MPs want Ngorongoro law amended

MEMBERS of Parliament now want review of the law which established the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority arguing that the 60 years old law was both tribal and racist.

“The 1959 Act requires that only ‘native Maasai’ should live within Ngorongoro Conservation Area contrary to the National Constitution which provides for no geographical limits for any Tanzanian who wants to live anywhere within the country,” noted Busega MP, Dr Raphael Chegeni.

Dr Chegeni said hereyesterday that in the wake of increased population in the NCAA, the Maasai natives that the Act once favoured, were reproducing at an alarming rate and they are already overwhelming the conservation area whose population has rocketed from 10,000 in 1959 to over 66,000 this year.

Available statistics indicate that the 8,292 square kilometres NCAA has a human population of over 65,842 people, 136,550, head of cattle and 193,056 goats and sheep. Mr Benard Murunya, the NCAA conservator, stated earlier, that the area can only support a population of 25,000 if it is to remain ecologically stable for many years to come.

Mr Joelson Luhaga Mpina, MP for Kisesa, stated that if the Authority was to be protected, the entire human population should be evicted immediately and leave it as a purely conservation area.

“It is high time that the law governing NCAA should be revised and all human activities including settlement be stopped and the area to be made a national park,” Dr Chegeni maintained.

Ilemela MP, Mr Anthony Diallo was of the view that it was also time that NCAA resources were shared equally nationwide instead of current arrangement that Maasai get a lion’s share of everything in Ngorongoro.

“NCAA pays for their education from primary education to colleges, buy them food during drought, provide their cattle with food and veterinary services and offer them full protection,” stated Diallo, adding that elsewhere people are forced to contribute for fees and classrooms.

Some MPs are more concerned with Ngorongoro eco-system. Last year, UNESCO threatened to delete NCAA from the World Heritage Sites listing because of increased human activity in the area.

“Unless the Act is reviewed the NCAA will cease to exist in five years time because the current law encourages the co-existence between Maasai people, their cattle and wildlife. But the former two are increasingly outnumbering the latter, threatening both conservation and tourism,” observed Mr Job Ndugai, the Chairman of Parliamentary Committee for Environment, Land and Water.

All other MPs supported the idea of removing all human beings from Ngorongoro to allow wildlife and natural growth to thrive in the world heritage site. Mr Elisa Mollel, the MP for Arumeru West and Metui Ole Shaudo, the chairman of Pastoralist Council in Ngorongoro, differed with others insisting that the Maasai had the right to stay.