Goormu Istaagi Doona Dagaalka Soomaaliya?

Tan iyo intii xukunka laga tuuray Madaxweyne Maxamed Siyaad Barre sannadkii 1991, ummadda Soomaaliyeed weli waxaa ka dhex aloosan colaad aan dhammaad lahayn. Waa kastoo barya, qorrax kastoo dhacda, gudcur iyo ileys, gu' iyo jiilaal, waxaa dhegaha caalamka ka dhammaan la' ibtilo aan dabargo' lahayn iyo hadalhayn aan dhadhan wanaagsan lahayn. Waxaaso balaayo ah waxaa usabab ah rag aan damiir lahayn oo aan garaneyn muhiimadda ay leedahay dawladnimada. Si kastoo dib-uheeshiisiin loogu qabtana, ugu dambeyn natiijadu waa kalaguur. Mid kasta wuxuu hamiyaya inuu noqdo madax sifa uu danihiisa iyo tan qabiilkiisa uhormariyo.

Dabcan, dawlado badan ayaa soo maray isjiidjiid siiyadeed iyo dagaalo lagu hoobtay. Hase yeeshee waa ay ka gudbeen. Soomaaliyaana ma aha qarankii ugu horeeyay ee jaba oo waa looga horeeyay. Hadiii aynu eegno qaaradda Afrika, dawlado ay kamid yihiin Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Zaire, Kenya, iyo kuwo kale ayaa dhammaan xilliyo kalageddisan la kulmay colaad hadba noocuu rabo ha ahaadee. Inkasto loolan siyaasadeed uu kadhexdilaacay raggii horboodaayey hurinta colaadeed waddamadani aan hore kuso sheegay, waxay ugu dambeyn la yimaadeen heshiis iyo afgarasho sidii lagu badbaadin lahaa umadda dhibaateysan ee dhexdooda ku baaba'ayay.

Laga soo bilaabo 1991, Soomaaliya waxaa loo dhisay dhawr dawladood oo ay caalamka kubixisay malaayiin lacag ah. Dawladahaasina waxay noqdeen hal bacaad lagu lisay. Weriye reer galbeed ah ayaa wuxuu yidhi "Jeneraal Caydiid wuxuu cunaayey cunto nadiif ah oo kulul ayaadoo teendhada uu kujidhay debedeeda dadku ay gaajo ugu dhammaanayeen." Haddii Caydiid uu lahaan lahaa qof iimmaan iyo damiir dhab ah leh, kama suurtowdeen in uu dhergo ayadoo dadkiisa gaajo udhammaanayaan. Sideedaba, waa xaaraan in qof Muslim ah caloosha buuxsado ama dhergo asagoo og in uu jidho ruux kale oo gaajeysan.

Maanta, ummadda Soomaaliyeed dunida dacalladeeda oo dhammi ayey ku tabaaleysantahay. Waxaan ka ahayn kuwa qurbaha kunool, Soomaali inteeda badani gaajo iyo macluul ayey ladhammaaneysa. Haddii ay umaaddu shaqeysan lahayd, waxaa udiiday rag calooshood ushaqeysteyaal ah oo aan marnaba arki karin cid kale oo xamaalaata ama macaashta. Soomaali waxay noqotay wax ladilo, wax qaxa, iyo wax buka oo aan waxba istari karin. Haddii adduunka usoo gurman lahaana, kuwo dulli ah ayaa hortaagan oo udiidan daryeel ama gargaar caalami.

Soomaali deriskeeda ayey dagaal kutahay. Waxaa waddankeedu kadillaacay xisbiyo badan oo aan lahayn mabda'a ama tabo siyaasadeed. Kuwa horboodayana ama waa haraadigii dawladdii duntay ama waa odayaal kudagaalama maskax shisheeye. Qaar baa waxay layimaadeen dhaqan aan hore looga aqoon geyiga Soomaaliyeed. Dumarka ayey waddooyinka kukarbaashaan; dil joogta ah ayey umadda kuhayaan; canshuur ayan awoodiin ummadda masaakiinta ah ayey uruurshaan; dhac, boob, kufsi ayaa dadkii lala dabataaganyahay.

Dhirtii waa laxaalufiyay oo waxaa laga dhigay dhuxul loo dhoofiyo waddammada carabta; badeheeni waxaa harqiyay maraakiib shisheeye iyo qowleysato lamagacbaxay "budhcad badeed"; sun iyo qashin warshadeed ayaa laga buuxshay xeebihii; abaar, biyo la'aan, cunto la'aan, cudur, dil iyo dhac ayaa ciiddeeni rogay. Haddaba, waxaan odhan lahaa Soomaali ha iska sabarto, Eebbe ayaa keenayaa nasteexe.

Kenya Points Fingers at Al-Shabaab

There have been a lot of unease and violent demonstrations on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, after Muslim demonstrators took to the streets demanding the release of Jamaican Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal who is being held for preaching religious hatred and awaiting deportation to his native Jamaica. Earlier, the Kenya Police denied Muslim Human Rights Forum a permit to hold peaceful demonstrations. However, on Friday Muslim demonstrators gathered outside Nairobi’s Jamia Mosque to protest against the detention and forceful deportation of Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal. The demonstrations turned violent after the police used live bullets and lobbed teargas at the demonstrators.

According to George Saitoti who is the minister responsible for internal security, two civilians were killed in the fracas, three others wounded and six police officers injured. However, Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua contradicted the minister, saying only one person died and 11 injured five of them civilians. According to the Standard Newspaper, Saitoti was flanked at the news conference by Ministers Yusuf Hajji (Defence), Mohamed Kuti (Livestock) and Mohamed Elmi (Development of Northern Kenya and Arid Lands) who condemned the protest in the strongest terms and also called for a thorough investigation into the causes of the violence.

Perhaps, the presence of hooligans who were not party to the demonstrations but who were there for the sake of looting the surrounding businesses resulted in the use of force by the police. Since attaining independence from Britain in 1963, the use of brutal force to quell disturbances by the Kenya police and security forces is well documented. A case in point is the Wagalla airstrip massacre of 1984 where hundreds of innocent civilians were gunned down by the security forces that was supposed to protect them. The enormity of this incident is documented in a book titled Blood on the Runway.

Kenya Muslim leaders have called on the government to take action against the police officers who were responsible for the deaths of the innocent unarmed demonstrators. They also called for the sacking of the commissioner of police and the resignation of Alfred Mutua, the government spokesman or else they will take undisclosed action. In a land where human and civil rights activists have been targeted in the past by the state apparatus, the possibility of having thorough investigations and fair jurisdictions must not be taken for granted.

According to the Kenya Government, Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal entered the country on a tourist visa but attracted the government’s attention after he started preaching religious intolerance. The Jamaican preacher was previously expelled out of the country only to be returned to Kenya because there was no country that would take him. Most airlines have refused to ferry him because he is on the no-fly list.

Now Kenya is pointing fingers at Al-Shabaab, the religious faction fighting for control of Somalia. Currently, Al-Shabaab is in total control of Somalia’s southern provinces and has been expanding territorially for the past few years.

Western intelligence sources have indicated that Al-Shabaab is fighting a proxy war and that its main leaders had previous training in Afghanistan and that it has hundreds of foreign fighters inside Somalia carrying out assassinations and suicide bombings.

Sources report that some of the demonstrators were waving the black flag of Al-Shabaab while shouting slogans in support of the group. If this be the case, then Al-Shabaab has infiltrated Kenya’s social fabric and that its rhetoric of spreading religious upheaval may be coming to fruition.

Unlike Mungiki, Kenya’s underground gang that has been the cause of past civil disobediences, what is worth comprehending is that Al-Shabaab is a well-organized armed group with inflexible intelligence structures and positive logistics and that it is capable of surviving for a long time just like the Taliban of Afghanistan.

In other developing news, the man who is the spokesman for Al-Shabaab in Somalia’s Juba regions, Sheikh Hassan Yakub Ali, has been quoted as saying that the current wars raging in the Hiiraan and Galgaduud regions are being waged by Ahlu-Sunna-Waljamaaca that is in alliance with the Somali Transitional Government against the forces of Al-Shabaab and Hizbul-Islam. The spokesman further heaped blame on the Ethiopian government and AMISOM troops in Somalia for arming the Somali government and Ahlu-Sunna-Waljamaaca.

On the other hand, frustrated by the continuous infiltrations of Al-Shabaab militia into Kenya’s North Eastern Province (NEP) and the subsequent abductions of foreigners, after prolonged deliberations, elders of the Kenya-Somali community issued a strongly-worded statement admonishing the leaders of Al-Shabaab to refrain from destabilizing a peaceful Kenya that is already host to thousands of refugees from Somalia and from around the region.

Obviously, the exhortations directed at the leaders of Al-Shabaab will fall on deaf ears since Al-Shabaab’s intentions are farfetched. Al-Shabaab is first determined to secure Somalia and then establish an Islamic government and from there on it will, presumably, carry the war to the Ogaden region in Ethiopia and the former Northern Frontier District (NFD) of Kenya. The two regions were annexed to Ethiopia and Kenya respectively during the colonial era. Neither Ethiopia nor Kenya is willing to give away an inch of their territory come what may.

In every healthy democracy citizens have a right to demonstrate as demonstration is a sign of alleviating misconceptions and voicing concerns and grievances. A government that respects the rights of its citizens must hold the voices of its citizens in high esteem. In the case of the demonstrations in Kenya, that did not happen because in the first instance Muslims were denied a permit to converge and rally behind what they deemed a just cause.

Kenya has seen enough of civil disturbances and any repeat must be avoided at all cost. The 2008 election irregularities in which the supporters of Raila Odinga, the current Prime Minister and those of the President in the helm, Mwai Kibaki, that left over 1,000 dead and many others injured and displaced, should be enough to forewarn Kenyans of the consequences of political stupidity and absurd human miscalculations.

To this day, the 2008 incidents remain issues of political contention as Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Argentinian man appointed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is about to indict the instigators and have those found guilty kept behind bars. Luis Moreno-Ocampo is credited with indicting the generals who committed gross human injustices during the reign of Augusto Pinochet of Argentina.

With rising crime and biting unemployment and tense social and political instability adding up to the nation's woes, Kenya leaders should discard any future idea of firing another live bullet at its citizens. Leadership is about having absolute vision, perseverance, patience, observing sanctity of life, and respecting human dignity. The recent squabbling between Uganda and Kenya over the tiny Migingo Island on Lake Victoria seems to have been forgotten.

To avoid unforeseen disturbances, the Kenya government, instead of holding Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal in detention for such a long time, must do all it can to fly him out of the country to Jamaica-his country of origin-even it means hiring a special jet for this one-time adventure. Then, it will have to embark on the long and arduous journey of having close working relationships with Muslim leaders and also demonstrate to its Muslim citizens its good intentions. Then after the dust settles, the Kenya government must prove beyond reasonable doubt how Al-Shabaab is meddling in its internal affairs so it can have the unanimous support of Kenya Muslims.

A New Year, an Eclipse of the Moon, and Escalation of War

Millions of people across the world have been reveling in commemoration of the beginning of the year Two Thousand and Ten (2010) corresponding to the Gregorian calendar. It also denotes the birth of Jesus Christ 2010 years ago. In some regions of the world especially in Africa, a unique eclipse of the moon was sighted while in some other regions a blue moon shone in the heavens-phenomena experienced twenty years ago. The bluish moon, according to cosmologists, is attributed to the dust and other chemicals emitted by the lower heavens. Volcanic ash and other chemical reactions on earth coupled with the rays of the moon and the stars cause the outer atmosphere to turn bluish. The eclipse of the moon must have been a source of solace for many who turn to the heavens for divine guidance.

While millions celebrate the fruits of peace and liberty, there are millions who continue to experience insecurity, hunger, illiteracy, thirst, political instability, poor governance, and a host of other ills caused by Mother Nature and by callous fellow humans. A prime example is the tiny nation of Somalia in the Horn of Africa. Somalia remained a democracy from its inception in 1960 until 1969 when a group of military officers took over the helm after the sudden assassination of the then democratically elected civilian president, Abdirashid Ali Shermarke. Since that goes around comes around, the tiny Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos when the military government headed by Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre was overthrown in 1991 by a ragtag militia led by General Aidid . Aidid died a few years later after being hit by a stray bullet from a warring faction that was pursuing him. To this day, Aidid’s followers commemorate the day he died for they consider him to have been a hero and a saint.

The ruling junta applied brutal force to advance its agenda. The government trade and marketing strategy was one based on monopoly where select agencies delivered goods and services to the public. There was hardly any sort of privatization.
The president and his henchmen enjoyed the fruits of independence while the rest suffered. The military government, which espoused opportunistic, cunning, and arrogant illegitimate political behavior, opposed any from of protests or demonstrations, peaceful or aggressive by university students or the general population.

Thus, most Somalis have been raised in a land of aggression, poor governance, and intolerance. Undoubtedly, some of those bad leadership traits deliberately filtered into their thoughts and processes. Immense pressure from the government-operated security apparatus known as the National Security Service (NSS) eroded their ability to think effectively in terms of leadership.

Task conflict, dysfunctional conflict, and potential opposition to governmental operations retarded any prospects for compromise. The absence of reallocation of resources, unclear performance evaluation systems, low trust, zero-sum reward practices, and lack of promotion opportunities hampered people’s prospects for leadership success. In a nutshell, the confused and convoluted form of leadership style espoused by the military regime ultimately led to the disintegration of Somalia.

As I write, the religiously-inclined Al-shabab faction that is in control of the central and southern regions of Somalia has issued a stern warning to all forces-domestic and foreign-engaged in the pacification of Somalia. During religious sermons delivered across mosques in Mogadishu, Al-shabab leaders pointed fingers mainly at the United Nations and the United States. These same leaders have been reported to have sent messages of relief to their brothers and sisters across the Gulf of Aden. Al-shabab leaders have been quoted as saying that they will take the war to Yemen. In a show of force, Al-shabab paraded hundreds of newly-graduated fighters in the streets of Mogadishu.

On the other hand, Somalia’s transitional government is devising a war plan that is meant to clean the country from Al-shabab menace. With the help of fierce firepower from the African Union troops in the country, the federal government aims to secure the areas under Al-shabab control within a short time. Hundreds if not thousands of government troops trained in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, and Rwanda are expected in the country soon to take part in the all-out-war against the insurgents wrecking havoc in Somalia.

The anticipated massive mobilization of troops and hardware by the Somali government could lead to the unexpected unification of the forces of Al-shabab and the hard-line Hizbul Islam group led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys who is wanted in the west for terrorism related activities. The two factions are on the process of establishing an emirate for the Horn of African nation. They intend to have a Somalia governed by an Emir-an Emir who will have absolute power over the affairs and foundations of the entire nation while eying further expansion to neighboring countries.

The imaginary caliphate will eventually extend invitations to foreign fighters driven by religious zeal so that the theocratic beliefs of the Emir may be transported across Somalia’s borders. The aftermath of the resounding blitzkrieg will obviously lead to a humanitarian disaster. Wherefore, Somalia will be transformed into a new killing field where corpses will litter everywhere like in the era of black plague. Millions of unfortunate citizens will be affected with refugees spilling over to neighboring countries and across the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean and even beyond. There will be an increase in banditry, escalation of piracy, environmental pollution, sealing of borders, and increased naval and aerial reconnaissance. Businesses will come to a standstill, hospitals will run out of medicine, there will be shortage of food, taps will run dry, and in the initial end none will emerge winner.