January 16, 2017 | Morning Headlines
The 4.5 Clan-based Option To Apply For Vacant Seats Until 2020 – FIEIT
15 January – Source: Goobjoog News – 216 Words
Sub-clans will constitute a 51 member electoral college should a Lower House seat fall vacant, the electoral body FIEIT has said following a meeting with the parliamentary leadership in Mogadishu. Similarly, the two bodies agreed, in the event a seat occupied by a female lawmaker falls vacant, only female candidates can contest for the seat, a Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team, FIEIT official Nafisa Santur told Goobjoog News.
This, the electoral body notes is critical to ensure the women quota is guarded through the end of the 10th parliament which recently elected the speaker and deputies. Based on the 2016 electoral formula, each Lower House member was elected by 51 delegates drawn from the various sub-clans.
The official also noted the meeting resolved that all efforts must be exhausted to finish the election of the remaining nine seats for the Lower House and five in the Senate. Somaliland is yet to elect five senators and seven Lower House representatives while the Banaadiri community in Mogadishu remains with two MPs to elect. The leaders who met at Peace Hotel in Mogadishu said the electoral body had submitted all the elections documents including CVs of candidates and all other documents to the Speaker of the Lower House Mohamed Osman Jawaari to be kept at Parliament’s archives.
Key Headlines
- The 4.5 Clan-based Option To Apply For Vacant Seats Until 2020 – FIEIT (Goobjoog News)
- Al-Shabaab Official Surrenders In Qoryoley Town (Shabelle News)
- One Dead 3 Wounded In Leego Explosions (Garowe Online)
- 4 Al-Shabaab Killed In Southwest Somalia (Xinhua)
- Terror Attacks Killed 122 In Kenya Last Year: US Embassy (Daily Nation)
- Somali Leader’s Re-election Bid Under Threat Amid Opposition Alliance (All East Africa)
- UNHCR Repatriation Of Somali Refugees In Kenya Nears 40000 (Xinhua)
- Somalia Lurches From Chaos To First Democratic Rule In Decades (USA Today)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab Official Surrenders In Qoryoley Town
15 January – Source: Shabelle News – 88 Words
A senior Al-Shabaab official has surrendered to the authorities in Qoryoley district, about 120 km south-west of Mogadishu on Sunday, police officials confirmed. Speaking to Shabelle News, Qoryoley police boss Colonel Ali Waal, identified the Al-Shabaab defector as Abu Bakar Sadiq, who was in charge of the militant group’s administration in Donburale settlement near Qoryoley before he gave up himself.
Ali Waal said the defector benefited from the Somali government amnesty offer for Al-Shabaab members. He affirmed they will welcome defectors from the militant group who denounce violence.
One Dead, 3 Wounded In Leego Explosions
15 January – Source: Garowe Online – 108 Words
At least one person was killed, and three other wounded in twin landmine explosions in Leego district in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region. A resident confirmed that a remotely-detonated bomb planted outside the town’s Police headquarters has left a senior Somali military wounded. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday morning, at least one soldier died, and two others, including a civilian woman, sustained critical wounds in a similar attack at a tea-shop which is frequented by Somali government soldiers. In the aftermath of the blast, Somali security forces arrived the scene and carried out investigations and arrested a score of suspects in connection to the attack.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
4 Al-Shabaab Militants Killed In Southwest Somalia
16 January – Source: Xinhua – 173 Words
A joint military operation of the Somali National Army and African Union forces AMISOM has felled at least four militants from the Somali-based militant group Al-Shabaab in the country’s southwest region, a local administrator has said. Abshir Moalim Sharif, district deputy commissioner in Dinsoor district in Bakool region told the media on Sunday that the forces launched ambush at the militants in a village outside Dinsoor town killing four and inflicting injuries to several others.
“Somali forces and AMISOM this morning killed four Al-Shabaab fighters and injured several others in Rahoole village outside Dinsoor town. One officer sustained injuries but our forces now have full control of the area” said Sharif. The allied forces have been hitting several Al-Shabaab hideouts in southwest and central Somalia as it reinforces its force to secure the ongoing parliamentary elections in Somalia.
Senatorial and Lower House elections for the breakaway region of Somaliland are still going on in Mogadishu. Security has largely been beefed up in Mogadishu ahead of presidential poll expected to take place this month.
Terror Attacks Killed 122 In Kenya Last Year: US Embassy
15 January – Source: Daily Nation – 231 Words
Terrorist attacks involving shootings and explosions killed 122 people in Kenya last year, the US State Department said Friday as it issued a new travel warning. “The bulk of these incidents occurred in Wajir, Garissa, Lamu and Mandera counties,” the US noted. It added that terrorism remains a threat in the Nairobi area and the Coast.
The State Department specifically urged US citizens to avoid traveling near Kenya’s border with Somalia, including all of Lamu County, which in the past has been a major tourist destination. Other listed no-go zones are Tana River County; the three northeastern counties of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa; all areas north of Malindi in Kilifi County and Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood.
“In Mombasa,” the warning continued, “the US Embassy recommends US citizens visit Old Town only during daylight hours, and avoid using the Likoni ferry due to safety concerns”. The posted State Department notice cites two recent attacks. On September 11, three women reportedly attacked a Mombasa police station with knives and petrol bombs, wounding two police officers, the travel warning said.
On October 27, it added, an assailant stabbed a police officer guarding the US Embassy compound. “Violent and sometimes fatal crimes, including armed carjackings, muggings, home invasions and burglaries, and kidnappings can occur at any time,” the State Department warned. “US citizens and US Embassy employees have been victims of such crimes in the past.”
Somali Leader’s Re-election Bid Under Threat Amid Opposition Alliance
14 January – Source: All East Africa – 436 Words
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will face tight races from coalition opposition candidates in the forthcoming presidential polls scheduled to take place at the end of January in what appeared to be a threat to his for re-election, analysts say. Mr. Mohamud, 61 who was elected as Somali president in 2012 to lead the first non-interim government for the horn of Africa nation since 1991 when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre is trying to defend his seat amid tough challenges from heavyweight rival candidates including his predecessor Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who vowed a ‘new development’ page for Somalia if he is elected for presidency for the second time.
Somali presidential polls have been delayed several times, sparking criticism from the international community that have questioned the credibility of the process marred by allegations of fraud and intimidation against voters. In the final days of campaigning, a grinning Mohamud stared out from the large billboards positioned every few hundred meters along the main roads in Mogadishu, Somali capital.
“He is well-positioned to rise above a little of the challenges ahead, but he’d still have to make it through the tricky next step of overcoming the more revitalized and united opposition camps.” said Jacob Moses, a Nairobi-based Somalia expert.
“The opposition candidates are pulling together and committed to unseat him regardless of who else among them takes the seat other than Mohamud.” He said. Long known for his grinning gestures and oratory, Mr. Mohamud is confident of re-election, rearming himself with his regular catchphrase ‘’let’s complete the unfinished work” in apparent appeal to lawmakers to re-elect him in order to finish national tasks in progress.
UNHCR Repatriation Of Somali Refugees In Kenya Nears 40,000
14 January – Source: Xinhua – 483 Words
The UN refugee agency said Saturday it has repatriated some 39,316 Somali refugees in Kenya since the return exercise begun in December 2014. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its bi-weekly Update said out of the figure, some 33,725 were supported in 2016. “The number of flights has been significantly increased as it remains the only mean of transportation to Somalia. Returns movements by air are organised to Mogadishu, Kismayu and Baidoa,” it said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
The report said the UNHCR Dadaab will resume road movements to Somalia on Monday and the plan is to organize four convoys a week (each convoy will carry 350 -500 refugees). “Verification, assessment and screening is ongoing for the registered refugees who have protection, health concerns and People with Specific Needs. These cases will be verified before being processed at the voluntary repatriation desk,” it said.
Kenya in collaboration with the UNHCR are working on a program that will ensure a smooth and voluntary repatriation of over 300,000 refugees living in five camps at the Dadaab refugee camp after Nairobi announced the closure of the camp. The UN agency has said it expects the majority of the remaining refugee population to return to Somalia throughout 2017 and possibly into early 2018. Kenya which has since postponed the closure of Dadaab refugee camp says it has put solid measures in place to fast-track repatriation of Somalia refugee sand their re-integration in their native country.
OPINION, CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“One change that is winning praise is that women get 30% of the seats in both houses of parliament, long dominated by men. “Women are no longer onlookers but active participants in matters that affect them,” said Hamsa Sheikh Hussein, a newly elected female member of parliament in Kismayo.”
Somalia Lurches From Chaos To First Democratic Rule In Decades
15 January – Source: USA Today – 1,647 Words
Africa’s most chaotic country is struggling to elect its first democratic government in a half-century. Given its recent history for war and turmoil it’s not surprising that Somalia’s fledging effort at democracy has been marred by delays, corruption and allegations of vote-buying. Since October, people have gone to polling stations across the country to cast ballots as part of a complex process to choose members of parliament who will then vote for a new president and prime minister. The goal is to install the Horn of Africa nation’s first representative leadership since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ousted a popularly elected government in a 1969 military coup.
He was overthrown in 1991, engulfing Somalia in a bloody civil war — first between clan militias and then by the al-Shabab terrorist group, which continues to control swaths of territory. “The last 25 years have been particularly bad with … the state destroyed,” said Michael Keating, the U.N. special representative for Somalia. This is “the first time since 1969 that the Somalis are attempting to put together a rules-based process involving quite a large number of people to bring about a peaceful transfer of power.”
Though Somalis were promised a direct election for 2016, political leaders instead designed an indirect vote: 14,025 delegates chosen by 135 clan elders are electing members of the lower house of parliament. The clan elders are choosing the upper house members, and the two houses of parliament will then elect a president and prime minister by late January. The country’s last parliamentary election took place in 1984, but was hardly democratic: Strongman Siad Barre only allowed voters to approve a list of 171 members of parliament his regime had chosen.
An indirect process was created for the latest elections, because Somalia has no court system to handle any election disputes and no national census to register voters. For many Somalis, the lack of promised universal suffrage represents a continuation of government by a powerful elite. “We are hearing that corruption is high. We are hearing people have been excluded from becoming candidates, and regional administrators are abusing their power,” said Mursal Saney, deputy director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Mogadishu. “It’s unfair to empower a political elite that already was dominated and to keep others outside the power.”