"MRG deeply disappointed by Arusha Court land rights judgment against Loliondo Maasai"

A High Court ruling, handed down, against a Maasai community from Northern Tanzania, is deeply disappointing, says Minority Rights Group International (MRG). The land rights case was brought by the indigenous community against a subsidiary of a US-based safari company, and a government parastatal – Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) and Tanzania Conservation Limited (TCL) – claiming forceful and violent eviction from their ancestral land in Loliondo.

The land rights case was brought by the indigenous community against a subsidiary of a US-based safari company, and a government parastatal – Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) and Tanzania Conservation Limited (TCL) – claiming forceful and violent eviction from their ancestral land in Loliondo.

The Arusha-based Court ruled against the Maasai on all but one point. The community had asked the court to revoke the company’s land title, prevent TCL from converting the land’s designated use from pastoralism to tourism, and award damages for the injuries they have suffered due to their exclusion from the land. They alleged that TCL, together with local Tanzanian police and government officials, had conspired to illegally confiscate their land.