May 17, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Electoral Talks Hit A Deadlock As Somali Leaders Fail To Convince Defiant House Committee
17 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 186 Words
High level electoral reform talks between Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud along with Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid and members of the parliamentary committee to review recently agreed national electoral model have collapsed last night, after the two sides failed to settle their differences.
The parliamentary select committee reportedly made some changes on the highly contested issues in the accord, with specific regards to the Banadir region’s right to representation in the Upper House of the upcoming national assembly, which both the president and the PM vehemently rejected.
After extensive discussions that dragged to the wee hours of Tuesday night, the members of the committee insisted that they will table the revised document to the parliament in order to debate on the proposed 2016 electoral model. However, the Federal leaders opposed to entertain any amendment to the previously agreed accord, arguing that it would undermine the election deadline.
The latest disagreement comes barely 24 hours after previous talks to settle the current political storm have ended in stalemate as President Mohamud and PM Sharma’arke make the last ditch attempt to get the electoral accord approved sooner rather than later.
Key Headlines
- Electoral Talks Collapse As Somali Leaders Fail To Convince Defiant House Committee (Goobjoog News)
- Somali President Warns Socioeconomic Woes Over Khat Imports (Hiiraan Online)
- Banaadir Will Get Equal Seats In Upper House As Other States Parliamentary Committee (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Parliament Speaker To Meet With International Delegation (Shabelle News)
- Somali – American Doctor Joins Race For Villa Somalia (Radio Dalsan)
- Former Somali Defense Minister Dies In US (Hiiraan Online)
- Helsinki University Students To Major In Somali Language (Sputnik News)
- Key Witness Cross Examined In Minnesota Islamic State Case (Voice of America)
- Somali Refugees Deserve Better Than Being Sent Back To Danger (The Citizen)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali President Warns Socioeconomic Woes Over Khat Imports
17 May – Source: Hiiraan Online – 233 Words
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has warned his country was losing millions of dollars to the use of the narcotic Khat leaves largely used by Somali men which he says continue to have an adverse socioeconomic consequences on many other aspects of life in the horn of Africa nation. Khat which is largely transported to Somalia by neighbouring countries was estimated to be worth $100 million to the Kenyan economy while it counts over £160m a year for Ethiopia alone, making the drug its fourth largest export.
“Somalia continues to lose a huge amount of hard cash to purchase khat from Kenya, which only creates an economic source for another country.” Mr. Mohamud told reporters in the Somali capital on Sunday. “The Khat business also continues to undermine our country’s post-war economic recovery, and that’s why every economy conscious person wants to deny Kenya from making money from Somalia just because it exports those leaves with health and humanitarian side-effects to our country.” He said.
With over 20 million users in horn of Africa, the stimulant green leaves that produce a sense of euphoria in users become a major business export for khat farmers that turned their once agricultural farms into drug lands. “It’s our country which needs that huge money we pay to buy those leaves most.” Mr. Mohamud said. “Khat has become a problem of grave national concern.”
Banaadir Will Get Equal Seats In Upper House As Other States, Parliamentary Committee
17 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 326 Words
Banaadir region will be considered as a full state entitled to equal seats as the other federal states, in the Upper House, Goobjoog News has learnt. Abdullahi Jama’a Hussein, one of the 26 member parliamentary electoral review committee told Goobjoog News the committee agreed to include Banaadir region which hosts the country’s capital, Mogadishu, contrary to the proposals by the president led National Leadership Forum. The Forum had failed to include Banaadir region, whose fate as a state is yet to be determined to allocate any seat for the Upper House raising concerns from the civil society who questioned the rationale given the region’s significance in the country.
The inclusion of Banaadir will therefore change the political equation and is likely to generate more debates especially from regional administrations. Article 72 of the 2012 Provisional Constitution contemplates the formation of the Upper House, whose membership shall be no more than 54 based on either the 18 regions in Somalia or Federal Member State system. The NLF adopted the Federal Member State system counting Puntland, Jubbaland, Somaliland, South West State, Galmudug and yet to be formed Hiiraan/Middle Shabelle to share the 54 seats.
The arrangement is that each of these six would be allocated 8 seats while the remaining 6 be distributes equally between Somaliland and Puntland owing to its political maturity. The inclusion of Banaadir therefore means either 8 new seats are created taking the number beyond the constitutionally set 54, denying Puntland and Somaliland the 6 extra seats or readjusting the whole distribution formula. Even in the event Puntland and Somaliland are denied the extra seats, the number will be short of two seats. Abdullahi did not however indicate how the committee would go around addressing this issue. The committee has also clipped the powers of the regional administration presidents to sign off the final list of the chosen candidates in both the Upper and Lower Houses as proposed by the National Leadership Forum.
Somali Parliament Speaker To Meet With International Delegation
17 May – Source: Shabelle News – 97 Words
The Speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari is expected to meet a visiting delegation of international representatives. The speaker will discuss the representatives from the international community on the recent electoral model on the 2016 election which is now in parliament for approval.
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke held a meeting on Monday with the parliamentary committee members in Mogadishu and called for ratifying the proposed election bill. Also Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with lawmakers and discussed the urgent need to approve the parliament the agreed electoral model of Somali elections.
Somali – American Doctor Joins Race For Villa Somalia
17 May – Source: Radio Dalsan – 133 Words
Somali – American doctor has declared his interest to vie for Presidency in Somalia later this year. Dr. Abdinasir Mohamed of Gurmad party (Rescue) who lived and worked in US state of North Carolina has declared his candidacy in a colorful event on Monday in Minneapolis. Dr.Abdinassir said he was forced to join the race for Villa Somalia due to injustice, poverty, lack of strong governance and unemployment.
“We live in a comfortable life but we can’t just stare we must do something through political change” he said. As election nears, the number of candidates interested in holding top post in Somalia increases. According to the government Presidential and Parliamentary elections are expected before end of this year but security analyst say it might delay.
Former Somali Defense Minister Dies In US
17 May – Source: Hiiraan Online – 206 Words
The former Somali Defense Minister Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman has died aged 75 in a hospital in the United States, family announced on Monday. Mr. Abdirahman, the first civilian official who served as the defence minister under Siad Barre’s regime in 1989-1990 has died after months of illness in a hospital in Minneapolis.
Born in Aware, a town in the Ethiopian Somali region in 1941, Mr. Abdirahman has held various positions in Somalia before warlords overthrew the central government in 1990s. Having moved to the United States in 1991, the former defence minister who has not been seen in public for months has since worked as a community service leader for the Somali community in the United States.
His former colleagues described him as a ‘hardworking and committed’ forged from years he worked as the Mogadishu magistrate court’s chief, the country’s attorney general, Sanaag region’s commissioner as well as Mudug appeals court’s chief. His political career was boosted by years he spent working in the justice system, drawing the attention of the former Somali president Siad Barre who chose him to become his defense minister, in the face of criticism of picking a man with no military background to lead the country’s defence system.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Helsinki University Students To Major In Somali Language
17 May – Source: Sputnik News – 259 Words
From autumn 2017, the University of Helsinki, Finland’s largest and most renowned institute of higher learning, will offer its students a master’s degree in the Somali language due to popular demand. Next year, students at the University of Helsinki will be given the opportunity to major in Somali philology. The full study program will be presented differently for native Somali speakers and non-native speakers, reported Finnish national broadcaster Yle.
This autumn, a briefer course in Somali is already set to begin as a forerunner to the full study program. According to Dean Arto Mustajoki, a vacancy for a contract Somali language teacher will soon be established. As of yet, it is not clear how many students will enroll, but Mustajoki estimates that some 6-8 students will be accepted to the program annually.
According to Mustajoki, the growth of Finland’s Somali-speaking minority makes it impossible for the university to ignore the popular demand. Additionally, the University of Helsinki also plans to increase admission to Chinese and Arabic philology by 15 places each year. In contrast, admissions to German and French language study programs will be cut down due to a drop in demand.
Key Witness Cross Examined In Minnesota Islamic State Case
17 May – Source: Voice of America – 457 Words
The U.S. trial of three Somali Americans accused of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group entered a second week Monday, with a key witness being cross-examined. Abdullahi Yusuf, 20, who is cooperating with prosecutors, has been testifying against the three defendants in a Minneapolis courtroom. Defense lawyers on Monday grilled Yusuf, who at times appeared flustered. When asked about inconsistencies in his story, Yusuf said he lied to U.S. agents during his initial interviews, but later told the truth.
Yusuf is a former friend of the defendants, who he says introduced him to radical Islam. Yusuf was arrested before boarding a plane that would take him to Syria and has pleaded guilty to providing material support — essentially himself as a fighter — to Islamic State. The three defendants, Mohamed Farah, 22, Guled Omar, 21 and Abdirahman Daud 22, are accused of meeting numerous times from March 2014 to April 2015 to look for the best way to travel to Syria to join the terror group, but they all were stopped by law enforcement before they could board planes. The three have pleaded not guilty to the charges and could face the possibility of 15 years to life in prison for conspiring to commit murder outside the United States.
Fadumo Hussein, the mother of Guled Omar, spoke to VOA Somali in reaction to the trial of her son. “I am feeling very tensed; it’s like someone who is standing on a broken glass or someone who has been bitten by an angry snake.” She accused the FBI of dividing the young men and turning them on each other. “They are using the young men to falsely testify on each other. The witness, Abdullahi Yusuf, was reading a false and fabricated statements given to him by FBI.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“One of the factors the government has not taken into consideration is that refugees can actually be good for the economy. It is estimated that Dadaab’s economy generates about $25 million a year and that the local host community around the camp earns about $14 million a year in trade and contracts.”
Somali Refugees Deserve Better Than Being Sent Back To Danger
17 May – Source: The Citizen – 728 Words
The reasons the Kenyan government has given for its sudden decision to close down the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps, which are home to some 600,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, South Sudan, and other neighbouring countries, are not only baseless but smack of xenophobia and scapegoating. Dr Karanja Kibicho, the principal secretary for the Interior, claims that the refugee camps pose a security risk to Kenya and that the Westgate mall and other terrorist attacks in Kenya were planned at the Dadaab camp.
This claim is unfounded as none of the Westgate terrorists were identified as being from Dadaab. In fact, some of the terrorists named in the more recent attacks were not even Somalis but Kenyans. The principal secretary insists that the refugees will be safe when they return to Somalia because the Kenya Defence Forces “have liberated large swaths of Somalia from the hold of Al-Shabaab” and that even “UN workers traverse much of that liberated country with relative safety”.
What he does not explain is why Kenyan and African Union forces are still in Somalia if the country has returned to normality or why the staff of the UN and other international organisations still travel in armoured cars and are not allowed to leave the relatively safe Green Zone near the airport in Mogadishu. The only place in Somalia that could be considered safe is the self declared independent state of Somaliland, where there are no Kenyan forces present and which is not likely to take in the refugees.
The government says that the camps are neglected due to a shortfall in aid. This may be true now, but a major humanitarian summit is scheduled to take place in Istanbul next week when the international community will make a case for more support and aid for refugees. Why withdraw support for refugees when there is goodwill globally to do more for people fleeing from conflict?
TOP TWEETS
@RadioErgo : #Somalia:Storms cause damage in Taleh,Soolhttp://bit.ly/1TFPnex @OCHASom @UNSomalia@WFPSomalia @unicefsomalia
@Eye_on_Somalia : #goobjoog Residents flee Barire town fearing new clashes: Hundreds of Somali families fled their hou… http://bit.ly/200EOHh #somalia
@TheVillaSomalia : Pres. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud meets Arab League ambassadors, discuss #Somalia progress, upcoming polls, AL Support.
@Vatescorp : #Somalia: Parliament: Banadir will get equal seats in Upper House as other federal states – contrary to NLF proposal
@Aminkeey_ : Ministry of Information was allocated $4m??? Indeed the #Somalia government is investing in the Propaganda War against #Alshabaab and ISIS.
@JustinTBrady : The meeting after the #WHSummit is actually a side event on day 1 to highlight approaches to end need in#Somalia
@MahadWasuge: #Somalia should learn lessons from#Tanzania and #Nigeria in combating corruption in the public sector.
@lasoco : Deputy Speaker says Somalia can’t afford constitutional crisis – Garowe Online http://j.mp/1stACWo #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Pres. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud meets Arab League ambassadors to discuss Somalia progress in the upcoming polls.
Photo: @TheVillaSomalia