April 12, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Speaker Jawari To Make Final Address To Parliament
12 April – Source: Hiiraan Online – 423 Words
Mohamed Osman Jawari, the immediate former Lower House Speaker, will be delivering his final speech to Somalia’s Lower House on Thursday. Mr. Jawari, who has been the presiding officer of The House of the People since 2012, unexpectedly resigned ahead of a schismatic no-confidence vote, that have threatened the political stability of the country. The speech of Mr. Jawari was initially scheduled for Wednesday, before it was put off by the first Deputy Speaker, Abdiweli Mudey for undisclosed reasons. However, Mr. Mudey who is the acting speaker, on Wednesday evening sent a message to lawmakers informing about the postponed session will be held on Thursday.
Thursday’s parliamentary session will be chaired by the first Deputy Speaker, who will guide the sessions until the position of the Speaker is filled. Addressing reporters in a joint conference with President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo on Tuesday, Mr. Jawari said, he came at the decision to step down after heeding the advice from various people. The move was universally welcomed by several leaders including President Farmaajo, who commending the immediate former speaker saying, Mr. Jawari was a Somali elder and statesmen, who decided to resign unconditionally. “Mohamed Osman Jawari is a Somali elder who has been serving this country more than fifty years, the decision he took today is a historic one, and he did not table any condition for it, I urge him to continue his efforts to support the government,” said Farmaajo.
His resignation sealed an uneasy month-long political stalemate, between the Executive and the Legislative branches of government, that began when over 100 MPs lodged an impeachment against him. The motion sharply split the House members into two opposing factions led by Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire and Mr. Jawari respectively.
Analysts and political commentators have speculated that the immediate former Speaker and President Farmaajo have been at loggerheads, since Somalia passed legislation last month that would require parliamentary approval of future foreign investment deals. The normally-sluggish parliament – which has abysmal attendance, that regularly fails to meet the mandatory quorum necessary to pass legislation – reacted quickly to unanimously banning of Dubai ports operator DP World operating in Somalia. It’s perceived that Mr. Jawari’s dual role as both Parliamentary Speaker and Parliamentary ‘whip’ was a signal of the growth of his political strength, which may have alarmed President Farmaajo, who could have interpreted it as an intrusion on executive power. The decision by Mr. Mohamed Osman Jawari to resign is expected to lead to a peaceful resolution to the political crisis that has gripped the nation.
Key Headlines
- Speaker Jawari To Make Final Address To Parliament (Hiiraan Online)
- I’m Not Contesting For The Speakership Position Says MP Hiddig (Jowhar.com)
- South West Intelligence Head Fired (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Famine Refugees In Dadaab Suffer Cold Nights Awaiting Imminent Closure Of Their Camp (Radio Ergo)
- ‘I Can See You. How Will You Leave Here Alive?’ (New York Times)
NATIONAL MEDIA
I’m Not Contesting For The Speakership Position, Says MP Hiddig
12 April – Source: Jowhar.com – 291 Words
MP Abdirashid Mohamed Hiddig, who hails from Jubbaland, has dismissed media reports that he is one of the candidates contesting for the speakership position vacated by outgoing Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari. On a Facebook post, MP Hiddig said “I would like to inform the public that, I’m not one of the candidates vying for the post vacated by Mr. Jawari. It is true that anyone can vie for any vacant political position, but when it is reserved for a specific clan, one should respect that,” he said.
He further said that anyone aspiring to replace Mr. Jawari should be capable enough to bring positive changes to the parliament, in order to attain the big goal of one-man-one-vote in the country. MP Hiddig was one of the competitors who lost to Mr. Jawari in the 2017 parliamentary speakership election.
Since the emergence of Speaker Jawari’s resignation, critics argued that it is time for politicians other than Digil/Mirifle to vie for the speakership position, in a bid to undermine the 4.5 power-sharing system. However, the majority of the contestants vying for the positions are already from the Digil and Mirifle clan.
South West Intelligence Head Fired
12 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 80 Words
The head of intelligence in South West state, has been relieved of his duties by the state president over ‘failure to cooperate with government officials’. A dismissal letter from the South West state presidency, seen by Goobjoog News said the Mr. Ibrahim Isgowe Ibrahim, who was the state head of intelligence has been dismissed.
The letter indicated the intelligence official ‘did not cooperate with the Internal Security Minister, and other senior government officials’. There was no word about Ibrahim’s replacement.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Famine Refugees In Dadaab Suffer Cold Nights Awaiting Imminent Closure Of Their Camp
12 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 680 Words
Nimo Mahad Samatar and her seven children have been sleeping out in the cold for 10 days, since being told to prepare for the closure of IFO2 camp in the Dadaab refugee camp complex in north-eastern Kenya. The rains have begun, on and off, and already the family has been outside during four uncomfortable nights of rainfall.
IFO2 camp has been set to close for some time. Previous information given by the UN’s refugee agency running the camps, UNHCR, indicated that the closure was set to take place from 31 March. The inhabitants of the camp have been waiting to be moved to one of the other camps. Nimo demolished her hut 10 days ago in readiness to move. They removed and kept all the materials from the fragile structure that they would be able to use again to make a new shelter. “I don’t understand why UNHCR has delayed our move although they promised to give us houses in IFO 1 camp,” Nimo said. “We thought that we were going to move to the other house and use the materials we saved from this shelter to set up the new one.”
Almost half of the 18,000 families left in IFO2 are homeless because they have taken down their shelters in anticipation, according to Ali Abdulle Ali, the camp leader. Ali said that only around 2,000 families have moved to join IFO1 and Dhagahaley camps since last month, when UNHCR started allocating houses in the other camps. The majority of those living in IFO2 fled to Kenya during the 2011 famine in Somalia. Some have arrived subsequently, including from remote and insecure regions of southern Somalia.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“A culture of silence and fear has developed around the murders of journalists. Reporters are afraid to meet potential sources, fearing they might be Al-Shabaab operatives or freelance killers. Many talented reporters have left the country or quit the profession; those who stay live with fear.”
‘I Can See You. How Will You Leave Here Alive?’
12 April – Source: The New York Times – 939 Words
Twenty-six journalists have been murdered in Somalia in the past decade. Nobody has ever been tried or convicted in these murders. Somalia has sat atop the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Global Impunity Index a list of the worst countries for the unsolved murders of journalists for the past three years. The Somali media is a battleground where government officials try to control the daily narrative, powerful businessmen are out to protect their business and clan interests, and Shabab militants attempt to intimidate the country’s mostly young and badly paid journalists through death threats.
One afternoon in the winter of 2012, Hassan Ali Ismaan, a 27-year-old security and politics reporter for Dalsan Radio, a popular privately owned Somali radio station, joined his friends for a weekly soccer game in the Wadajir district of Mogadishu. Before he entered the field in an Arsenal jersey, he left his phone with a friend watching the game, asking him to alert him if he got a call from work. Mr. Ismaan had played for about 15 minutes when his friend walked over with the phone. He took the call. “I can see you,” the caller said, with a menacing nonchalance. “I know what you’re wearing.” Mr. Ismaan scanned the field, hoping to identify the caller among the couple of dozen spectators. “How will you leave here alive?” the voice said.
The call was typical of death threats by the Shabab, the militant Islamist group battling the Somali federal government. A call or a text message from a Shabab operative often started with descriptions of the street the journalist was walking on, the clothes he or she wore — a tactic designed to announce surveillance and the capacity to inflict injury at a time and place of the militants’ choosing. Mr. Ismaan’s heart galloped when he hung up. His legs shook as he made his way through the spectators. He ran and took numerous indirect routes to his home to lose whoever might have followed him. “I felt like a dead man,” he recalled. A few years later, in 2015, Mr. Ismaan got another call from the Shabab after he did a story on female basketball players. The group considers women playing basketball as “un-Islamic” and warned him against promoting such activities.
Recently, Mr. Ismaan moved here to Nairobi to get some respite from the constant anxiety that accompanied his work as a reporter in Mogadishu. He estimated that he had received more than 20 death threats since he began working as a reporter in 2007. The call during the soccer game has stayed with him as the most frightening.
Most young reporters ignore Shabab’s threats but every time a journalist is assassinated it shatters their morale. In January 2012, Mr. Ismaan’s neighbor and friend Hassan Osman Abdi, who was the director of Shabelle Media Network, was shot outside his home in Mogadishu. After the murder, which remains unsolved, Mr. Ismaan slept inside his radio station building for six months, drawing solace from the security guards at its gate.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: Somalia Defense Minister Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman has told state media that troops trained by UAE will be “broken up” and merged into different divisions in the army, and that the Govt will shoulder salary payments; move apparently ends UAE role in the Somali military affairs.
@HIPSINSTITUTE: Read our study on causes, consequences and possible remedies of youth migration in Somalia.
http://www.heritageinstitute.
@HarunMaruf: Top regional intelligence chief Ibrahim Isgowe Ibrahim sacked for failing to cooperate with regional security ministry, according to Southwest leader Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. Ibrahim was direct of NISA in Bay regional, his replacement has not been announced yet.
@Eye_on_Somalia: ‘I Can See You. How Will You Leave Here Alive?’ http://dlvr.it/QPGJgd
@ACUSomalia: #UN_Women_Strategic_Program is endorsed by the WG with some inputs from federal member states. The overall goal of this program is strengthen women’s capacity as agent for change in peace building and reconciliation.@DeputySomaliPM @Adow77 @fqdayib @MinisterWHRD@AmbGamal
@RadioErgo: Somali famine refugees in Dadaab suffer cold nights awaiting imminent closure of their camp. #Somalia#Refugees -Read https://bit.ly/2GRKNiN
@RadioErgo: Traders in Buhodle area have declined the Somali shilling, this has had economic downturns to the local people. The use of mobile money has been popular and while some people dont have money, they cannot enjoy a hard earned income. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Former Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire meet in a show of unity following weeks of political differences that led to the speakers resignation.
Photo: @Dalsan FM