
Lest you get the wrong idea, Samia Suluhu Hassan is not a damsel in distress, captured by evil corporates. She is a willing participant and executioner of the plan. She has made this land grab her personal war and she is determined to win it at any cost.
