In Solidarity “until the last Maasai leaves”: Catholic Bishops in Tanzania on Evictions

He continues, “We do not reject investment nor do we refuse the government to change the region for wider use, but those human beings must be treated according to human rights. That's what the Bishops have said.”

Fr. Kitima cautions the Tanzanian government against downplaying the value of human life, saying, “We do not need to persecute the Maasai of Loliondo and Ngorongoro if we want Ngorongoro as income. Humans are more valuable than animals.”

The Tanzanian Catholic Priest urges President Samia Suluhu-led government to make the people understand why they have to vacate the conservation areas.

“These people are traditional. They believe their God wants them to stay in the wild. When you tell them to leave, they don't understand why. We have to make them understand slowly, through education,” he says.

In February, religious missionaries decried the forceful evictions, saying the move has made the Maasai, a pastoralist community, an “endangered” community in Africa. 

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“With this forceful eviction plan of the Tanzanian government, the Massai stands out as one of the endangered tribes in Africa, as their communities face the same eviction threats in Kenya over government development projects,” members of the Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) said.

They added that the evictions put members of the Massai community “at risk of losing their identity and culture.” 

In their In a February 13 statement, AEFJN members urged the government “to comply with the provisions of the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the regulations in place in the Ngorongoro Conservation area that state that ‘no decision can be made without proper involvement, consultation, and the consent of Maasai communities.’”

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.