Human rights organizations will appeal the ruling of the East African Court of Justice, which dismissed a case filed by Maasai herders seeking to prevent the Tanzanian government from evicting them from what they call their ancestral land.
According to Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) Executive Director Davis Malombe, the appeal will be filed through the Pan African Lawyers Union.
The herders were seeking redress for the government’s violent evictions and burning of homes in Loliondo in four villages bordering the Serengeti National Park to the west in 2017.
The court issued interim orders to halt the evictions in 2018, but human rights groups documented additional forcible evictions in June of this year, when 2,135 Tanzanians and 35 human rights defenders fled to Kenya as refugees.
However, in a ruling issued last Friday, the EACJ determined that the Maasai had failed to demonstrate that they had been evicted from their village land rather than the Serengeti park itself.
In addition, the court stated that the testimony about violent evictions was based on “hearsay,” and that there was insufficient evidence to support their case.
According to Mr. Malombe, the court completely ignored the illegal arrests, shootings, and displacement suffered by the applicants, including women and children, rather than glossing over the compelling multitude of oral and affidavit evidence tendered by the villagers.
He also questioned the court’s decision to reject expert evidence provided by a key witness, a Kenyan geospatial expert who conducted a land survey, on the basis that “he was a Kenyan and had not sought a work permit to undertake the surveys in Tanzania.”
He also urged the international community to put more pressure on the Tanzanian government to stop human rights violations, including economic sanctions.
