It
is a day of infamy for Somalis, primarily, the Kenyan deputy speaker, Aden
Du’ale, who recently vowed to deploy his country’s national defense forces to
annex more of Somali territory, irrespective of the International Court of
Justice’s decision, arrived in the coastal city of Kismayo to attend an illegal
inauguration of Jubaland’s leader. In a contemptuous characterization, the
deputy speaker called the Somali president an unexperienced young woman who
accidently hurt herself with an incense burner. The statement was decried and
largely condemned by rights activists.
Mr.
Du’ale is accompanied by Kenya’s foreign affairs minister, Monica Juma. She previously
campaigned vigorously at the UN headquarters for her country to win a seat at
the Security Council—a UN organ theoretically tasked with maintaining
international peace. But more ominously was her proposal to impose harsh
economic sanctions on several regions in southern Somalia, including
Bu'ale--Jubaland's purported state capital. Fortunately, that proposal was
rejected after a group of human rights advocates and Somalia’s UN envoy laid to
bare Kenya’s ulterior motive. The concern was that the proposal would have cut
off a critical humanitarian lifeline, similar to the one that triggered the
disastrous famine in 2011.
When
one reads the news about the current disintegration of Somalis as a Nation, the
gloomiest parallel is the fall of China’s Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty established
the first empire in China. As the last ruling dynasty in China, when its
influence and power waned, new entities emerged to fill in the vacuum.
More
fragmented, shortsighted, and self-driven, Chinese warlords unabashedly sought
political alliances from foreign agents to exert influence and control over
their respective constituents. There is no better description of their
voracious nature and motives better than the American political scientist
Lucian Pye stating, “hard-headed, devoted to the short run and impervious to
idealistic abstractions”. Chinese warlords lacked the insight, vision, and
strategy to galvanize their people in the contemplation of nation-building and
political compact.
The maritime dispute is almost turning to be a mini social revolution against the rudderless
opposition largely seen as enablers of Kenya’s grand scheme to retain Jubaland
as a buffer zone. Eventually, Kenya is banking on the possibility that
having and protecting its ally in the region will help advance its overarching
goal—annexation of parts of Somalia’s maritime territory by stratagem or by
force, and in defiance of international norms. Part of the stratagem is to
support groups at loggerheads with the federal government.
The
rudderless opposition is singularly obsessed with one aim—to undermine and frustrate
the government from achieving key priority areas, even if it means selling
their country to the highest bidder. In the free world, this very act amounts to
a treason punishable by a life sentence or a ruling of similar nature in a
court of competent jurisdiction.
Attached are excerpts of the controversial Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) signed by a supposedly presidential hopeful, Abdiraxman Abdishakur
Warsame, in his capacity as a Minister of National Planning for the erstwhile
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and a recent Kenyan motion sponsored by
Aden Du’ale.
The
motion proposes that Kenye explore other options of settling the maritime
dispute, including a military option by deploying the “Kenyan Defense Force
(KDF)”. In an interview, the deputy speaker states that he will not allow
Somalia to “grab one inch of Kenya’s territory”—a maritime territory his
country wants to forcefully annex. Du’ale is an ethnic Somali. He is closely
affiliated with the current president of Kenya though was directly elected from
Kenya’s Garisa county under the platform of Jubilee Party. Somali elites,
whether hailing from partially oppressed Somali regions in present-day Ethiopia
or Kenya or within the Somalia proper, tend to be highly unpredictable,
acquisitive, or exploitative of clan grievances with reckless disregard of
common national interests that benefit the masses; As the Qin Dynasty’s Chinese
warlords, they would coalesce against a common foe at the slightest inclination
that their interests are threatened, and narrow interests at that.
In
September 2018, leaders of Somalia’s federal member states held a meeting in
Kismayu for the first time to suspend ties with the federal government since
the election of president Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo”. It was a bold move that
sent shockwaves across the country. Their presumed contempt ostensibly stemmed
from the federal government’s failure to fulfill its onerous responsibilities
toward the states, as well as improving the conditions of the country’s
security.
The
member states demanded more autonomy than the Provisional Constitution grants.
The federal government, in response, issued a statement calling for a national
security conference in the capital to
strengthen the National Security Architecture, which the member states have duly
signed, and to further resolve outstanding issues on the basis of the constitution
and binding agreements. Fortunately, the outcome of the Kismayu meeting had the
opposite effect than imagined by its sponsors. Public opinion was hugely in support
of the federal government. In addition, one of the leaders (from Hirshabelle)
who attended the Kismayo meeting disavowed the member states’ joint
declaration, stating it was the wrong direction to take for the Nation.
The
most embarrassing aspect of it was when the leader of Jubaland, the host of
Kismayu conference, Ahmed Madobe, boycotted the national security conference in
Mogadishu and instead asked for external mediators as U.A.E and others and a
neutral place other than Mogadishu. There are stark similarities between Ahmed
Madoobe and the infamous 20th-century warlord Zang Zoulin. Ahmed Madoobe is a
self-made warlord without any formal education. He rose up to power in 2006 as
the commander of the Raskamboni Brigade of the Islamic Courts Union, a ragtag
militia known for its disproportionate use of force against unarmed civilians.
Madoobe’s biggest aspiration was to seize control of the strategic port town
Kismayo to exert influence and power upon the people of Jubaland. In his
pursuit of conquest, he faced an uncompromising adversary, Barre Hiraale,
another nouveau riche warlord who made fortunes from charcoal exports, levies,
and other illegal imports. Similar to Mr. Zoulin, Madoobe invited foreign
countries to help him gain control of Jubaland in exchange for his role as a
strongman who would curtail the influence of Alshabaab while, on the same
token, fulfilling their other interests in the region.
Alas,
Kenya succeeded in capturing Kismayo under the pretext of national
security. With the full backing of Kenya, Madoobe managed to form an
assembly in which
he handpicked almost all the members. The Somali federal government
encouraged
Madoobe to work hand in hand with all the other stakeholders of the
region to
overcome the protracted conflict in Kismayo. It has been over seven
years since
the Raskomboni warlord captured the city of Kismayo, yet he has never
succeeded
in liberating the purported capital city of Jubaland, Buale, which is
less than
250 miles from the port city. Due to injustice and the authoritarian
rule
imposed by Madobe. The region is now on the cusp of political
disintegration.
Over
the last twenty years, we have tried every possible solution to overcome the
calamity that has befallen our people everywhere. For the first time in
decades, we have a national government that is placing an unflagging effort to
return institutions of integrity through the participation of all stakeholders
and every public and private citizen.
The
leaders of the current administration have earned both domestic and
international praise for their commitment to transformational changes. They
have made strides in shaping the political culture from a conflict-driven to a
proactively driven political atmosphere. They have initiated groundbreaking
reforms within the government, which enabled them to become the most productive
government in the last twenty-eight years.
Conclusion
For
the first time in three decades, we have seen a competent government facing
monumental challenges from the forces of the status quo. It’s a government that
still enjoys a popular and wide support in pursuit of key national priorities.
Besides al-Shabab, the biggest threat to national unity is the federal states
(including “Somaliland”) that are being used as the Trojan Horse to undermine
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia. It is up to every Somali
citizen to knot the thread that holds together the fabric of our society.
Mohamed
Elmi
