By Ismail H. Warsame | Warsame Digital Media | © 2025 WDM
Welcome to Mogadishu, the only city in the world where the word “capital” means two capitals fighting over the same piece of sand.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has apparently discovered the cure for Somalia’s economic stagnation: land grabs. Forget agricultural reforms, industrialization, or revenue-sharing agreements—Mogadishu’s real GDP is measured in square meters of seized plots. Every clan elder with a bulldozer and a militia is now an “investor,” courtesy of Villa Somalia’s urban renewal program.
But not everyone is applauding the President’s real estate hustle. The Banadir parallel administration, which functions like Mogadishu’s shadow government, has now threatened action against this latest land-grabbing spree. And here’s the punchline: even Al-Shabab found this whole spectacle corrupt enough to issue a statement condemning it.
Yes, you read that correctly: Al-Shabab, the same group that detonates hotels for breakfast, is now lecturing Villa Somalia about legality. Imagine Pablo Escobar giving a TED Talk on drug policy.
E-Visa: Somalia’s Newest Pyramid Scheme
If the land grabs were not enough, the Federal Government’s flashy E-Visa project has turned into a textbook scandal. The system that was supposed to streamline travel and showcase Somalia’s “digital future” has become the equivalent of a tollbooth for presidential relatives.
Reports are flying that Mohamud’s immediate family members are linked to offshore accounts and shady kickbacks. Instead of a secure, transparent platform, we now have a Somali version of FTX—minus the tech genius and with double the clan politics.
Even Puntland, the last remaining adult in the federal room, refused to play ball on the E-Visa revenue-sharing deal. Now travelers must pay two fees—one to Villa Somalia and another to Puntland. Double taxation? No problem—because in Mogadishu math, this is called “federalism.”
The whole circus is a perfect reflection of Somalia’s “state-building” effort:
The Punchline
A President moonlighting as a landlord.
A shadow government threatening civil action.
A terrorist group claiming to be the voice of legality.
A national digital visa system collapsing into clan-based corruption.
And the international community still insists this is a “fragile democracy.”
At this rate, Mogadishu may soon have three governments—one for land grabs, one for fighting land grabs, and one for collecting E-Visa fees. That should finally satisfy the donors, who love to fund “multi-stakeholder approaches.”
Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN) 