Dubai: Maasai land grab row erupts again

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has tried to put an end to reports that his government has been making renewed efforts to evict Maasai from their ancestral lands in order to give Emirati royals access to hunting. The row seemed to have ended in 2013, when – after a long and loud campaign, in which domestic and international pressure mounted on Dodoma – the Maasai were told the eviction would not go ahead. But in recent weeks, it erupted once more, with the Maasai saying the government had told them to quit their land by the end of the year and offered them TZS1bn ($580,000), to be channelled into socio-economic projects.