Dodoma – A presidential commission has delivered a damning assessment of the Tanzanian government’s so-called voluntary relocation programme for residents of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), finding that only 7.3 per cent of households had relocated by the time of its assessment and that the exercise was marred by poor planning, inadequate community engagement, and inconsistent incentive guidelines.
The commission, led by retired Permanent Secretary and engineer Musa Iyombe, presented its 318-page report to President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Chamwino State House in Dodoma on March 12, 2026, alongside a companion report on land use in the NCA.
The commission was formally launched in February 2025 to assess the voluntary relocation exercise, which the government began in 2022 with the aim of resettling NCA residents to designated areas in the Tanga and Manyara regions.
A stalled exercise
The commission’s headline finding was stark. Of the approximately 23,000 households living inside the NCA, only 1,678 — equivalent to 7.3 per cent — had relocated by the time the commission completed its fieldwork. Similarly, only 4,593 of 71,546 livestock (5.7 per cent) had been moved to the new areas.
The relocation destinations include Msomera in Handeni District and Saunyi in Kilindi District, and other areas — all in the Tanga region, with some families also directed to Kitwai in Simanjiro District in the Manyara region.
“The government’s intention to implement the voluntary relocation exercise to improve the lives of residents and protect the ecology of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has not succeeded as expected,” Iyombe told President Samia.
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The commission found that the exercise had been conducted through persuasion rather than genuine participation, with communities not meaningfully involved in the planning or execution of the relocation programme.
Infrastructure built, homes empty
Despite the low uptake, the government has made substantial financial commitments to the relocation sites. A total of Sh212.35 billion has been allocated to the exercise, with Sh114.36 billion invested in Msomera, Sh18.59 billion in Kitwai B, and Sh15.82 billion in Saunyi.
At Msomera, the government has constructed 1,559 houses — none of which have been occupied. The site also has roads, electricity, water, health facilities, a police post, a post office, livestock dipping facilities, and primary and secondary schools equipped with science and computer laboratories.
Eng. Iyombe: “There are 1,559 houses already built at Msomera, but they have not yet found residents. We need to ask ourselves: what is going wrong?”
The commission found that some residents who had relocated to Msomera have taken up farming, growing maize, beans, and cassava, and are selling surplus produce. Others have engaged in livestock trading at newly established markets.
However, the commission noted that the majority of NCA residents remain reluctant to move.
Incentive confusion
One of the key factors identified as undermining the relocation exercise was a change in incentive guidelines between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the programme. In Phase 1, each household that relocated received a house and Sh10 million. In Phase 2, the incentive was changed to recognise only the head of the homestead — meaning a man with multiple wives received one house and one payment, regardless of how many households he was responsible for.
“In Maasai pastoral communities, it is the woman who builds the house and the woman who constitutes the household,” Iyombe said. “If a man has three wives, that is three households. When he arrives at the relocation site and finds only one house, he wonders which wife he should give it to. This immediately creates conflict.”
The commission recommended that the government review its incentive guidelines and address the issue without disrupting the arrangements already made for those who have relocated.
Participation failures
The commission was particularly critical of the lack of community participation in the design and implementation of the relocation exercise. It found that the NCA’s traditional governance structures — including the Maasai malaigwanan (male elders) and ngaigwaak (female elders), as well as the Sonjo elders’ councils — were not adequately engaged.
Eng. Iyombe: “When we were in the field, we discovered that these pastoral communities deeply respect their traditional leaders. If the malaigwanan understand something, the whole community understands it. If they do not understand it, the whole community does not understand it. It is therefore essential to fully involve these malaigwanan in the voluntary relocation exercise.”
The commission recommended the development of a comprehensive community participation plan that would involve residents, traditional leaders, ward councillors, government officials, political leaders, and religious leaders at all levels.
The commission received complaints from three distinct groups: those who remained inside the NCA, those who had relocated to Msomera, and the original residents of Msomera who were already living there before the relocation programme began.
Residents who remained inside the NCA complained of restrictions on community services, the transfer of development project funds out of the area, the dissolution of villages within the Ngorongoro division, the disbanding of the pastoral council, changes to polling stations, restrictions on entering the NCA, employment bans on local residents in NCA lodges, and the relocation of NCA authority staff who were community members.
Those who had relocated to Msomera complained primarily about dissatisfaction with the compensation and the single-house policy for multi-wife households.
Meanwhile, original Msomera residents complained that their land had been surveyed and allocated to incoming families, creating new land disputes in the relocation area itself.
Key recommendations
The commission’s recommendations centred on continuing the relocation exercise, but with significant reforms. It called for the government to stop building houses for relocating families and instead provide an agreed cash allowance, allowing families to build homes in keeping with their cultural traditions.
It recommended the establishment of an independent project management team to oversee the exercise, with responsibility for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting — replacing the current coordination arrangement through the Prime Minister’s office and a technical committee of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, which the commission found was inefficient.
The commission also called for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, working with the Prime Minister’s office and TAMISEMI (the ministry responsible for regional administration), to prepare a comprehensive population and livestock register for all residents of the Ngorongoro division.
It further recommended that the NCA Act (Chapter 284) be amended to recognise all four ethnic communities living within the NCA — the Maasai, Sonjo, Hadza, and Datoga — noting that the current law only recognises the Maasai.
The commission called for the restoration of the pastoral council’s financial authority, for the NCA to prepare a new General Management Plan (GMP) — the previous one having expired in 2016 — and for community services to continue being provided to those remaining inside the NCA, even as the relocation exercise proceeds.
President’s response
President Samia, receiving the report, acknowledged that the government had made mistakes in implementing the relocation exercise and pledged to correct them.
“We have heard that the government carried out the exercise with good intentions but made mistakes in some areas,” she said. “Those are the areas where we now need to sit down, reflect, and make corrections. We will continue with the exercise, but after making the necessary corrections.”
She described the commission’s work as an example of Tanzanian-led problem-solving, noting that in previous years, the government would have spent large sums hiring foreign consultants to advise on such matters.
“What we have done here is true Tanzanianism,” the Head of State remarked. “In the past, a lot of money would have been spent bringing in expert committees from outside. Experts would come from abroad to provide consultative services to us about Ngorongoro, which is right here with us, which we live with. So what we have done is Tanzanian. Congratulations.”
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She directed the Chief Secretary and Prime Minister to coordinate the implementation of both commissions’ recommendations and to ensure adequate resources are allocated.
President Samia: “I assure the people of Ngorongoro that the government will continue to work with you at every stage of implementing the recommendations made by these two commissions, for the future of this area and the well-being of all residents.”
