May 19, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Select Committee To Present Elections Report To Parliament As UN Security Council Lands Mogadishu
19 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 287 Words
The 26 member parliamentary select committee will present its deliberations to the House today even as it emerges pressure from government and international community may have compromised the team into dropping some of its critical proposals earlier contemplated. Goobjoog News has learnt that the president met separately with the committee and so did representatives of the international community to implore upon them to rubber stamp the proposals despite the critical questions raised both by parliament and the civil society.
The development comes as the UN Security Council which arrived in Nairobi Wednesday will be landing in Mogadishu Thursday to further drive the 2016 elections agenda. The 26 member committee brought up the Banaadir question noting the region, with close to two million people and hosting the country’s headquarters, Mogadishu cannot go unrepresented in Parliament. This, observers noted is the game changer to the whole electoral model debate and will definitely stir debate afresh from the regional states. The international community issued a joint statement last week calling on parliament to swiftly endorse the proposals presented by the National Leadership Forum whose major point of contention is the no seat option for Banaadir in the Upper House.
The committee had however proposed Banaadir be given equal number of seats as the other Federal Member States. In the statement, the international community noted the endorsement of the modalities was imperative in light of the coming of the UN Security Council to the country. The backdoor lobbying from the presidency and the international community will likely force Parliament to make do with the NLF proposals without change, a source privy to the developments said. The UNSC has severally indicated it will not condone any proposals of an extension beyond August.
Key Headlines
- Select Committee To Present Elections Report To Parliament As UN Security Council Lands Mogadishu(Goobjoog News)
- Deal Reached In Dispute Over Parliamentary Seats (Hiiraan Online)
- Rape Must Be Tried Under Judicial System Not Clan Mechanism – Deputy Prime Minister (Goobjoog News)
- Somali MP Calls For An End To Beledweyne Tribal Violence (Shabelle News)
- Kenya’s Foreign Interior Ministers Asked To Explain Repatriation Of Refugees (Bernama)
- QRCS Islamic Dawa Organisation To Launch Major Development Projects In Somalia (Bernama)
- Learning To Love My Sister Bosaso (MinnPost)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Deal Reached In Dispute Over Parliamentary Seats
19 May – Source: Hiiraan Online – 233 Words
A deal has been reached in a new political dispute over a controversial plan to award 7 additional parliamentary seats to Benadir region using the clan-based power sharing system. Puntland has earlier protested against the proposal, saying that it would flout the country’s 4.5 power sharing formula. Somali officials described as a “significant step forward” which could help ensure smooth transition for the horn of Africa nation which is gearing up for presidential elections later this year.
Reached on Wednesday, the new deal by Puntland and Somali government agreed to award the respective seats from the upper house to Benadir region, pushing back a new potential political crisis thanks to mediations by the United Nations and African Union. In the meantime, hundreds of Somalis took to the streets of the Somali capital Thursday in support of the new deal which they said saved the country from immersing into another political stalemate. Political squabbling and power sharing disputes by the country’s top leaders are common in the horn of Africa nation.
Rape Must Be Tried Under Judicial System Not Clan Mechanism – Deputy Prime Minister
19 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 305 Words
Cases of rape must be dealt with under the country’s judicial system and not traditional means since it’s a crime committed against the state, Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte has said. The deputy premier said traditional elders must sign a commitment binding them against dealing with rape outside the justice system. “Classifying rape as a crime against the state and we want the prosecution to make sure that this is not dealt with in under the traditional resolution mechanism. It has to be a crime that has been committed against the State so that it will not be possible for them to take it out of the court systems to deal with it at clan level/customary law,” Arte said.
Speaking during a high level discussion with representatives of the international community Wednesday, Arte called on Somalis to discard retrogressive practices that infringe on fundamental human rights. Women and Human Rights Development Sahra Mohamed Ali Samatar said the Sexual Offences Bill which is yet to be tabled before Parliament was a win for Somalia noting it harmonises the Islamic Sharia law and secular law. “Sharia law will not allow impunity and it has zero tolerance on sexual violence. What we have now developed is that the Sexual Offenses Bill which is a great bill that complements both Sharia and the Somali penal code. We took that into account together, to make this bill as a standard Somali justice system, while protecting Sharia law as well,” Samatar said.
On its part, AMISOM chief Francisco Madeira said the mission was committed to safeguarding human rights in Somalia adding they had taken measures to ensure cases of sexual violence are addressed and occurrences deterred. The Sexual Offences Bill also criminalises Female Genital Mutilation; a practice the World Health Organisation puts its prevalence rates at 98% in Somalia.
Somali MP Calls For An End To Beledweyne Tribal Violence
19 May – Source: Shabelle News – 133 Words
A Member of Somali Parliament Dahir Amin Jesow has on Thursday appealed for an immediate ceasefire in the deadly tribal battle in Beledweyne town, the capital of Hiiraan. The lawmaker speaking to Radio Shabelle has urged the warring clan militiamen at Howlwadag locality, to halt the bloodshed and hostility without a pre-conditions. “It is with great sadness and unfortunate to shed the blood civilians in this unnecessary clan fighting renewed in Beledweyne city,” said Jesow.
The MP has called for an end to the civil war and both sides to sit down at the negotiating table for lasting solution to their differences that led to the conflict. The federal government of Somalia which now controls the city has not been able to achieve a lasting peace for the persistent clan fighting in Beledweyne.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenya’s Foreign, Interior Ministers Asked To Explain Repatriation Of Refugees
19 May – Source: Bernama – 222 Words
Kenya’s Parliament has summoned the Cabinet Secretaries (Ministers) for Foreign Affairs, Amina Mohammed, and Interior, Joseph Nkaissery, to explain why the government wants to repatriate hundreds of thousands refugees at the giant Dadaab Camp in northeastern Kenya back to Somalia. The Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights has asked the House Committees on Defence and Foreign Relations to question the two Cabinet Secretaries on the planned repatriation of the refugees.
Last week, Nkaissery said the complex which houses more than 350,000 Somali immigrants, would be completely shut and the refugees repatriated by the end of the year. He said a team of specialists was working on a timetable for the repatriation based on the resources available. Nkaissery maintained that Dadaab, which lies near the Kenya-Somalia border, has been used by radical Somali Islamist groups to launch terrorist attacks, such as the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013 and the Garissa University College attack last year and that there was an urgent need to close it down.
Nkaissery said only the Dadaab complex would be closed while the Kakuma refugee camp, another huge refugee complex, in northwestern Kenya would continue operating because it did not present a security risk. Kenya is currently hosting more than 600,000 refugees and has been doing so for more than a quarter of a century.
QRCS, Islamic Dawa Organisation To Launch Major Development Projects In Somalia
19 May – Source: Bernama – 200 Words
Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Organisation of Islamic Dawa on Wednesday to co-fund and co-implement the third phase of the integrated development and rehabilitation programme in Banaadir, Middle Shabelle, and Lower Shabelle, with a budget of US$2 million (QR 7.3 million).
The 24-month agreement was signed by Saleh Ali Al-Mohannadi, QRCS Secretary-General, and Hammad Abdul-Qader, Director General of the Organisation of Islamic Dawa’s office in Qatar, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported. Al-Mohannadi said that the agreement will enable QRCS to bring development components into the target areas, where the populations suffer persistent poverty, inadequate medical services, and difficulty in getting safe and clean water apart from lack of food security, conflict and floods.
“All of these conditions had a tremendous impact on children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and elderly people,” he said. According to him, the programme will cover 10 towns in the three regions, with a special focus on the vulnerable families affected by disasters and conflict. At the same time QRCS will also offer basic welfare services such as healthcare, water and sanitation, education, and transportation, in coordination with the concerned Somali ministries and local community leaders.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“As I further ventured throughout this fascinating and inexplicable city, no matter how unfamiliar things became, there were however persistent connections with home. At every stop I would meet entrepreneurs having returned from the Twin Cities to start charities, invest in businesses, and help educate the next generation of Somali students”
Learning To Love My Sister, Bosaso
18 May – Source: MinnPost – 996 Words
Like many longstanding Minnesotans, I’ll admit I have a rather ambiguous relationship with immigrants from Somalia. I’ve observed many Somalis about town, of course, and even managed to interact with a few I’d loosely consider friends. Yet in truth I’ve been quite naïve when it came to Minnesota’s latest arrivals. I’d share a progressive smile and hold a door open here and there, sure, but in truth never took the time to even learn how to say hello in Somali to the estimated 30,000 Minnesotans from Somalia.
Hence, when Minneapolis declared Bosaso its newest sister-city in the fall of 2014, my imagination was renewed. I asked myself: “Why not seize the opportunity to learn more about the larger Somali community? Why not visit our newest municipal sibling in the Horn of Africa, to more intimately appreciate what being Somali was all about?”
Of course, the short answer is traveling between Minnesota and Somalia is no simple task, with the small matters of Al Shabaab, piracy, and dozens of other notorious curveballs complicating any proposed journey. Yet, as our country became further wrapped up in electioneering and nativist hate, I decided it was, in fact, the perfect time to confront the immigration divide, putting my full faith in the guidance of the Somali community of Minnesota to ultimately see what I could learn from our sister city on the other side of the globe.
Thousands of Somalis had leapt into the unknown with their journeys to Minnesota, after all, and one step in their direction seemed a small sacrifice to make. I departed for Somalia, in turn, at my first opportunity. Now it goes without saying this is not a trip to take on a whim. Even with a generous invitation from the mayor of Bosaso, merely getting to Somalia required phenomenal effort — in my case, five separate flights from Minneapolis and, more challengingly, some very awkward conversations with my girlfriend.
TOP TWEETS
@cctvnewsafrica : Top #UnitedNationalSecurityCouncilmembers visit #Kenya, #Somalia and #Egypthttp://ow.ly/EMCQ300mdBL
@EUNAVFOR : Talks btwn @EUCAPNESTOR,@somalilandcoas1 & Counter-Piracy Coordination Office, Hargeisa – maritime-sec for #Somalia
@Somaliupdate : #Somalia Deputy PM Chairs Development And Reconstruction Meeting In Mogadishu http://somaliupdate.
@DalsanFM_SOM : #Somalia Happening now :UN security council members in #Mogadishu to assess development made towards 2016 elections.
@farahblue: If the #UNSC want to help #Somalia they should lift arms embargo to build strong army.Meetings, pics& Twitter posts won’t solve our problems
@Somalia111: Protests in #Mogadishu against electoral model 2016 as #UNSC Delegation jets in to discuss way forward for#Somalia.
@Vatescorp : #Somalia: Select Committee to present election report to Parliament as UN Security Council lands in Mogadishu
IMAGE OF THE DAY
SRCC Amb. Francisco Madeira and the Somali Minister of Women and Human Rights Development Sahra Mohamed Ali Samatar, fleshed out issues in the Sexual Offences Bill, prior to its tabling before parliament.
Photo: AMISOM