Letter From Mogadishu: Queries on Kenya's passport integrity as Somali minister surrenders ID documents

Somalia’s deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was also turned back at JKIA after his documents were rejected. [Courtesy] 

The integrity of the Kenyan citizenship documents including the birth certificate, identity card and passport will be under scrutiny in the coming days after a Somali minister surrendered Kenyan papers in Mogadishu last week.

Also to come under sharp scrutiny will be the dual citizenship status of top officials in the Somali Federal Government as it emerged that many ministers and top federal government officials hold more than one citizenship.

It follows the decision by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud ordering his ministers to surrender their Kenyan citizenship documents.

Last month, State Minister Abshir Bukhaari was denied entry into Kenya at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. He was deported back to Somalia after an afternoon of drama during which he frantically called officials in the Kenya government in vain.

A week later Somalia’s deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was also turned back at the airport after his documents were rejected and Kenyan authorities demanded he surrenders his Kenyan passport.

The two deportations are said to have alarmed President Mohamud and forced his hand in issuing an ultimatum to his ministers to show allegiance to Somalia by handing over their foreign documents or relinquish their positions.

Days after he was turned back to Mogadishu, Haji was at Kenya’s embassy in Somalia to turn in his Kenyan documents that included a birth certificate, an identity card and his passport. The deputy premier gave no explanation how he landed the Kenyan documents.

The deputy minister’s move is said to be a precursor to more senior Somalia federal government ministers heeding the call by their president to surrender Kenyan identification and travel documents.

As one of the most senior ministers, the deputy prime minister may have set a precedent to be emulated by his colleagues.

Sources inside Villa Somalia intimate that there’s an impending wave of surrenders as an indication to one of the most aggressive enforcement of citizenship integrity standards within the executive branch in recent memory.

A slew of federal government and regional state ministers are now finalising arrangements to submit their Kenyan travel credentials and identification cards to the Mogadishu diplomatic mission.

The sources indicated that the officials are acting at the behest of an order issued by Mohamud during a closed-door cabinet sitting in Villa Somalia last week before he flew to Kampala for an extraordinary summit of troop contributing countries to the Somalia peace mission.

The Somali leader is said to have been unequivocally clear that retaining a foreign passport while occupying a senior government portfolio is untenable and that those who intend to retain their cabinet positions should move swiftly and comply with his edict.

President Mohamud’s order has cast a harsh glare on the sensitive but prevalent issue of dual citizenship among Somalia’s political elite—a matter that has long been left unaddressed but now thrust into the open.

While Somalia’s provisional constitution does not explicitly outlaw dual nationality for public officials, the President’s order effectively imposes a new litmus test for the upper echelons of power, compelling officials to choose definitively between their Somali responsibilities and foreign entitlements.

Jibril while handing over his documents to Kenya’s deputy ambassador in Somalia Elyas Barre Shill asserted that the move was designed to guarantee “complete transparency” in the execution of his official duties and to preempt any challenge to his national allegiance.

It is expected that the list of compliant officials will expand as the President’s unannounced deadline looms, with further developments expected imminently.

The Somali president’s directive has also cast aspersions on Kenya’s immigration officials and thrown them into the limelight as questions arise on how the country’s identification and travel documents landed in the hands of foreigners.

While the senior Somalia government officials will be compelled to hand over their documents, questions linger on the number of Kenyan identification and travel documents held by foreigners besides those in Somalia.

Will the Kenya government take the bold step of recalling identification and travel documents that are in the wrong hands?

 

Meanwhile, a meeting of military experts from troop-contributing countries to the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) has officially opened in Mogadishu, laying the groundwork for an upcoming meeting of Defence Force Chiefs.

The meeting comes hot on the heels of an extraordinary Summit of AUSSOM troop-contributing countries, which was held in Kampala last week.

According to the ongoing discussions, the proposed plan seeks to accelerate joint military operations against Al-Shabaab, strengthen intelligence sharing, and improve coordination of personnel, resources, and operational capabilities among the participating forces.

The operational framework is expected to enhance cooperation between the Somali National Army (SNA), AUSSOM, and the troop-contributing countries and essentially degrade the operational capabilities of terrorist groups while reinforcing security and stability in Somalia and across the wider region.

The draft operational plan prepared by the military experts will be submitted to the Defence Force Chiefs for review and approval.

As the military wing met in Mogadishu, President Mohamud also jetted back and straight to a meeting with Somalia’s international partners to discuss the way out of political imbroglio caused by the delay to agree on the country’s electoral process as the rift with the opposition leaders widens.

The president used the meeting to brief the diplomats on his government’s electoral agenda which revolves around the implementation of nationwide direct elections under the one-person, one-vote system.

Mohamud has been at loggerheads with the opposition leaders for pushing the universal suffrage system as opposed to indirect electoral model which they favour.

His meeting with the donors came after the same diplomats had ended a similar discussion with the opposition leaders hoping to resolve disagreements that have steeped Somalia into a political crisis.

The United States and Britain have given Mohamud till the end of this month to resolve the political stalemate with the opposition or forfeit the budget support his government expects from the World Bank in October.

All eyes are on the Somali president on how he handles the situation.