Loliondo: Police nab 72 foreigners, 30 arraigned
July 6, 2022
06
Jul 2022
The Guardian Reporter
ARUSHA
News
The Guardian
Loliondo: Police nab 72 foreigners, 30 arraigned
A Ten-day operation by Immigration Department officers found 72 foreigners living and working in the area without permits, the regional authorities say.
Hosea Kagimbo, the regional immigration officer.
Hosea Kagimbo, the regional immigration officer, told reporters yesterday that
57 of those arrested are Kenyan citizens, seven French citizens and eight other migrants, found in Sale and Loliondo divisions.
Hamad Yussuf Masauni, the Home Affairs minister, visited the areas on June 15 after a spate of agitation, directing a thorough investigation into a flare-up as boundary beacons for the Loliondo Game Controlled Area were being installed.
The resulting inspection focused on activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the two divisions, the regional official noted, pointing out that among those arrested, 30 will be taken to court, 13 were released and investigations on 29 others continue.
Investigations faced some challenges as some local people fled their homesteads (bomas), but efforts to pursue them were continuing, he said, noting that inspections were conducted on 10 NGOs, where in-depth interrogations were conducted with their officials.
Earlier reports said that some pastoralists from the other side of the border were bringing in huge herds of livestock for grazing with the connivance of district officials, which is causing unease with conservation officials at the Loliondo Game Controlled Area,
The government has reduced the size of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area from 4,000 to 1,500 square kilometres, leaving to local people the use of the 2,500 square kilometres portion, but activists want the 1,500 sq. km area remaining for native use.
Their narrative skips the wildlife corridor aspect and prefers to focus on the hunting firm, Ortello Business Corporation, whereas its activities have no impact on migration and feeding areas, unlike the large herds of cattle wandering into the zone.
Social media outlets fed by the same activists focus on the government deciding to remove people from their ancestral land, skipping the dual-use legal structure, as well as the massive increase of inhabitants and cattle, which puts conservation activities in peril.
Meanwhile, more families are leaving the zone to a newly reserved area in the Handeni district, where houses are being built, embedded with three acres of land and an auxiliary vast grazing area within the proximity of the housing development.
The protected area has since been renamed Pololeti Game Controlled Area after the demarcation, with Pololeti being a key river and water source in the reserve, officials noted.
A Ten-day operation by Immigration Department officers found 72 foreigners living and working in the area without permits, the regional authorities say.
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