May 23, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
President Throws Parliament Off Balance, Draws Support And Ire Of MPs
23 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 458 Words
The announcement from Villa Somalia on Sunday that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had invoked an executive order to the 2016 electoral model operational has drawn mixed reactions from across the political divide.
While some see it as outright act of usurping powers not accorded to the Office of the President, others view the President’s move a prudent out meant to save the country from an endless political circus, which was bound not to produce tangible results.
Kulan Party Secretary General Abdiqadir Barnamij said Parliament was already moving in the wrong direction by “unnecessarily creating a political debate with no end”. He also accused the leadership of Parliament led by the Speaker Osman Jawari for failing to provide leadership on the process.
“The leadership in Parliament was just apathetic and dragging its feet on endorsing the electoral process within the agreed timelines. It was therefore necessary for the President to strike this decision and we as a party endorse it,”said Barnamij. But Federal MP Abdullahi Godah Barre dismissed the President’s decree terming it unconstitutional and dictatorial. He observed that the President should be held accountable for his actions, which amount to gross violation of the law.
“The President usurped the role and powers of Parliament and Somali people and must be told that that he is merciless dictator bent on dragging the country to a black hole. We are calling on Parliament and the people of Somalia to hold this President, who has turned into a dictator, accountable,” protested Barre. The President said on Sunday he had decided to declare the electoral model law after Parliament failed to execute its functions. The UN envoy to Somalia Michael Keating has praised the President for the decision terming it a positive step towards the 2016 polls.
Federal MP Abdi Barre also hailed the President’s decision terming it a salvation which the country badly needed: “I support his decision because Parliament was becoming dysfunctional. Clannism and endless disputes had dominated debate in the House. Instead of debating and approving the electoral roadmap as presented to us, Parliament had become a very divisive house.”
But a former Cabinet minister, Zakariye Haji Mahmoud, regretted that the President had turned into a revolutionist keen on creating a totalitarian regime in Somalia. He noted that there was no legal provision for the President’s move: “This decree is typical of a revolutionary government. The President should do everything according to law. No one owns this government and it is obvious his action is not based on any legal standing.”
Key Headlines
- President Throws Parliament Off Balance Draws Support And Ire Of MPs (Goobjoog News)
- Puntland President Set To Return To Garowe Today (Villa Puntland)
- Four Killed In Clan Clashes In Abudwak Town (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Elections on Track for August Despite Opposition (VOA News)
- Operation Linda Boni A success Says Lamu Administrator (Daily Nation)
- UAE ambassador To Somalia Meets Puntland President (WAM News Agency)
- Meet Kenya’s Home Guards Hunting For Al-Shabaab (New Zealand Herald)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Puntland President Set To Return To Garowe Today
23 May – Source: Villa Puntland – 70 Words
Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas is set to return to Garowe today after attending high level conference on Somalia’s upcoming elections in Mogadishu. The President is expected to arrive in Garowe today before proceeding to Qardho, Karkaar Province, where he will officially open a national traditional leaders consultation conference.Dozens of traditional leaders from Somalia regions have arrived in Qardho ahead of the traditional leaders’ event.
Four Killed In Clan Clashes In Abudwak Town
23 May – Source:Goobjoog News –
At least four were killed and two others injured on Sunday after clan militias engaged in gun battle in the outskirt of Abudwak town of Galgaduud region. A resident, who lives in the town, said the gunmen battled in the centre of the town and four people from both sides were killed during the incident.
He said Somali security forces of the town have intervened in the battle with elders calling on both sides to come to the negotiating table. Some of the victims, who were wounded, were taken to hospital for medical treatment.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Elections on Track for August, Despite Opposition
23 May – Source:VOA News – 378 Words
Somalia’s President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, issued a decree Sunday to legalize the 2016 electoral process in Somalia, after the outgoing parliament failed to endorse the election rules.The parliament Saturday delayed a vote to endorse the process, despite warnings from the international community that a failure to act quickly would “jeopardize” the political process and set the county back several years.
Bypassing parliament, the president said at a news conference in Mogadishu Sunday the election would take place in August as scheduled and in line with the deal by the national and regional leaders agreed last month.“After seeing that the parliament can’t decide, after seeing that the time is running out, I issued a presidential decree to legalize the electoral model” Mohamoud said.“There is no dispute, there is no division, we will not allow division in this critical time” the president added.
Speaking exclusively to VOA’s Somali service from Mogadishu, U.N. envoy to Somalia Michael Keating said he is relieved because the decree means the electoral process will take place on time.
He said, “The decree will enable the technical preparation and implementation of the electoral process without further delay.”
“There is no agreement within the Somalia Parliament on the modalities… and it would have taken another long time to resolve these difficulties,” he said.”It seems to me responsible to issue a decree, if the consequence of not holding the election are going to be very very negative,” Keating added.
Abdullahi Godah Barre, a member of parliament, has rejected the president’s move, saying it’s “unconstitutional and interferes with the power of the parliament” and the parliament will challenge it.But Keating said he does not believe the decree by the president is “unconstitutional” per se.
Operation Linda Boni A success, Says Lamu Administrator
23 May – Source: Daily Nation – 343 Words
Kenya’s Lamu County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri has said security forces who have been conducting the multiagency Operation Linda Boni for nine months now have successfully flushed out Al-Shabaab militants from the Boni Forest.Speaking to the Nation in Lamu on Sunday, Mr Kanyiri said what all the soldiers were now doing was keeping vigil in the area. Mr Kanyiri said the operation which was launched on September 11, 2015 has recorded huge success. He said Lamu County which was previously prone to terror attacks is now stable and secure.
He said there were no terror incidents in Lamu so far and that no arrests had been made in recent times. He said that was proof enough that the security forces had successfully put Al-Shabaab under control and was also proof that the militants had either been eliminated or driven out by the forces. Mr Kanyiri, however, said the operation would go on indefinitely since KDF soldiers and other security agencies were still in Boni Forest to man the area and also carry out infrastructural upgrade which is a stronghold of the marginalised Boni community.“When people hear of Operation Linda Boni, they think it is something to do with fighting Al-Shabaab throughout. They should understand that apart from restoring peace and stability in the area, our security forces were also supposed to improve infrastructure and the general welfare of the Boni people in the operation zone,” said Mr Kanyiri.
Recently, the Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Col David Obonyo said KDF had dominated all key areas in Lamu where the Linda Boni security operation is being conducted. Speaking to the Nation by phone, Col Obonyo said the forces had covered all loopholes and that there was no way through for the militants.
He said the operation would go on until security is restored in the region and all traces of terrorists completely eradicated. Before the operation, it was believed that more than 300 Al-Shabaab militants were living inside the expansive Boni Forest with their families from where they conducted attacks on military vehicles and civilians.
UAE ambassador To Somalia Meets Puntland President
22 May – Source: WAM News Agency – 63 Words
Ambassador of the UAE to Somalia, Mohammed Ahmed Othman, has met President of Somalia’s Puntland region, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas, to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries.During the meeting, Ali thanked the UAE for its continuous support for Somalia in general, and Puntland in particular.The UAE ambassador thanked President Ali for his efforts in bolstering relations between the two countries.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The Home Guards have had some notable successes. Late last year, after a Kenyan teacher was kidnapped from Dadaab, a Somali refugee camp in the northeast, reservists from the area tracked the militants across the border to their camp in Somalia. Acting on their intelligence, Kenyan and Somali security services were later able to launch a joint rescue operation that resulted in the teacher’s release”.
Meet Kenya’s Home Guards, Hunting For Al-Shabaab
22 May – Source: New Zealand Herald – 985 Words
The men who form Kenya’s first line of defence against the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab wear trainers or rubber tyre sandals, bucket hats, and mismatched, hand-me-down fatigues. They are Kenya Police Reservists, also known as Home Guards.
But they’re also goat herders, retired civil servants, and casually employed locals who are paid a meager US$90 monthly stipend for their service. Anyone but active police and military professionals, really. Many of them hold their battered 1980s service rifles awkwardly, as if they’re not quite sure how to handle them.
This ragtag bunch of reservists has become a cornerstone of Kenya’s new security strategy for its restive northeast, put in place after the devastating al-Shabaab attack on Garissa University College last year that left 148 people dead. Overseen by Mahmoud Saleh, a native of the northeast who was recalled from the diplomatic corps, the new strategy aims to professionalise these volunteer militias – and leverage their superior local knowledge to patrol Kenya’s wild and largely unprotected border with Somalia.
Following its 2011 invasion of Somalia, Kenya has faced a surge in terrorist attacks, including mass-casualty sieges like the one in Garissa and at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013, which killed 67 people. In the northeast, Al-Shabaab has carried out regular bombings, kidnappings of aid workers, and ambushes on lonely passenger buses. The ability of the group’s fighters to blend in with local communities, which often span the porous border, and to disappear back into Somalia after carrying out attacks, has made them difficult to stop.
Until recently, this threat was compounded by the Government’s policy of assigning police officers to areas far from their homes. Intended to reduce corruption, the policy also meant that the police sent to northeast Kenya didn’t speak the language and had little understanding of local conflicts. So back in the 1990s, communities here began forming their own volunteer militias to manage clan infighting and cattle rustling – two of the region’s biggest problems that government police officers were poorly prepared to tackle.
TOP TWEETS
@SRSGKeating;#Somalia being discussed at World Humanitarian Summit Istanbul today. 1.1 m people deserve humane, durable solutions
@AbdurahmanShar:President of #Somalia highlighting key humanitarian challenges @UNdeClercq @WHSummit#ReShapeAid
@HarrietLMathews:Decree was necessary to have #Somalia#2016 elections on time and uphold NLF agreement. Now implementation can begin. @UKinSomalia
@melissarfleming:#Somalia President: we will not fix our humanitarian situation without tackling security first.#WHSummit
@ElmanPeaceHRC:@IlwadElman will be speaking on a youth panel during the #WHSummit in #Turkey. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Delegates follow the proceedings during the Somalia side event at the World Humanitarian Summit
Photo: @OCHASom