BY VITALIS KIMUTAI
After 21 years of civil war, reconstruction has started in earnest in Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu which has known little else than gun battles and bombings.
Residents are conducting business with relative calm now as compared to a year ago when Al Shabaab militia group reigned. With the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud on Monday, expectations are high in Somalia that reconstruction efforts will be doubled.
The Somali National Army, supported by United Nations and African Union peace-keeping force, is conducting security checks in key areas and local police manning the town centre and directing traffic.
Buildings that were bombed and shattered are being rebuilt and new shops dot the city. “Things have changed as shops opening up to midnight while a year ago they closed at 6pm,” Mr Hassan Ali, a businessman told The Standard in Mogadishu. Fourteen-seater matatus, like the ones plying Kenyan roads are operating in fairly orderly manner with no touts shouting and fighting.
Foreigners disembarking at Aden Abdulle International Airport undergo security checks before being driven to their destinations in four-wheel vehicles guarded by armed police.
“We always ensure foreigners are safe as they can enter into areas that are not very safe,” a police said in halting Kiswahili.
Even the country’s Parliament Buildings in the city centre, which is expected to house 275 newly elected MPs is under rehabilitation.
property market
“MPs will operate from the ground floor for sometime until the construction is completed,” newly elected speaker Prof Osman Jawari said.
Thousands of bags of imported cement, tonnes of nails, iron sheets, tiles, paint and timber, have been stocked by businessmen in the town as demand for construction material keep rising. Demand for labour has also risen and construction experts are most sought after.
On average, a commercial plot in the heart of Mogadishu goes for $200,000 (Sh16.8m) and it is not easily available as demand is high.
“Recently, an investor bought a plot for a record $1,000,000 (Sh84.1m) and plans to put up a five star hotel in anticipation of tourism and business picking up in few months,”Abdikarim Buh, the Deputy Minister of Constitution Federal Affairs and Reconciliation said. Buh added the cost would rise as new government begins work.
“Mogadishu will be a business hub in the entire East and Central Africa within a very short time of the new Somalia Government being set up,” Buh said.
The hotel industry is enjoying good business and facilities are heavily fortified with soldiers checking motor vehicles and frisking patrons.
Mr Yusuf Hassan, a government employee said because Mogadishu stands in the shores Indian Ocean, it would easily catch up with neighbouring nations that had enjoyed independence for more than four decades.
“Somalis in the Diaspora have expressed desire to participate in reconstruction and are already pumping money to the real estate sector,” Hassan said. Mr Joseph Cherorot, a Kenyan businessman, told The Standard in Mogadishu that there were huge opportunities. “Kenyan businessmen must seriously consider exploring opportunities here so that investment by our government in restoring peace in the country does not go to waste,” Cherorot said. The government has driven out Al Shabaab with the help of AU forces. Kenya has deployed 4,600 soldiers in Southern Somalia and already they have liberated more than 17 key towns and are preparing for a final assault on the free port city of Kismayu.
