1 November 2009
Arusha — President Jakaya Kikwete is arranging a cross-border trip to Uganda, for a delegation of Maasai elders from Ngorongoro District.
The President wants to take the community elders (Laigwanan) to Uganda where they would be taught new livestock keeping methods by their nomadic counterparts- the Banyankole.
"I have discussed this with Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni and he has agreed to both receive the Maasai elders and take them around to see how their fellow Nyankole nomadic pastoralists are doing it," he said.
According to President Kikwete the Ugandan pastoral community used to suffer drought, cattle deaths and hunger just like the Maasai in Ngorongoro, Simanjiro, Monduli and other cattle keeping areas are experiencing.
"But they have now learned from mistakes and adopted profitable ways of conducting their trade and most of them are now well-off. In fact some are very rich," said the president when addressing residents of Meshili, Ndoile and Endulen villages in Olbalbal Ward of Ngorongoro last weekend.
The president has spent a few days in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for a working retreat and took time to meet local villagers.
"I expect the trip to take place in less than three months from now," explained Mr Kikwete who instructed the chairman of Ngorongoro Pastoral Community, Metui Ole Shaudo who is also the ward executive for Olbalbal to work with the District officials in arranging the planned tour of Uganda.
Earlier on Mr Shaudo had complained of drought which is annihilating herds of cattle and other livestock in Ngorongoro. According to the chairman, the lives of people in the districts were being threatened because its residents were mainly cattle keepers.
"Livestock is our only source of livelihood, we cannot farm here because it is a conservation area and the Maasai have nowhere else to go," said Ole Shaudo.
Heat, dust and brown-dried ground are now the main features of Ngorongoro. In some areas carcasses of dead animals could be spotted.
The president is on view that the current practice of cattle keeping by the Maasai was not only unproductive to the tribe but also harmful to environment and it was high time they borrowed a leaf from Uganda's Banyankole who have embarked on zero-grazing with commercial focus.
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