Garowe, May 15, 2019

The Mayor of the Capital City of Puntland, Garowe, Mr. Ahmed Said Muse, is a respectful young politician, who has nine years of legislative experience behind him as a former Puntland MP. He has mild manners and delicate approach of listening to people calmly and cordially. By the way he engages people socially, it is obvious that he is committed to his job as the mayor of the Capital City.

Mr Muse recently had expressed his desire to see the City of Garowe turn more green. He, however, complained about the population of goats flocking around in the City, grazing and feeding on planted trees in town. He rightly recognizes the problems posed by the owners of these loitering around herds of goats.

The Mayor, however, ignores the public concerns with shortage of City workers to maintain hygiene and cleanliness of the town. He may not also be aware of the ugly fact that these stray goats are doing the jobs of missing City workers by feeding on the City waste, including carelessly thrown khat remains, cupboards and whatever dirty one may think of lying around in the streets of Garowe.

To make things even worse in Garowe, there is also a story about city hotels suffering from an invasion of cats in their dozens and hundreds.

This evening I was praying Maqrib at hotel lobby with a large congregation when a number of kittens suddenly came to hide between the feet of men in standing position, selectively preferring men with Ma’awis gowns, with all the phobias and other issues of concern. It was sadly hilarious too.

I have seen some of these cats sick and dying at hotels. Nobody seem comcerned about their care. They may be carriers of contagious diseases as well, and could be hazardous to health of residents and guests.

Another taboo-like topic of Garowe City is the lack of diversity in the City Administration and governing structures. Being the Capital City of Puntland, Garowe should reflect on all its residents and take into account the need for the Capital City to represent all. Otherwise, what would make it different from Mogadishu, where local majority claim to own the City? The cities of Galkayo and Bosaso are far ahead of Garowe in that regard, encompassing their resident diversities.

The City Police Forces, Municipality Workers and Security Services should also reflect the nature and purpose of making it the Capital City of the State of Puntland.

Puntland State has to grow out of separate sub-clan fox-holes and clan-protected enclaves.

One more thing – Garowe City and the government of Puntland are urgently requested to address the escalating land speculation in Garowe with the abuse of owning huge plots of land and living off on unprecedented land speculations bordering on organized crime.

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(Photo: Major of Capital City of Garowe, Ahmed Said Muse)

Garowe, May 15, 2019 – “Are you the President’s son, or a man of his own”, I asked Ugandan President’s son, to begin a conversation on the dynamics of the Somali National Reconciliation Coference (SNRC) that was being held in Mbagati, Kenya, in 2002. At the time President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and his government were focused on the Great Lakes and had no time to monitor developments in Somalia. He was thinking that Somalia, because of the long and vicious civil war, was a lost African cause.

At the time Puntland State had a strong political problem with Djibouti and Egypt leading the rest of Arab countries in their support for Djibouti sponsored AbdulQassim Salad Hassan, the President of the Transitional National Government (TNG). Our political situation was worsened by the Chairman of the SNRC Technical Committee, Kolonzo Musoka, then Kenyan Foreign Minister and later Vice President, who was then inclined to prop up AbdulQassim Faction of the SNRC for the later’s re-election. We had information that he was being influenced by Saudi Arabian promise that he would get financial support for his Kenyan presidential ambitious in exchange for supporting AbdulQassim’s bid for re-election.

Puntland President and then Somalia’s Presidential Candidate (Abdullahi Yusuf) wanted Uganda to intervene and at least help us neutralize Puntland’s political opponents; Djibouti and League of Arab Countries. A Puntland delegation led by the Late President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and former President of the State of Puntland (Mr. Yusuf), paid a visit to Uganda to brief officials on the latest political developments in Somalia and then on-going SNRC in Eldorate, Kenya, before moving it to Mbagati. Our political objective was to re-focus Museveni’s attention to Somalia’s situation as he was about to take over the Chairmanship of IGAD and definitely would get involved in Somalia’s affairs as represented by the SNRC. When we reached Kampala in late June 2002, President Museveni was out of the country. I was a member of the delegation, and as Puntland’s Presidency chief of Staff, had an important role to play. I quickly had linked up with Ugandan political and business establishments. I met with many officials, including an influential President’s son (name withheld for privacy reasons) to brief them adequately on Somali issues and the important role Uganda had to play in the SNRC as an IGAD Chair country.

It was a successful mission as shown by the important role President M7 played in Somalia’s affairs afterwards, including Ugandan leading role in AMISON later. We finally got rid of Kolonzo Musoka as Chairman of the SNRC Technical Committee, who later complained, “I didn’t know that the Colonel (Abdullahi Yusuf) had that diplomatic reach”. Abdullahi Yusuf had been elected President of Somalia later in October 2004.

The current President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, have also critical and important experience with Uganda without which he won’t have been President today.

One wisdom I picked up in Uganda at that time was that a presidential aide by the name of Lubanga saw so many persons of Somali origin in Uganda seeking to see President Yusuf during the visit, and he imagined the hard time that constituted for the President’s time and energy. He told me that a president was the ultimate power of a state and it was politically difficult for him to say no to personal requests in these audiences. It was therefore advisable to restrict unimportant Public access to the president.

Another story I learned from the landlady of our residence-like hotel in Kampala was that, according to this lady, every man, who had lived in that room later became President of a country, including Kenyan President Kibaki, who was then just elected. There were a number of other African Presidents in her list. That Ugandan story was an inspiration for all of us. Mr. Yusuf got elected president too.

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(Photo: courtesy to wikipedia)