According to Somaliland government sources, Somaliland and Somalia will meet in Nairobi for a preliminary talks to restart the dialogue between the two countries.
From Somaliland, the listed participants include the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Yasin Hagi Mohamoud Hiir (Faratoon), Somaliland’s Representative to Kenya, Mr. Bashe Omar and the Director of Civil Aviation Captain Abdi Rodol. All three are currently in Nairobi.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Yasin Hagi Mohamoud Hiir (Faratoon), Somaliland’s Representative to Kenya, Mr. Bashe Omar and the Director of Civil Aviation Captain Abdi Rodol and Deputy Representative Mr. Sharmarke Gelle in Nairobi
For Somalia, participants
include, President Mohamed Abdillahi Farmajo’s Chief of Staff Dr. Nur Dirie and
his assistant Mr. Abdisatar Gelle.
In addition to the participants from Somaliland and Somalia, there is a heavy participation of international community including the UK Ambassador to Somalia Mr. Stewart Brown, The EU Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Ambassador Alexander Rondos, USAID Mission Director to Somalia Mr. Jeffery Bakken, the Swedish Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Ambassador Urban Anderrson as well as the Turkish Envoy for Somalia – Somaliland talks Mr. Oglan Bekar.
Members of the Center for Human Dialogue including Somaliland’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omer will be participating in the meeting.
This is a developing story and we will update as we know more.
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s chief of staff
and at least three other senior officials have been killed during a coup
attempt by an army general in the northern state of Amhara, state television
said on Sunday.
Amhara’s state president Ambachew
Mekonnen and his advisor were also killed, according to state media, which
named the region’s security head, General Asamnew Tsige, as the orchestrator of
the attempted coup.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government
faces growing pressure from regional strongmen, including in Amhara, a
flashpoint in growing ethnic violence in Ethiopia.
The
shooting occurred when federal officials were meeting the state president – an
ally of Abiy – to discuss how to rein in the open recruitment of ethnic
militias by Asamnew, one Addis-based official told Reuters.
A week earlier, Asamnew had openly
advised the Amhara people, one of Ethiopia’s larger ethnic groups, to arm
themselves, in a video spread on Facebook and seen by a Reuters reporter.
Ethiopia, a nation of 100 million
people, is struggling to contain widespread ethnic violence that has displaced
around 2.4 million people, according to the United Nations.
Abiy donned military fatigues to
announce on state television late on Saturday that there had been an attempted
coup in Amhara’s capital Bahir Dar earlier that day and that Ethiopia’s Chief
of Staff General Seare Mekonnen was among the casualties.
“He was shot by people who are
close to him,” Abiy said.
Seare had been shot dead by his
bodyguard, state media reported on Sunday. Most of the perpetrators had been
arrested, a general in charge of special forces in Amhara told state media on
Sunday.
Since
coming to power last year, Abiy has tried to spearhead political reforms in the
Horn of Africa nation. Three years of political violence led to the
unprecedented resignation of Abiy’s predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn.
Abiy
has released political prisoners, removed bans on political parties and
prosecuted officials accused of gross human rights abuses, but his government
is battling mounting violence.
Ethnic bloodshed – long held in check
by the state’s iron grip – has flared up in many areas, including Amhara, where
the regional government was led by Mekonnen.
On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy said that
it was aware of reports of gunfire in Addis Ababa, and some residents told
Reuters about hearing six shots ring out in a suburb near the country’s Bole
International Airport around 9:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. The government
did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
People in many parts of Ethiopia
reported being unable to access the Internet beginning late Saturday although
the government has not stated whether it had cut it off. Authorities have cut
off the internet several times in the past for security and other reasons.
Early on Sunday, Brigadier General
Tefera Mamo, the head of special forces in Amhara, told state television that
“most of the people who attempted the coup have been arrested, although
there are a few still at large.”
Residents in Amhara’s capital Bahir Dar
said late on Saturday there was gunfire in some neighborhoods and some roads
had been closed off.
Ethiopia is due to hold a national parliamentary election next year. Several opposition groups have called for the polls to be held on time despite the unrest and displacement.
(Additional reporting by Katharine Houreld; Writing by Elias Biryabarema and Katharine Houreld; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
In Somaliland, there is a culture of impunity where Ministers and other government officials are never held accountable by the public, the media or seemingly the man who appointed them – The President of Somaliland HE Muse Bihi Abdi.
The first few months of President Bihi’s government, there was a noticeable discipline among government officials that brought a reprieve from the constant barrage of ministers and other government officials posting photos of their latest seminar and the speech they have just given at some kindergarten graduation ceremony.
Unfortunately, the discipline did not last, and the public is being constantly bombarded by the latest harsh response of a government official directed over some private citizen from his particular tribal persuasion who may have criticized the government. We are not sure but it appears responding to critics from one’s own tribe may be part of their terms of reference.
Another worrying trend that never seems to go away is the cozy relationship between media and government officials where some pay to get favorable coverage. Others cut out the middleman and seem to use an army of trolls on social media who will respond and viciously attack anyone who dares criticize them.
We are speculating, but there may be a misunderstanding where government officials are under the impression that President Bihi’s primary tool of evaluating their performance is how many photos they have posted on Facebook today or the latest praise that someone has written about them online.
It is understood that President Bihi a firm believer in giving those he appointed an ample time and opportunity to learn the job but the question is how is he evaluating their performance? Are there deliverables? Tangible metrics? Let us hope he is not going by how well they responded to their clansmen or rebuffed the latest criticism from the opposition party or how many photos they have posted of the latest useless seminar they have attended.
Whether flooding in Hargeisa kills people or yet another deadly crash. Ultimately, the responsible party is the man at the helm – President Muse Bihi Abdi.
The President’s legacy and how he is remembered depends on the operational excellence of his agents to help write the next chapter of Somaliland and we are concerned that they are busy taking selfies and are attending kindergarten graduation ceremonies.
Somaliland Chronicle is responsible for the content of this editorial.
In November 2016, the Former Chairman of the Civil Service Commission Mr. Sharmarke Geele and officials from the World Bank unveiled an ambitious 10 million dollar project funded by the World Bank.
The project, known as the Somaliland Civil Service Reform Project is part of the Somalia Multi Partner Fund and is intended to strengthen basic functions for payroll, human resources and policy management in selected central government agencies and line ministries.
This project is as complex as the Public Financial Reform project also funded by the World Bank.
Mr. Geele has been in charge of Somaliland’s Civil Service Commission since August 2016, before that he has held two other government jobs where he worked as a Secretary for Mr. Hersi Haji Hassan, the former Minister of the Presidency and later for his successor Mr. Mohamoud Hashi.
Mr. Geele’s appointment as the Civil Service Commissioner happened less than two months after the project was approved by the world Bank.
In a lavish ceremony Mr. Sharmarke has announced a major milestone of the project including the start of the head count of government employees and its conclusion.
President Bihi, The Minister of Employment and Mr. Geele unavailing the official headcount of government employees
In this report, we want to inspect the figures made available by the World Bank on this project to understand how much, where and what the funds were spent on.
86% Spent on Consultants Services
Close to 4 million of the project budget has been spent so far; this is according to public records made available by the World Bank.
86% of the 3.9 million was spent on consulting services
The expenditure data of this project shows that 55% or of the four million dollars went to Kenyan nationals for consultation services and even more interesting, half of the two million spent on Kenyan consultants went to just two entities.
One is Mr. Philip Mwangi who was paid $520,000 for his consulting work on Staff Retention, the other is Extra Insight coming in at $566,700 for headcount activity.
55% of the 3.9 million was spent on Kenyan Consultants
Contractor Name
Description
Amount (US$)
Extra Insight
Hr-auditing Firm For Head Counting Activity
$566,700.00
Mr Philip Mwangi
Staff Retention- Consulting Assignment
$520,000.00
Dr Stanley Irungu
Career Development
$171,000.00
Dr Esther
Competency Framework
$156,000.00
Mr Musila Musembi
Record Management And Archive For Line Ministries
$120,000.00
Ms. Alice Kwamboka
Pension Policy Assignment
$108,000.00
Prof Robert Gichira
Re-organization And Modernization Of 8 Bis
$95,000.00
Prof Robert Gichira
Re-organization And Modernization Of beneficiary Institutions In The Government Of Somaliland
$84,000.00
Mr. Micheal Mugo
Code Of Conduct
$72,000.00
Mr. Charles Oloo
Performance Management
$66,000.00
Dr Wario
Coaching And Mentoring Consulting Assignment
$66,000.00
Mr. Gad Awuonda
Consultancy Services On Civil Service To Review And Develop Somaliland Civil Service Law
$40,000.00
Mr. Wycliffe Wesonga Oduor
Payroll Cleaning And Management Controls-lead Consultant.
$36,000.00
Dr. Teresia Kyalo
Development Of Civil Service Administrative Policies And Procedures (team Leader – Cluster 2)
$36,000.00
Dr. Esther Wangithi Waiganjo
Reviewing Of Civil Service Rules And Regulations- Team Leader 1 Of Cluster 1
$36,000.00
Total
$2,172,700.00
It’s unclear if the Civil Service Commission has sought any advice from the many higher education institutions in Somaliland for talent to help develop the policies that seem to have been developed exclusively by Kenyan Nationals.
One that stands out as suspicious in the list above is Mr. Philip Mwangi and the sum of $520,000.00 paid for his services on Staff Retention since there are other tasks listed that seem to have cost the project much less than the sum paid to him.
According to sources with an intimate knowledge of this project, the expats used in this project were generally recommended by World Bank employees in Nairobi.
Though the Somaliland Civil Service Reform Project has been well publicized and the CSC Chairman has been adept at ensuring positive media coverage for himself, the net result of the project that has cost roughly 40 percent of the allotted 10 million funding falls short of the overall project objectives.
One of major achievements of the project is the physical headcount where the CSC has visited every region of the country and biometrically registered all government employees and has issued them identification cards. This effort has netted 1,252 ghost workers.
Despite all the CSC efforts, it has failed to implement a human resource management system and without such a system, ensuring government workers show up for work and their performance, leave and future talent acquisition tracking is an impossible task.
One of the few tangible assets acquired as part of this project is the biometric registration equipment, comprising a fingerprint and a retina scanner at a whopping $96,000 for six units. Despite the infallibility of biometric identification, it’s unclear if future phases of the project include fingerprint scanners at government offices.
Another area of concern is the safeguarding of the data that has been collected since it is more than personally identifiable information and contains biometric information, it’s unclear if any measures to ensure proper encryption and security of this sensitive information are in place.
On May 26th, Ethiopia has officially apologized and removed a map that showed Somalia as part of its territory. The Map was posted a day earlier on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
The Ministry wrote “We have noticed that a wrong and unacceptable image of the Map of Africa has crept in on the Web site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia“.
Another posting on the same website showed a list of Ethiopian Representatives including Somaliland and Puntland has forced Ethiopia to once again clarify its position on Somalia.
“I assure you that Ethiopia’s position on the question of the disposition of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland will be given every possible consideration by this Government.” Secretary of State James F. Byrnes responded back to the Ethiopia’s Prime Minister at the time, Mr. Makonnen Endelkachew.
Though the Ethiopian government has officially apologized and has taken down the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the map seems to support Ethiopia’s documented claim over the territories of Italian Somaliland.
On May 2nd 2019, Somaliland’s Ministry of Transportation unveiled a pilot project to install real-time tracking device on government fleet to ensure their use is lawful and is for official purposes only.
Courtesy: Somaliland MOT
According to a statement from the Ministry of Transportation, the tracking device is intended to bring accountability in how government vehicles are utilized.
Minister of Transportation and staff unavailing the pilot tracker program.
From available photos, the Ministry is deploying either a TK102 or TK103 GPS tracker, a Chinese made low end AVL product that costs around 30 US dollars.
Interacting and offloading data from the device is achieved via GPRS cellular network and some models of TK103 have additional options such as preventing vehicle from starting a panic button in case of an emergency and the ability to detect a collision.
TK103 is part a simple tracker class known as automated vehicle locator and it is basically a cellular phone. A call its assigned number will cause it to send a text message reply of its precise coordination of its current location, the speed of the object and other information.
Configuration of TK103 GPS tracker.
The device the Ministry of Transportation has chosen are for applications where security is not a critical factor and a location of an asset being tracked has little to no value to anyone other than the owner.
It is unclear if the Ministry of Transportation considered the potential risk of this platform or has put additional controls in place to ensure the safety of this sensitive information.
With this class of device, where no additional encryption is used aside from GPRS, the risk of sensitive information that pinpoints the precise location and movement of all government vehicles being intercepted by unauthorized parties is simple, especially for a state actor.
Somaliland Chronicle will not discuss the nature of the vulnerability due to its national security implication.
As soon as he took the helm, Mr Farmaajo has left no stone unturned and spared no effort to make #Somaliland isolated enclave both economically and diplomatically to extent that some gullible, fainthearted Somalilanders and opposition parties doubted the competence of nation’s foreign policy.
For instance, Without further ado, Farmaajo nullified the agreements signed by his predecessors with Somaliland, the airspace accord to be particular.
To add insult to injury, through his minister of planning, he has ordered the western donors to revisit their longstanding policy of dealing Somaliland independently when it comes giving donations which is thorough enmity. Moreover, he engaged a policy to allure Somaliland youth with pseudo Somalism notion and handful payment to use against their country. In a bid to segregate Somaliland, Farmaajo went to Ethiopia to sign agreement by trading for that three ports in his country and plenty other mysterious terms.
On the top of these, Mr Farmaajo did his best to foil Somaliland’s commendable peace and tranquility by bankrolling some local disgruntled elements and by blatantly backing Puntland.
Eventually, with the unpredictable nature of politics and due to tremendous mistakes made by Farmaajo and his aides, the tables have turned in favor of Somaliland. When Somaliland tend to take this chance and decided to form diplomatic ties with the countries in the horn, out of the blue, people from Somalia hypocritically labeled this movement as betrayal act against Somalism and religion. Isn’t that sheer hypocrisy?
About the Author Fahad mohamoud is an Engineer living in Doha Qatar. He can be reached fahadhargeisa[@]gmail.com
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints of Somaliland Chronicle and it’s staff.
The delegation from Somaliland’s UCID opposition and ruling party of Kulmiye, led by Eng Faisal Ali Warabi and the Minister of Interior Mr. Mohamed Kahin Abdi is expected to meet with the veteran Kenyan Opposition leader and former Prime Minister of Kenya Mr. Raila Odinga.
Even though the purpose of the delegation’s visit to Nairobi was to meet with Somaliland’s international donors to discuss the stalemate over elections, building a closer diplomatic relationship with Kenya seems to be another aim for the visit.
On Monday, the delegation together with Somaliland’s Representative in Kenya Mr. Bashe Awil held separate meetings with the leaders of the Minority and Majority blocks of the Kenyan parliament, Hon. Juno Mohamed and Hon Aden Duale.
Our discussion focused on how to create partnership between the Kenya @NAssemblyKE and the Somaliland Parliament. I order to support the capacity buildings of their committees. pic.twitter.com/CKWk13hHvJ
Somaliland’s warming diplomatic ties with Kenya comes as Kenya’s increased diplomatic pressure and isolation on Somalia following the maritime border dispute between the two countries.
Citing a security concern, Kenya has instituted a mandatory stopover in Wajir airport for all flights from Mogadishu for additional security checks.
On Tuesday, immigration officials at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport refused entry visas to a large Somali Federal Government delegation travelling on Somali diplomatic passports and deported three of them back to Mogadishu.
Others were allowed to proceed after they produced western passports.
It is unclear if the move to deny entry visas to members of President Farmajo’s cabinet was a response to the passing of the petroleum legislation by Somalia’s parliament.
Today, Somalia’s Federal Government has lodged an official complaint with Kenya, calling its actions “potentially destabilizing”.
The Somaliland government has issued a strongly worded response to a ludicrous statement made by the chair of the federal government of Somalia’s elections commission, Marwo Halimo Ibrahim.
Speaking to the media, the Somaliland minister of Information and Public Guidance, Mohamed Muse Dirie stated “the assertion by the chair of the Somalia’s election commission that candidates from Somaliland who will take part in the prospective “national elections” slated for 2020, should submit their names, is not only offensive, but delusional”.
Minister Dirie declared “In the event that the administration in Mogadishu can even hold one person, one vote elections in the scant territory they presume to control is a fallacy, and not based on the reality on the ground. It is disturbing to hear such silly statements such as the one as made the chair of the elections commission in Somalia”.
The minister concluded “It is in the interest of the region and all the Somali speaking administrations, that Mogadishu must get it’s own house in order first, and reach an agreement with all the “federal” administrations, before they can even mention Somaliland. How are we expected to hold talks with people who are living in a fantasy world, when all we do is wish them all the best, peace, security and progress and all they wish Somaliland is the opposite? Please, have some respect for Somaliland”
The weak federal governemnt in Mogadishu recently held a meeting with the member federal states in Garowe, Puntland, on election issues. The meeting ended without a consensus.
Meanwhile, Somaliland is planning to hold parliamentary and local elections on December 12th, 2019.
A delegation from the two of Somaliland’s political parties, UCID and Kulmiye departed for Nairobi today to meet with Somaliland Donor Working Group chaired by the UK.
The delegation is led by the chairman of UCID Eng Faisal Ali Warabe and the Minister of Interior Hon. Mohamed Kahin Abdi representing Kulmiye. Other members include Abdiasis Samaale, the former Minister of Finance in President Siilaanyo’s administration and member of Kulmiye party, Ahmed Abdi Dheere and Prof. Ahmed Abdi Muse Abyan.
It is unclear why only two of the three political parties are attending the meeting. Efforts to reach Waddani for comments have been unsuccessful.
According to diplomatic sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the delegation is scheduled to hold talks with the EU, UK, Denmark and the United States about Somaliland elections.
International community has been pressing Somaliland parties to come to consensus and resolve disputes to hold parliamentary and local council elections on time.
Efforts to reach Somaliland’s diplomatic mission in Nairobi for more information have been unsuccessful.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
