African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

Header Banner

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics

Kismayo and the Rise and Fall of a Somali President – By Abdiaziz Abdi

By Uncategorised
June 25, 2013
2854
0
Share:

Somali President Hasan Sheikh Mohamoud must tackle the country's political problems more effectively than he has recent issues in Kismayo.

Something very bizarre is happening in Somalia. While Al-Shabaab is still active and wreaking havoc on the country, Somalis are again dividing themselves along clan lines, this time over the southern region of Jubaland.

The Somali Federal Government and its leader, Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, have become mired in a Kismayo impasse, which has already given way to an armed confrontation that claimed several lives. In this electric atmosphere, the Federal Government seems inactive at best and a divisive agent at worst.

President Mahmoud, unable to resolve the situation, has only been able to muster desperate statements of little substance. In the face of a deep-seated mistrust among Somali clans, coupled with accusations that the Federal Government is fuelling the conflict, rhetoric is not a panacea.

While the conflict is unlikely to topple the Mogadishu-based Federal Government, it will certainly throw an element of doubt into its political leverage. If the Kismayo case is poorly managed (and facts on the ground already point in this direction), the ripple effects of the crisis could morph into across-the-board disasters that could aggravate clan-loaded sentiments all over the country. This could in turn rejuvenate Al-Shabaab’s otherwise dwindling power. It would also kill in its infancy the long-awaited negotiation process aiming at narrowing the more than two-decades-old gap between the country’s Somali-British and Somali-Italian regions.

Few Somalis would have predicted that President Mahmoud — a man whose pre-Presidential record tantalized the population — would falter in his first national task. Hence, many Somalis find themselves extremely disappointed.

To date, Mahmoud had exuded an image of a genuine statesman, previously unheard of in Somali political history. He demonstrated a talent for diplomacy in his showdown with the almighty international community, accustomed to micromanaging Somali politics (more often in pursuit of unscrupulous interests of their own);  he condemned corruption and Somalia under his leadership has gained a more positive international reception, including the sought after recognition from the United States of America. Add to this Mahmoud’s latest move — the initiation of a negotiation process with breakaway Somaliland — and a pretty decent record was emerging.

But then came Jubaland crisis. This, according to Raskamboni faction in Kismayo, has been engineered by the Somali Federal Government in revenge against the Jubaland people for forming their own local administration. To the Somali Federal Government, however, the crisis started as a result of grievances concerning unfair political dispensation felt by huge swathes of Jubaland residents.

The issue is, however, more complicated than these two accounts. Kenya, with 4,000 of its own soldiers deployed in the region, remains worried about the fate of Kismayo; and given the proximity of Kismayo to Kenyan territories including nearby tourist sites, is understandably vying for the establishment of friendly regional administration. Kenyan politicians of Somali origin — who happen to be blood relations to the current Kismayo administration — also have a stake in the bargain; chronic clan rivalry and contestation over power and meager resources lie in the heart of the impasse.

What is more, the country is experiencing a fierce power struggle. Mahmoud’s ascension to the top job was earned through a parliamentary election delivered via a 4.5 formula, theoretically meant to fend off an executive power grab and usher in a system that enables Somalis to govern themselves horizontally by writing their own social contracts. Nevertheless, Mahmoud has become the czar of the land — the man who dominates the agenda and future course of the country. There is unease, in some circles, with his authoritarian behavior and his unquenchable desire to carry out all governmental roles, including attending international meetings, signing contracts and disseminating talking points to the press. Nothing is too big or too small for the President’s span of attention.

Having surrounded himself with yes-men (most of them are men), the President finds himself all-knowing and all-alone; thus Mahmoud has become a victim of a textbook example of group-think. Perhaps one should marvel at his ability to attend to so many varying issues, and in the end achieve results; or maybe all this cramming is the cause of the problems?

Mahmoud is now running the country as if is was his own household. Jubaland may not be the death-knell of his administration, but it has certainly ended the aura of perfect stewardship associated with him. Alas, Mahmoud is the victim of his own mistakes. A balanced policy that is mindful to clan sensitivity would not only have demonstrated that he is a statesman but also a magnanimous one at that. But he will now be challenged more often, not only by the Raskamboni group, but by many other entities across the country.

For those concerned with Somalia’s wellbeing, Mahmoud’s mishandling of Kismayo is a bad omen. Of course, not all issues in contemporary Somalia revolve around tribalism, but a good chunk of them do. Whether real or perceived, clan tendencies almost always shape the conceptualization and the formation of all political, social and economic worldviews of the Somali nation. Sometimes issues that start free of clan predilections, such as disputes over resources, may turn into a clan-charged subject and are fought over in the name of tribalism.

Nobody, except perhaps the enemies of Somalia, wants to see the country mired in civil war again. The hope is to steer the nation away from clan rhetoric and hawkish attitudes, to diplomacy and compromise. Is that attainable? I do not know. But given the costs of escalating the issue, I think it is worth a try. Against this background, I hope Mahmoud will initiate a genuine and nuanced reconciliation plan. Otherwise, the Jubaland crisis has the potential to revert the country back to “the war of all against all” era experienced by the Somali people in 1990s. I wish I knew whether President Mahmoud felt the same way.

Abdiaziz Abdi is a freelance writer based in Rochester MN.

Previous Article

Your Rendezvous with the African Middle Class ...

Next Article

Is Uganda’s Oil region another northern Uganda ...

Uncategorised

0 comments

  1. Ali Omar 25 June, 2013 at 14:54

    Abdiaziz you have articulated the current issues which many them are inherited by the current government. Wish if you could add possible solutions. I am sure the Pres and his team will grab.

    The JL issue is well architected trap by IGAD and we Somalis fail to handle well. Until we handle the issue for Somali regions in the Kenya and Ethiopia we will have the JL issue. We Somalis fail to use Somalis in Kenya and Ethiopia for our benefit instead Kenya and Ethiopia mastered to use them to destabilize Somali Republic.

  2. Sam 26 June, 2013 at 08:36

    The writer Abdiaziz Abdi wrote that the Somali president has been ruling with his authoritarian behavior, you are a free lance writer based in Minnesota. What knowledge have you of bringing a nation out of 20 plus years of bloody war, the president along with the international community are trying to unite the nation and unfortunately I think it is divisive writings like this that are a detriment to an emerging nation. Next time you write such inner working of the Somali government and president mention how you are based in Minnesota at the beginning of the paragraph so as to put the story in context.

  3. Houston P. Erickson 3 July, 2013 at 01:27

    The parliament also extended the mandate of the transitional federal government for another two years, and installed moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad as the new president.

  4. Kenya’s Misbehavior In Kismayo And Consequences Of Disrespecting The AMISOM Mandate | Somali Arguments 3 July, 2013 at 17:43

    […] in this country: Somalia: The Godane Coup and the Unraveling of Al-Shabaab – By Hassan M. Abukar Kismayo and the Rise and Fall of a Somali President – By Abdiaziz Abdi The Cost of Ignoring the Kismayo Crisis – By Abdihakim Ainte Somalia 2013: ‘new’ deal, old […]

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • african music albums for lockdown
    Covid-19Culture

    Lockdown and listen: Classic African albums to discover, old and new

  • Credit: Dietmar.
    Editor's PicksEthiopiaPolitics

    Ethiopia: Why PM Abiy Ahmed’s first priority should be free expression

  • Politics

    Nigeria 2015: the no choice election – By Adewale Maja-Pearce

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81664
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Popular articles

  • Dr Kanda at the Lwano mobile screening camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Credit: Xavier Vahed-DNDi.

    Africa-led progress on neglected tropical diseases needs boost in Kigali

  • Evangelista Kanohili sits outside her home in Sheema, Uganda, March 15, 2022. Kanohili has been experiencing on-and-off infestations of jiggers, a small parasitic flea that burrows into the skin and can make it too painful to take care of daily tasks. Credit: Apophia Agiresaasi/Global Press Journal.

    Uganda: The tiny flea making it painful for people to walk and work

  • Typical coping strategies such as a nomadic lifestyle are inadequate to handle what is potentially the worst food crisis in Somalia's recent past. Credit: UNDP Somalia.

    Somalia faces worst humanitarian crisis in recent history

  • #StopEACOP TotalEnergies Uganda Tanzania

    The bold campaign to defund the East African Crude Oil Pipeline

  • Tunisia's President Kais Saied meeting with then US Defense Secretary Mark Esper at Carthage Palace, Tunisia, in September 2020. Credit: DoD/Lisa Ferdinando.

    Is Tunisia’s democracy slipping away?

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
Cleantalk Pixel
By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
African Arguments wants to hear from you!

Take 5 minutes to fill in this short reader survey and you could win three African Arguments books of your choice…as well as our eternal gratitude.