MOHAMED ABDULLAHI FARMAJO HAS LEFT FOR OVERSEAS TRIP AMID SIGNS OF TROUBLE AND UPRISING AT HOME

You may recall that recently Kenya had declined to participate in final proceedings of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, on maritime delimitation dispute in the Indian Ocean between Somalia and Kenya. Since then intelligence and diplomatic sources indicated that Kenya has been engaged in diplomatic offensive in countries allied with and supporting Farmajo government like Qatar and Turkey. Qatar is said to be a major investment shareholder of ENI, the Italian oil firm known to have been conducting seismic and feasibility studies in the disputed portion of the Ocean on behest of Kenya. Turkey and Qatar are strategic allies in the Middle East, and Qatar has great diplomatic influence on President Erdogan of Turkey.

President Kenyatta has been lobbying the leaders of Tutkey and Qatar to persuade Farmajo abandon his hardline position on maritime dispute with Kenya, even if the ICJ were to rule the dispute in favour of Somalia, efforts that may paving the way to resources-sharing arrangements between the two countries. There are intelligence reporters as well pointing out that the director of NISA, Fahad Haji Yassin Haji Dahir is heavily involved in these negotiations between Farmajo and leaders of Turkey and Qatar. Observators believe that a neutral venue was needed to bring Farmajo and Kenya to a meeting face to face under the auspices of DRC president flex, and that is why the venue (Congo) was chosen. Further, Farmajo is bound to pay a long-delayed visit to Abyi Ahmed of Ethiopia to discuss on the Somalia’s constitutional crisis, following Farmajo’s illegal extension of his mandate for two more years. He will continue to attend the inauguration of Ismail Ghuelleh of Djibouti before he flies on to UN Security Council Session on Somalia’s crisis. Farmajo is now in a weaker political and diplomatic position because of his problem of constitutional legitimacy at home.

For both Farmajo and Kenyatta, the stakes are high. This is a developing story. Stay tuned.

Postscript: Since posting this article, Ismail Ghuelleh declined to invite Farmajo to the inauguration, and Farmajo, instead, sent his foreign minister to US as he wasn’t welcome there hinself for illegally extending his mandate for two more years.