SafariLands.org: Places: Oldonyo L’engai, an active volcano, now turns epicentre of strife’

The angry residents say they are prepared to desert their villages and forsake their country and cross the border into the neighboring Kenya protesting against the proposed annexation of their land by conservation authorities.

Representatives of close to 5000 residents of Enkaresero village, located at the foot of the legendary Oldonyo L'engai Mountain have declared that they would rather cross the border to Kenya than sit and watch their location taken away by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

These are joined by representatives of other 6000 residents of Pinyi location in the vicinity who are also up in arms against the NCAA proposal to take over both the active volcanic mountain of L'engai and the corresponding Lake Natron and include the two features into the Ngorongoro list of attractions.

The chairman of Enkaresero village Christopher Ndurway stated that all residents were opposed to the NCAA proposal and were ready to take any step in defending their land. Mr. Ndurway was speaking at an open meeting held to address the issue at the village last Wednesday.

"Our village holds an official registration number AR-607 of 2006, which means we are not here by chance, my people have heavily invested here in terms of residential buildings, two schools a dispensary and irrigation farms," stated the chairman.

"If NCAA takes over our land, the villagers freedom will be limited, relatives can no longer visit us freely without applying for gate passes and actually paying for them," read the chairman.

"… people here will also lose their rights to worship at Mount L'engai, where we believe our ‘God’ resides and the local youths who have been earning money taking tourists for Oldonyo L'engai expeditions will lose this important source of income,"continued Mr. Ndurway.

Ward counselor for Pinyi, Charles Ndikere described the NCAA proposal as sheer land grabbing, a problem which needs fast solution including possibly, state house intervention. "People here depend on both Mount L'engai and Lake Natron for their daily income generating activities," he pointed out.

But there is another thing; recently the NCAA evicted hundreds of residents who used to live within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area claiming the move was specifically to reduce human activities within the vicinity. Now Enkare-sero residents fear that the same case will apply to them.

Board members of Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority were also expected to attend the village meeting which started at about 11. 30 am., but by the time we left the location at about 4.30 pm the NCAA delegation had not yet arrived.

Enkaresero is also cut off from phone communication thus it wasn't possible to find out why.

Later however an official from NCAA said the board had previously gone to Oldonyo-Sambu for a meeting with the displaced former Ngorongoro villagers and therefore couldn’t make it in time for the Enkaresero session.

So what do the residents say? Peter Losongoiye said the local Moran (youths) have vowed to fight for their land in case the NCAA resort to acquire it by force. But the NCAA is well equipped with armed rangers will they ever win the battle?

"If we lose then all of us have decided to leave for Kenya as refugees," added another Moran. Kenya apparently is just a 'walking distance' from the area. Actually the border is almost 50 kilometers away but for the Maasai, that is a mere walking distance.

The village with an area of 104,550 hectares is made up of Enkaresero, Leparkash and Monic sections; it is the central point for all activities in the area. It is quite busy, especially during the ongoing tourism season as a number of visitors flock there to climb Mt. L'engai.

The village earns US $15,000 a year in terms of land lease fees raised from camping activities in the area. Enkaresero also gets a cut of 20 percent from gate collections imposed at its entrance by the Ngorongoro District authorities.

Last April a delegation from NCAA went to the village with a proposal which is now being refused by the residents. Ngorongoro authorities wanted to take over Mt. Oldonyo L'engai, east Africa's only active volcano and Lake Natron a vast flamingo sanctuary.

Last Wednesday was to be the deadline for villagers to either agree or refuse the 'offer' the NCAA was supposed to attend the village meeting and hear from them. They made it to the meeting late at about 5.00pm they got the message; already the village officials have given their people's declaration … in writing.

Earlier on the Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Jowika Kasunga had explained that due to regular volcanic eruptions at Mt. L'engai, the government sent a special commission to L'engai in an effort to contain possible disasters caused by those eruptions and quakes. The delegation advised that people be moved from the volcanic epicenter leaving a radius of at least 50 kilometers from the foot of the mountain.

However the villagers during the recent meeting said volcanic eruptions date back to 1960s but no damage ever occurred in their location since the molten rocks are usually thrown far away from the foot of the mountain sometimes to a distance of 200 kilometers.

Source: http://www.arushatimes.co.tz