The East African Court of Justice (hereinafter EACJ), First Instance Division, has on Friday adjourned hearing of the expert witness. The case, Reference No.10 of 2017, came before Honorable Monica K. Mugenyi, Principal Judge and others – and was streamed live on the court’s website.
The court was scheduled to hear the testimony of the expert witness of the plaintiff; Ololosokwan Village and three others. This was to be followed by cross examination of the said expert witness by the counsel for the respondent; the Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania.
The counsel for the respondent complained that they were served the affidavit and its annextures late. He wanted the court to disregard the evidence by the expert witness.
The counsels for the plaintiffs pleaded that, in the interest of justice, the evidence should be allowed. They cited the difficulties caused by COVID-19 which delayed the processing of the raw data collected from the field trip by the expert witness. The court ruled that, due to the importance of evidence of the expert in this case and in the interests of justice, it will adjourn the matter to allow counsel for the respondent to go through the evidence of the expert witness and prepare for cross-examination of the said expert witness. The court will set another date of hearing of the case.
The case concerns a dispute which initially arose in 1993 regarding ownership and usage of the land which boarders the Serengeti National Park on the West and Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the North. This conflict turned into serious violence in the second half of 2009 when the Responded forcefully and violently evicted the plaintiffs especially in 2012 and 2013.
In August 2017 tension escalated when village residents received correspondence from agents of the respondent ordering them to vacate land. This was followed by agents of the respondent forcefully driving the plaintiffs away from their ancestral land. This was done through use of excessively violence which included the forceful removal of livestock and burning homesteads.
Pan-African Lawyers Union (hereinafter PALU) on behalf of four Village Councils namely Ololosokwan Village Council, Oloirien Village Council, Kirtalo Village Council and Arashi Village Council (the applicants) filed a case before EACJ on 21 September 2017.
The applicants are villages located in the Ngorongoro District, on land bordering the Serengeti National Park. The Applicants alleged that the respondent’s actions are a direct contravention of Article 6(d) and 7(2) of the EAC Treaty, Article 15(1) of the Protocol on the Establishment of the EAC Common Market, Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, Village Land Act, 1999.
Separately, the applicants also filed application 15 of 2017 seeking interim orders pending hearing and determination of the Reference No 10 of 2017. The Applicants sought orders to restrain and prohibit the respondent from evicting the, confiscating their livestock, burning homes and beatings.
In its Ruling of 25 September 2018, the EACJ issued Orders which included explicit directions: a) That the respondent and any persons or officers acting on his behalf, cease and desist from evicting the plaintiffs; destroying their homesteads or confiscating their livestock on that land, until the determination of Reference No. 10 of 2017 and b) That the Office of the Inspector General of Police restrains from intimidating the applicants in relation to Reference No. 10 of 2017 pending the determination thereof.
The applicants want to prove that they have been forcefully evicted from village land.