December 9, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali Marks International Anti-Corruption Day As Auditor General Exposes Bunch Of Backroom Deals
09 December – Source:Goobjoog News – 390 Words
Somalia marked the International Anti-Corruption Day on Wednesday against the backdrop of new revelations which implicate Somali politicians for devising new crafty ways of making huge profits from the country’s meagre coffers. December 9th is dedicated to raising awareness of corruption and commemorating the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.This year’s theme is “breaking down barriers – promoting civil society’s role in anti-corruption”.The event comes a day after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud handed over National Fuel depots to Somali entrepreneurs and where the subject of corruption featured prominently in his speech. The Transparency International (TI) survey has put Somalia and North Korea on a red colour in the new map of the world’s most corrupt nations.“Fast-growing economies, whose governments refuse to be transparent and tolerate corruption, create a culture of impunity in which corruption thrives.” Said Jose Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International. Western and other donors have poured billions of dollars into Somalia, funding the army’s battle against Islamist insurgents and helping to rebuild vital state institutions but instead some individuals divert the money for personal use.
Earlier this year, Nur Jumale Farah, Somalia’s Auditor General, said his office had investigated all 25 government ministries and promised to publish the findings. That has not happened to date. And speaking to Goobjoog News last night, the Auditor General conceded that Somalia continues to stay on top of the world’s most corrupt countries’ list with widespread backroom deals seem to be occurring all the time.“Last year, Financial Governance Committee (FGC) recorded almost 12 backroom deals, Somali government signs deals with local and foreign investors without observing the legal process,” Noor said. The government leaders, he claimed, hoodwinked the public and signed deals which are based on public-private partnership. Noor added: “All contracts including that of the airport, port, Digfeer hospital and National depots, which were handed over either foreign or local investors, were not clean deals”
Key Headlines
- Somali Marks International Anti-Corruption Day As Auditor General Exposes Bunch Of Backroom Deals(Goobjoog News)
- Puntland President Attends Special Dinner Hosted By Banaadir Regional Administration (Villa Puntland)
- UNFPA Seeks To Address Vulnerability In Gender Based Violence In Puntland(Garowe Online)
- 20 Killed 90000 Flee Somalia Clashes: UN (Agence France Presse)
- Amisom Officer Acquitted Of Negligent Death Charge (New Vision)
- Police Implicated In Eastleigh Shopping Malls Robberies (The Star)
- Three Muslim Women: Three Different Responses To The Global Clash Of Cultures(North Texas e-News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Puntland President Attends Special Dinner Hosted By Banaadir Regional Administration
08 December – Source: Villa Puntland – 186 Words
The local administration of Mogadishu and Banaadir region on Monday night hosted visiting heads of Federal member states and the President and Prime Minister of Somalia for a special dinner in its headquarters. .President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke, former Premier Ali Mohamed Gedi, President of Puntland Government, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali (Gas), were among top officials who attended the event. The guests were treated to a collection of patriotic songs and dances that sought to stress on the need for unity among the people of Somalia.Leaders discussed the New Deal for Somalia, which is in its final stages as 2016 approaches fast.It was agreed that the New Deal has not lived up to the expectations of the people of Somali as it did not resolve some of the basic needs of the country, such as roads and other infrastructural needs. The Puntland delegation led by Dr. Abdiweli Gas was in Mogadishu to attend the consultative forum on the 2016 national elections as well as the New Deal.
UNFPA Seeks To Address Vulnerability In Gender Based Violence In Puntland
08 December – Source: Garowe Online- 120 Words
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is seeking to address the vulnerability of Somali women in gender-based violence in the northeastern state of Puntland. Under the auspices of UNFPA, local network ‘YPEER’ held a workshop on gender orientation for 50 students representing universities and secondary schools on Tuesday in the Puntland capital of Garowe.Puntland government officials praised UNFPA and its partners for staging awareness and focussing on reproductive rights. Participants were educated on sexual violence, innovative policies of sexual and reproductive health. UNFPA’s Kamal Dahir and Mohamed Shiine of YPEER explained the workshop was aimed at setting up anti- gender based violence clubs at higher education institutions.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
20 Killed, 90,000 Flee Somalia Clashes: UN
08 December – Source: Agence France Presse – 171 Words
At least 20 people were killed, 120 wounded and over 90,000 forced to flee days of rival militia battles in central Somalia, although the situation has now calmed, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Fighting broke out in the town of Galkayo on November 22 between gunmen loyal to the Puntland and Galmudug districts, with reports of heavy gunfire as well as mortars or artillery.Clashes continued after a ceasefire agreement last week, but the situation has been quieter. Galkayo, which straddles the border between the two districts, has seen frequent fighting between rival political or clan groups, separate from the Al Shabaab insurgents who are fighting the internationally-backed central government in Mogadishu.“Relative calm has returned… armed forces from both states have started to withdraw from the frontline,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, while warning the clashes had affected many people already struggling and in need of aid: “The armed violence has exacerbated an already fragile humanitarian situation,” the UN added.
Amisom Officer Acquitted Of Negligent Death Charge
09 December – Source: New Vision – 459 Words
The Army Court has acquitted Lt Col. Samson Nabeeta, the former deputy Civil Military Cooperation officer under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), over a negligent death charge. Nabeeta was on Tuesday acquitted of negligent homicide in the death of Private Kabila Okot Okoya. Okoya was knocked dead by a car while moving to his fighting position to counter attack the Al-Shabaab militants.The insurgents had attacked a Uganda Contingent base camp in Mogadishu, Somalia during end of year celebrations on January 1, 2014. The military panel led by Maj.Gen Levi Karuhnaga ruled that prosecution has failed to prove that the conduct of the accused amounted to a rash and negligent act. Karuhanga further ruled that prosecution failed beyond reasonable doubt to prove that the accused drove the vehicle that knocked and killed Okoya at base camp.
Nabeeta cried tears of joy after the chairman ruled in his favour.“Prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. I therefore acquit the accused and set him free at liberty unless held on other lawful charges,” Karuhnaga ruled. Prosecution had claimed that Nabeeta, on January 1, 2014 at around 0130hrs, while at the Uganda Contingent base camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, negligently drove a Toyota 4Runner and knocked dead Okoya. Karuhnaga also acquitted the accused on grounds that prosecution evidence was marred with contradictions.“There were contradictions with regard to the time the incident occurred. PW1 testified that the accident was caused by a person driving a 4Runner vehicle around 0230hrs while the charge sheet stated the time of the accident to be 0130hrs. This raises issues as to the identity of the accident and its times,” he noted. Nabeeta would have faced up to seven years in Makindye Military headquarter cells if convicted in the death of Okoya. Nabeeta had spent one year in detention in Somalia without trial, but was later transferred to Makindye Military Headquarters cell to face trial at the General Court Martial. He was represented by Maj. Ronald Iduuli.
Police Implicated In Eastleigh Shopping Malls Robberies
08 December – Source: The Star – 925 Words
Elite anti-violent crime fighting units have raised concerns about robbers of Somali ethnicity in the recent burglaries targeting malls in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate. This comes after initial reports revealed that police officers are involved. Investigations by Flying Squad and Special Crime Prevention Unit have established that nine people, a majority of them police officers are behind the spate of violent robberies.
Most of the officers are from Wajir and target premises owned by Degodia businessmen from Wajir. Reportedly police officers, some attached to Starehe Police division under whose jurisdiction Eastleigh shopping centre falls are not making investigations any easier for the elite crime busting units. Two police officers, namely Mohamed Kanyare Billow and Kahiya Mohamed Omar attached to the General Service Unit (GSU) and Administration Police were arraigned in court in late August following a robbery at United Mall within Eastleigh.In the process of investigating the robbery in which millions of shillings and over 1.7 kgs of gold were stolen, Flying Squad detectives established that nine people including police officers were part of the gang and each of them received Sh 900,000 as proceeds apart from what they were to expect from the sale of the gold. On the material day of the arrest of the two officers, one of the police officers, who is attached to Starehe Police Division and is said to have been the lookout when the robbery was happening, got impatient and followed one of the accomplices to a five star hotel within the Central Business District demanding for his share. A driver and a colleague all who were police officers accompanied him. The police officer demanded more than his share because he was to split it with the two colleagues who had accompanied him. He attempted to grab the money and a bag containing the gold, which had been brought to the hotel for sale. It is during the scuffle that he realised that all was captured on CCTV. In panic he pulled out his walkie-talkie and a report claiming that he had arrested robbery suspects.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Malala Yousafzai has something in common with Ayaan Ali: they both support reform from within Islam. Ayaan Ali does so outside the faith; but Malala Yousafzai from within her faith. Ayaan Ali was greatly influenced by her experiences in the West and would be seen by Nigeria’s Boko Haram as a good example of why Western education is lethal.” — Henry Bucher, Associate Professor of Humanities, Austin College
Three Muslim Women: Three Different Responses To The Global Clash Of Cultures
08 December – Source: North Texas e-News – 578 Words
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born (1969) Muslim whose education in Kenya and Saudi Arabia moved her to the religious right (Wahabism); but intensive study in the Netherlands (1992) turned her into an atheist, encouraging other Muslim women to do so. Today she is a successful politician, educator and author.Tashfeen Malik, with her husband, killed fourteen people in San Bernardino, California, injuring many others in the December, 2015 massacre. Seen as a “modern girl” by friends, during college in Pakistan (her birthplace, 1988), she “became religious”, possibly due to having been in Saudi Arabia before and after college. She and her husband were killed by police.
Malala Yousafzai, also born in Pakistan (1997), defied the Taliban when she demanded that girls should have an education. A Taliban shot her in the head on the school bus in October, 1912, wounding two others. With good medical care in Pakistan and in Britain, she survived and was the youngest ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (2014), shared with Kailash Satyarthi of India. She has become world famous in her commitment to education for girls and the rights of women globally.Many other examples of multiple responses to one’s faith, family and society are easily found; but can we generalize about these three Muslim women and the role of Islam in their lives over the last thirty years? Ayaan Hirsi Ali was the daughter of an important Somali politician. Tashfeen Malik’s family in Pakistan were educators and politically influential. Malala Yousafzai’s father founded the school she first attended, and he believed that books trump bullets and bullies.
All three emerged from privileged families hardly fitting the stereotype of refugees who had nothing to lose. All three were educated women, beginning with Islamic schools. Ayaan Ali and Tashfeen Malik had both spent time in Saudi Arabia. Ayaan Ali decided that Islam was the problem. She not only left the faith but also attacked it. She vehemently opposed female circumcision (which predated Islam, and is not in the Qur’an!). First stating that Islam was an enemy to be defeated, today she calls for tolerating and even supporting reformist Muslims. Tashfeen Malik, from the same Pakistan as Malala Yousafzai, but from a different ethnic group, shows the “zeal of the neophyte” convinced by recent radicalization that she and her husband were responding to God’s will. Could they have been on drugs as were the Muslim assassins of the Christian Crusaders in the Middle East? In any case, in most religions we find some zealots who take the toxic path toward suicide for religious and/or political reasons.
TOP TWEETS
@Vatescorp:#Somalia: Mohamed Kuno alias Gamadhere, previously #alShabaab Lower Juba commander joins ISIShttp://ow.ly/VEkEI
@Abdulyaqub:Are feminism and African or #Somalia culture Compatible? Can we accept female as equal without bandwagoning western feminism?
@LailaInNairobi:An estimate 90,000 people displaced due to fighting in #Gaalkcayo, #Somalia. http://bit.ly/1m9N4XM
@SKhojimatov:@UNDPSomalia supports state building process in #Somalia . http://on.fb.me/1Q2CxtO
@SuzannevnH:#Somalia elections format to be announced in#Turkey – no wonder there is a world between #Somali politics and the rest of the country
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Lt. Gen. Jonathan Rono, the Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), inspects a parade by AMISOM troops during a working visit to Ceeljaale base.
Photo: AMISOM