APPEAL BY EVICTED LOLIONDO HERDERS SET TO START AT EA COURT

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

Livestock herders in  Ngorongoro district, Arusha region have filed an appeal at the regional Court against order for their eviction.

They are appealing against an earlier ruling  in the same legal facility which upheld their removal from a protected area in the Loliondo division.

Five judges of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) led by the President of the Court Nestory Kayobera will hear the appeal which came up for mention on Monday this week.

The Ololosokwan Village Council and three individuals filed Appeal No.13 of 2022 at EACJ's Appellate Division against the government of Tanzania.

During the Court sitting  on Monday, the Court requested the advocates for the applicants to put in writing by March 6th their detailed grounds for appeal.

On the other hand, the Attorney General was told to respond within 30 days; up to April 5th, while the applicants have to submit their responses by April 19th.

From there on, the Court will announce the dates for hearing the high profile appeal, with each side given 30 minutes.

In the case, Ololosokwan villagers are represented by a panel of lawyers led by a prominent advocate in Arusha Donald Deya who is assisted by Esther Muiga-Mnaro, Jebra Kambole and Praisegod Joseph Oleshangay.

The appellants claim that the earlier ruling by First Instance Division of the EACJ did not get facts right in the case against eviction, hence a ruling that was not in their favour.

"There was ample evidence from many people - women, men, youth and the elderly - but they were all disregarded", Mr. Deya said in his submissions.

Mr.Deya, who is also the chief executive officer with the Arusha-based Pan African Lawyers' Union (Palu), said there was ample evidence of human rights violations during the eviction exercise.

However, according to him, all of them were disregarded by the First Instance Division of the regional Court, including what the defense counsels produced.

The advocates defending the villagers implored the Appellate Division of the EA Court to review the First Instance Division ruling and give a verdict which complied with the evidence that was produced.

The Attorney General of Tanzania, the government's chief legal advisor, is represented in the case by two counsels;Vivian Method and Narindwa Sekimanga.

In the earlier case, the regional legal facility based in Arusha ruled out that  the Tanzania government was right to force the herders out of the disputed area.

The case has dragged in the Court since 2017 when the cattle keepers in Loliondo, a  division within Ngorongoro district, protested against eviction from their ancestral land.

They objected to the removal order by the district authorities on grounds the land in question was to be allocated to a hunting company.

The disputed land borders the Serengeti national park to the west and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to the south.

Under the Tanzanian laws, no human activity is allowed in a national park of which there are currently 22 of them.

In between is what is known as the Loliondo Game Controlled Area, one of the hotly contested conservation sites in the country

The pastoralists in their application alleged violence and brutality by the state officers during the eviction carried out in 2017.

They claimed that the action was in violation to the East African Community (EAC) Treaty in that it breached the tenets of human dignity.