Letter from Mogadishu: Kenya gets tough, deports top Somali politician

 Somalia Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji. [Courtesy]

Last Wednesday an unprecedented diplomatic stand-off took place at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport involving a senior politician from Somalia.

The Horn of Africa’s deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji landed at JKIA in the afternoon bearing his diplomatic passport complete with a valid visa which should have got him a smooth reception at the immigration desk and onward transport to his hotel or house within Nairobi.

But that was not to be. Haji found himself detained overnight at the Terminal 2 VIP lounge before he was bundled into the first Mogadishu-bound flight at dawn the following day.

His crime? The Somali politician was accused of undermining regional security and suspected passport fraud. Haji’s activities were deemed to be a threat to security to towns along the lengthy porous border between Kenya and Somalia.

Haji was further accused of having illegally acquired a Kenyan passport which he was in possession of at the time. While he accepted to have the Kenyan passport, he declined to part with it unless subjected to a court process.

Kenyan authorities accused the deportee of being involved in activities they said threatened security near the Kenya-Somalia border.

Sources at the Counter Terrorism Police Unit accused the Somali leader of having airlifted weapons into a town near the Kenyan border and planned to travel from JKIA to the area to arm clan militia and disrupt peace and local administration, with possible security consequences for Kenya.

Haji, who previously served as acting president of Southwest State, was linked to recent armed conflict in Baidoa, where civilians were killed and hundreds of families displaced.

Last month Baidoa was engulfed into fighting after the ouster of its president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen who fled to Nairobi where he has been coordinating his operations. The ousted leader has vowed to make a comeback.

Haji’s hand was seen in the clashes in Baidoa leading to loss of life as well as destruction of property. Speaker of the Somalia’s federal parliament, Adan Madobe was last month elected president to replace Laftagareen.

While South West state does not share a border with Kenya, its proximity to Kenyan towns along the border make it logistically possible for arms to move across easily.

Those in the know say that Haji’s clan extends all the way to Mandera county and is reported to be a cousin to one of the former governors in northern Kenya. The link to the former governor is said to have pushed for his Kenyan passport which the anti-terror unit dismissed as fraudulent.

Frantic efforts by Kenyan politicians to have the deputy prime minister allowed to enter Kenya were repulsed by the anti-terrorism unit.

The federal government of Somalia has not commented on the incident which risks straining relations between Kenya and Somalia, which have frequently cooperated on security while also facing periodic diplomatic tensions.

Kenya hosts a large Somali community and is one of the troop contributing nations to peacekeeping and stabilization forces in Somalia. The two countries are also members of the regional economic bloc, the East African Community.

Meanwhile, the much anticipated talks between federal government of Somalia and opposition politicians are expected to begin in the coming days.

The talks aim to break a political impasse over the country’s electoral model and ease political tensions in the country which should have elected a new parliament by April and a new president in mid-May.

According to sources, the discussions between the two groups will focus on reaching consensus over the two goals. 

While no venue has been set for the talks Nairobi is likely to be a neutral ground for the two after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was summoned to Nairobi last week for a tete-a-tete with his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto.

Diplomatic sources say international partners are expected to support and facilitate the dialogue. Neither the federal government nor the opposition has formally set a date when the negotiations are expected to begin. 

Last month the Turkish government sent one of its senior officials to try and guide the negotiations but nothing came out of the meeting between the two sides.

President Mohamud’s administration has been pushing for Somalia to proceed with a universal suffrage system while opposition leaders advocate for the tried-and-tested clan-based indirect election.

Mohamud argues that one-person, one-vote elections are in line with the country’s constitutional aspirations and would broaden public participation in the democratic process.

His administration has proceeded to register voters in Banadiir (Mogadishu), South West State and now in Galmudug.

Opposition leaders, however, have proposed an alternative transitional electoral framework, saying it offers a more practical route to political consensus while the country continues work on constitutional and electoral reforms.

In the new proposal by the opposition, Somali voters would directly elect members of parliament, while the current 4.5 power-sharing formula would remain in place on an interim basis until a broader political agreement is reached. 

The opposition wants the independent electoral body to be reconstituted and their representatives to be included as members. They also want federal government and federal member states to oversee the process.

The talks follow months of growing political disagreement over the electoral framework, with both sides facing increasing pressure from their stakeholders both local and international to reach a consensus that would safeguard political stability and avoid further delays to the electoral timetable.

The outcome of the talks are likely to shape Somalia’s electoral roadmap and state-building efforts.