Tanzania Drops Murder Charges against Maasai Pastoralists

Tanzanian prosecutors have reportedly dropped murder charges against the 24 Maasai pastoralists accused of killing a police officer during protests in June.  

Similarly, Caroline Kimeu reports, charges for trespassing against 62 Maasai involved in the protests were dropped last week.

The unilateral attempt to evict Maasai pastoralists from their ancestral land to make way for a conservation and a luxury hunting reserve in Loliondo, Ngorongoro, was met by fierce protest from the locals.  

The detention was politically motivated and there was “no legal justification” for it, the pastoralists’ lawyer Paul Kisabo said.

“The charges and detainment were a misuse of the public system… the director of public prosecutions gave no explanation for the decision to drop the charges,” he added.

Reacting to the news, Muleya Mwananyanda, the Amnesty International’s regional director for east and southern Africa, said: “They should never have been arrested in the first place. Their only ‘crime’ was exercising their right to protest while security forces tried to seize land from them in the name of ‘conservation’.”

Tanzanian Human Rights Defenders coalition said that the suspects were tortured and accused of murder, denied food and access to their families and lawyers.

Tanzanian government claims the land in Loliondo “falls within the boundaries of the Serengeti national park, and that the Maasai’s growing population is encroaching on its wildlife habitat.” However, the Maasai contest the claims and insist that the land rightfully belong to them.

Kimeu notes: “The June evictions were the latest attempts by the government to relocate the pastoralists from the area…Similar eviction efforts in 2017 were halted by the east African court of justice, pending its judgment on the case.”