Pastoralists cry of forceful evictions in Tanzania

"According to the stakeholders’ submission, the violations include systematic land alienations, forced evictions, intimidations, marginalization from social services and lack of legal recognition.

“Since 2006, the government of Tanzania has been engineering forceful evictions of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers”, the submission of stakeholders reads in part.

The submission further states that “justifications for these evictions have been unsubstantiated allegations that pastoralists cause environmental degradation, and that the government or local authorities need the lands of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers for investment purposes regardless of the traditional land ownership and customary practices”.

However, according to the Tanzania’s minister of good governance, in the President’s office, Mathias Chikawe, as far as the issue of indigenous people is concerned; “there is no consensus definition of indigenous peoples in Tanzania. Generally, all ethnic Tanzanians are regarded as indigenous”.

It is in line with that government’s position that Chikawe holds that the government understands only that there are special groups, which need special protection within the country. The groups include the Maasai, Hadzabe, and Barbaig.
“The government has taken various measures to provide political, social and cultural amenities to such groups in the field of health, politics, employment and education,” the Tanzania’s report read in part as presented by Chikawe.
Minister Chikawe, who led the Tanzania’s government delegation, was presenting the national report on human rights at United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in Geneva, Switzerland, early October this year.
However, despite the government’s position on the issue of indigenous people in the country, NGO’s emphasise on the government to establish legal and administrative measures that address, among others, the issue of identity and existence of indigenous people in the country.

“The government should ensure legal and administrative measures to address the intrinsic link between land, survival, existence and identity of the indigenous people. These should be in conformity with the constitution and other international human rights instruments and standards,” stated the stakeholders report.

The stakeholders report noted that there was no legal framework in Tanzania for the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, and that the country had not ratified the ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent countries.

“However, Tanzania voted in favour of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)”, the stakeholders’ report read in part.

Meanwhile, stakeholders pointed out that while the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977 and the interpretations made by the judiciary-that land is property, recognises the rights to own property and the right to work, but the pastoralists and hunter-gatherers did not enjoy these rights.

It is claimed in the submission that State authorities “have been increasingly and arbitrarily dispossessing these indigenous peoples of their lands and other properties in order to protect the interests of investors”.

The State authorities that are blamed for participating in denying the indigenous peoples’ rights include the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), Tanzania Peoples’ Defense Forces (TPDF) and District Commissioners.

The joint submission of stakeholders further stated that, in many eviction instances, the government had not intervened to safeguard the interests of the indigenous people while many evicted families were now landless, homeless and subjected to conflicts with other land users.

“The government of Tanzania should ensure that all victims of evictions that took place from 2006/7 to date are resettled and compensated that any future eviction is criminalized through legislation,” stated stakeholders in their recommendations regarding evictions of indigenous peoples in their settlement in Tanzania.

At the UPR, different countries raised concerns about the rights of indigenous peoples in Tanzania. One of these was Denmark whose concern was the steps that Tanzania has taken towards adopting legislative measures to address the specific rights of indigenous peoples. The government of Tanzania however did not clearly address this particular concern."