Man who wants to change Somalia

Somalia is going to the polls in August. The elections are going to be different as they will not follow the one-person, one-vote system favoured by many countries.

There will be an electorate of close to 14,000, choosing the 275 members of the lower house of parliament. The electorate will be determined by traditional elders who hold important roles in their particular clans.

Complicating the elections (apart from insecurity) is the fact that Somalia has several self-governing regions like Puntland, Jubaland, South West State. All the same, the die is cast.

A few weeks ago, Mohamed Abdirizak threw his hat into the ring. He currently serves as the founder and executive director of Somali One, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help Somalia achieve peace and stability.

When he was last in town, we met at Java, Valley Arcade, for tea and a chat.
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This cookie is finally crumbling, isn’t it?

(Chuckle) It is.

Who are you?

Mohamed Abdirizak, born and raised in Mogadishu. After high school, I served two years in the military then I went to an agricultural school in Pakistan specialising in horticulture and fruit propagation, commercial agriculture. That’s my other passion - my family owned farms.

Civil war started in Somalia and I couldn’t go back home so I went to the US where I sought asylum in 1991 or 1992. I worked in the US until 2001, did my Master’s at John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies specializing in International Relations, National Government Systems and so forth.

All the while I had Somalia on my mind and always wanted to come back and do something in Somalia and since agriculture could not be the way and this was going to take time, I changed fields. In 2001, UNDP Somalia recruited me from Washington D.C and brought me to Nairobi.

How did you arrive here, vying for presidency, what instigated it? Was there a tipping point?

First, both my parents were civil servants. In fact, my father later on was in the military. He was what was called a Supreme Revolutionary Council member who along with Siad Barre took over through a coup in 1969.

I grew up in a house where people served the government. My father was the Minister for Education who oversaw the writing of Somali language in 1972. He took me along with him so I always had this sense of duty and wanting to work for my country.

But it wasn’t until around 2005/2006 after the Transitional Federal Government was formed right here in Kenya that I would write policy papers and so forth and go and meet with the President. I met him three times, in Nairobi, New York and in London. I always gave him these papers and my advice for free.

So how many presidential candidates are there because the other day, I saw someone on Facebook launch his bid from the States?

There’s no telling because there are no political parties. People self-nominate. How many people will nominate themselves? We don’t know. So far, the people who have declared are about four or five.
There are also those who are showing intention but have not formally declared and these are mostly in the diaspora and have not come to Somalia yet. I am the first person to go to Somalia, to the capital Mogadishu and declare.

How does that work when you can just declare, and say look, I’m running. Does that work against the process?

The process doesn’t really exist. There is no establishment. But if, for anything, it shows Somalia’s political dynamism, assertiveness (laughs) For instance, I am campaigning and somewhat introducing a Western-style campaign because my goal is not only to get elected, but to increase civil participation in politics. We want people to come and express their views and show us their plans. To be involved.

Islamic extremism isn’t even an elephant in the room anymore...

I’m addressing it and how to stabilise the region because this affects the whole world. Somalis are the first victims to the extent that there is no international news coverage of the daily killings and explosions, yet we can be the first respondents and tackle this problem if we can get the rest of the world to take this with us. Extremism needs our collective response…

There is also an issue of clannism, which is huge in Somalia...

Yes. Clans have been there for thousands of years ever since Somalia has existed. But when you introduce politics and governance and military and hardware and all of these things, these societal cleavages can become very dangerous if leaders are not responsible.

Clannism can have both positive and negative effects. In the traditional rural areas, it is an economic system and an insurance system and a collective defence mechanism.

It is also a conflict resolution mechanism. So clannism in itself wasn’t really a bad thing, it is how it was used and how people were mobilised to do politics.

But obviously it’s going to play a big role in the elections?

It is going to play a role but there is so much dynamism as to how this is playing out. There is a sense of maturity in that Somalia is changing. For instance, I am a different clan from the current President, yet I have a lot of support from the his clan. Why? Because people are saying just because someone is from our clan, how is he changing our lives on a daily basis? What is in it for us collectively?

How do you plan to handle extremism and radicalisation?

I have a 3-part strategy. One is to strengthen the security sector. Today we don’t have Somali unity. What I want to do is reform the security sector by getting a national security force that is united.

Secondly, is to transform the politics and governance of Somalia by giving people hope that they can participate.

Then there is political transformation where we deal with issues through reconciliation and open up the political field. Third, is economic development. When we have so many youth that are unemployed, we will continue to have instability and that is one thing that I want to deal with.

You mentioned that you are not even able to hold public rallies. So what kind of campaign are you trying to launch?

It is very difficult to do public rallies for security reasons. Today, when I want to have an event, I will have to go to a hotel venue and limit the size of the crowd to 200 or 300, depending on the size of the hotel and that is very costly. My campaign is to get all Somalis involved, get my friends around the world involved to contribute to my campaign. All donations will be welcome.

You could easily live your life without a lot of this stress. But now you’re getting into this nasty fray. What’s your biggest motivation?

I believe that the measure of a man is not how much comfort you can create for yourself, for your family, but how much you can contribute to the society from which you come. I think if I can sacrifice a little to help my brothers and sisters in Somalia to have a more secure and prosperous life, it will be very satisfying to me, and that is my driving conviction.

What’s your passion outside this?

I’m just a regular guy. I spend my spare time with friends and family. I play golf, I enjoy that. But these days, everyone I know is complaining that I am working all the time. I’m always talking about politics…to me, it doesn’t seem like that but I am told that’s what I do.

How old are you now?

I’m 48.

Is that a problem for the electorate?

No. This is part of the changing dynamism in Somalia. I think that I am in a position that I can attract majority of the country. As I said, 70 per cent of the country is under the age of 30. I can relate to them more than folks in their 60s. I think it is a great opportunity.

Do you think Kenya should pull out KDF from Somalia?

I think that should be a larger strategy. The focus should not just be on exiting. But as we focus on reforming the Somali security sector, and stand up as a national security force that is capable of defending a country and its people, then I think we need to make the exit strategy for not only Kenya but all of AMISOM to leave the country, provided that we build the capacity for our forces.

Kids?

Two. A boy and a girl.

Parting shot?

I have lived in Kenya for 15 years now. I worked here, this was my base, even though I worked in Somalia. My kids went to school here and I find the Kenyan society very welcoming, very open.

We want to create something similar in Somalia. I want to make Somalia stable, secure, so that Kenya also benefits. We don’t want to be the country that drags the region down. We want to be the country that contributes economically.

When Somalia is safer, it is better for Kenya, it’s better for tourism, it’s better for many other things and in that sense, I will want to find a way to really attract more Kenyans to pay attention to the outcome of the Somali elections in 2016.