I overheard the other day a phone call from a traditional elder nearby, judging his advanced age, long untamed beard, and dress style. From his phone conversation, I understood that he was somehow frustrated with the Sharia clergymen’s private local councils. Perhaps, he had a civil case in which some of his clan members were pushing for Sharia intervention or assistance. The elder was persuading his countryman to, instead, resort to his clan’s Customary Law. Recently, I also had a conversation with another elder, who told me that these private clergymen demand huge fees for their services, and he knew that because he was involved in a case recently, where both conflicting parties were required to pay what seemed to him an inflated amount in US dollars (paradoxically, today’s Somali currency). I asked him why it was so. He responded to me that was how bad the situation in the country had been, particularly at courts of justice: Public courts and the entire judiciary branch were dysfunctional, incompetent, corrupt, and incapable of reaching decisions and enforcing them. Mostly, they issue multiple contradictory judgments on the same case, depending on which party had paid more bribes. Some people were forced to seek alternatives in the administration of justice. Some had appealed to Al-Ashabab extremists to decide on cases. Others had resorted to business clergymen offering services with expensive charges for both consultations and judgments on civil cases. Different levels of the Somali government are helpless to address instances of corruption in courts of justice because they are equally corrupt and can’t pay sufficient salaries to judges. The bad situation of the administration of justice led to known malpractices in Somalia.

There are three laws in Somalia. They are:

1. Customary or traditional law
2. Sharia
3. Penal (criminal)/civil law

None is binding habitually to the crude nature of a nomadic Somali man without strong state reinforcement. Nomads are free-wheeling and hateful of any restrictions against their impunity for any action of their wish and wimps. Any law he may accept at minimum is the customary law of his clan because it has no enforcement mechanism and because he doesn’t want to lose the support system and the benefits he enjoys within the tribal councils.