TANZANIAN ADVOCATE APOLLO MARUMA THREATENS BRITISH INVESTOR WITH VIOLENCE AND TRASHES RULE OF LAW

Vision Statement of the Tanzanian Law Society 

''A Society where justice and the rule of law are upheld''

Apollo Maruma is an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania and a member of the Tanzanian Law Society. He practices law in Moshi in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania.

Mission Statement of the Tanzanian Law Society

''To secure sustainable professional development, and the integrity of the legal profession, promote and protect the rule of law and access to justice''

On the 5th January 2010, Apollo Maruma, acting on behalf of the Kyeri, Shari and Uswaa Mamba co-operative societies, completely ignoring the assignment from Fiona Tanzania to Silverdale Tanzania of the lease to Silverdale and Mbono Farms recognised Fiona Tanzania Ltd (and Benjamin and Mille Mengi) as the owner to the lease and served an eviction notice on Mengi (Fiona Tanzania Ltd) for breach of contract. This despite the fact that there was a caveat on the lease in the Lands Office in Moshi forbidding dealings with the lease and placed on the register by Lands Officer Nkya.

Mengi's response to Maruma's application, was to file a case in the High Court Lands Division case 2/2010 declaring himself unilaterally to be the owner of the lease (this despite the other cases in the same case in which he states he is not) asking for the eviction order to be stayed and for the High Court to declare him to be the owner of the lease and asking the co-ops to pay him $5,000,000 in damages but not stating what damages.

The court upheld the eviction order and on 14 th June 2010 with the assistance of the Moshi Police, Mengi was evicted from Silverdale & Mbono Farms.

Maruma is perfectly aware that there was no contractual relationship between Mengi (Fiona Tanzania) and the co-operative societies. He is fully aware that his clients, the co-operative societies assigned the lease to Silverdale Tanzania in 2004 in full compliance with the laws of Tanzania. He is also aware that there are 11 cases pending in the High Court  in Moshi where Mengi has actually admitted the assignment and is asking for it to be set aside. This whole issue is a corrupt legal mess in which Mr. Maruma is now involved together with the corruption of the High Court, the  police and judiciary in Moshi and of course, the co-operative societies who have taken rent from the investors.

The investors wrote to Maruma and told him his actions were corrupt and an abuse of law for personal gain. The American Embassy was also told of the corruption as Maruma appears on the Web site of the Amercican Embassy in Tanzania. Maurma's response was a an email to the British Ambassador in Tanzania,  Diane Corner, the American Ambassador in Tanzania Alfonso Lendhart and Roger Gale, British Member of Parliament for Thanet North which reads as follows:-

----- Original Message -----

From: maruma advocate

To: SEL

Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 6:25 AM

Subject: RE: SILVERDALE FARM CASE

Your Excellency,

For the record, we take the liberty to respond to our copy of the email from the so called

Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. With due respect, she displayed an

extreme sense of arrogance in publishing such a defamatory story against our integrity

about which she is least qualified to judge. She demonstrated the height of desperation

and recklessness.

In a nutshell, she, through Silvedale (T) Ltd, conspired to take over tracks of land on lease

to Fiona (T) Ltd without due consent by owners, poor rural villagers organised as

Cooperative Societies, our clients. The societies recovered their land for defaults in rentals

payments and poor investment etc which Fiona is challenging in court. The fraud between

Fiona and Silverdale went sour hence her desperation. Allegations of corruption are frivolous,

insulting and offensive to say the least.

The Solicitor - turned - agricultural investor is welcome to pursue her rights, if any, in court

and avoid malicious smear campaigns, against resident professionals. She should learn

to look back over her shoulders when she set foot in Tanzania again.

If Sarah has lost faith in our system of government, she should try Zimbabwe.

Regards,

MARUMA and COMPANY, ADVOCATES

The email which displays an ignorance unworthy of any legal profession is clearly a personal attack as a result of indefensible allegations of Maruma's conduct.

Attention however is drawn to the penultimate sentence where Maruma is clearly threatening the investor with death if she returned to Tanzania. It is an appalling demonstration of thuggery from an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania and a member of the Tanzanian Law Society.

Tanzanian Law Society