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This week Somalia’s top man is in his 17th trip out of the country he promised will bring prosperity to. As usual the speech fatigued Somalis turned up to listen, yet again, to what he had to say as they did for his predecessors, just to hear a new man with an old message, making even more promises of achieving durable peace in Somalia through vague and open ended statements. In the US in a state of estimated 70,000 Somalis, most of whom are refugees from the darood clan, some appeared. But, just like other politicians, devoted fellow clansmen and women gathered from around the US, Canada, and as far a place as EU to populate the conference hall. It was no different in the UK. They have turned up as they do, more or less, for presidents of other Somali states such as those of Galmudug, Puntland, Somaliland, and Ximan and Xeeb.
However, Mr Mahmoud’s travels have a dangerous tone to them. The Somalis are being polarised because of the repeated failures of the current administration to translate rhetoric to actions. As he stood repeatedly telling the audience about justice and the rule of law, Somali woman who reported rape by Mogadisho soldiers has been charged with a crime against the state by a kangaroo court and dodgy witnesses. Nuradin Farah has given us a glimpse of the witnesses for rent in Mogadisho (Of Tamarind & Cosmopolitanism). The fact that the journalist and the co accused has also produced his own witness, shows the scale of the problem we face in terms of implementing justice in Somalia. Of course the witnesses of the one with the gun have more value in these circumstances. Mr Mahmoud also mocked dictators and how they silence people and deny them their freedoms, yet Banadir administration issued a decree to arrest young women returnees in Mogadisho’s Lido beach, because according to him, they were not dressed in a particular way or and have been talking to other young men, reminding many of al shabaabs era.
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