Ministries fight over Somalia peace process

Friday, September 3, 2004

A bitter fight for the control of the Somali peace process between two Kenyan ministries threatens to derail delicate negotiations for the war-torn country.

The feud, between the Foreign Affairs and East Africa and Regional Co-operation ministries, also involves a tug-of-war over Kenya’s representation in the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) — which is mid-wifing the peace talks.

A letter by the Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Ambassador Francis Muthaura placed the Igad docket — and thereby the peace talks — in the newly created Regional Development ministry and away from Foreign Affairs.

The letter, dated August 17, was written to Environment minister Kalonzo Musyoka (who until the June Cabinet reshuffle headed the Foreign Affairs ministry) and copied to his replacement at Foreign Affairs.

It read in part: "Hon John Koech, the Minister for East Africa and Regional Co-operation will, with immediate effect, take over full responsibility of the two peace process (including Sudan) in his capacity as the minister responsible for Igad under whose mandate the peace process fall." But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has written back to Muthaura challenging the legality of his directives.

By placing Igad and the peace process under Koech, he was actually breaching the Igad charter, the letter says.

The protest letter cites Article 10 (1) of the Igad Charter that explicitly states that the Council of Ministers, which is largely charged with managing Igad affairs, will be made of "Ministers of Foreign Affairs."

Meanwhile, sitting on day one of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Parliament was as troubled as the process leading up to it yesterday — acrimony, marching shouts and shot-downs.

And when business finally began at around 11.00 am, after prayers, the MPs could not agree on the nomination one among themselves to act temporarily as House Speaker.

Age but also (parliamentary) experience was the sole qualification, according to Ambassador Bethwell Kiplagat.

The foolproof method to verify age was reference to each and every MP’s passport — even though this was not applied to all MPs. Finally, 83-year-old Hirsi Bulhan Farah was picked unanimously, to a standing ovation.

from all in the House.

At this stage, Farah took up his seat — supposedly the Speaker’s, one legitimate institution that has eluded the war-torn Horn of Africa nation for the past 14 years.

Listed next on the day’s order paper was the swearing-in of MPs who had not been sworn in last week at the United Nations headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi.

Only five of the expected 16 were sworn-in, and the sixth one — Dr Abdulaziz Sheikh — was not after MPs shouted him down in an apparent disapproval.

"I was supposed to be sworn-in. But I was not because of corruption and external interference," he protested.

Shortly thereafter, local and international press corps were at a loss as the acting chair suddenly adjourned the sitting to 10.00 am this morning.

But even before the adjournment, MPs had strongly insisted that they could not begin business until and unless they are all served with copies of the so-called rules of procedure and the federal charter.

"They are asking for a Kenya-type Commonwealth model of Parliament for now... until perhaps they go back to Somalia, where they may opt to adopt other models, and we will give it them," said Ambassador Affey.

Yet in a related development, Aideed — who said he deliberately snubbed the sitting and swearing-in ceremony — accused the Igad negotiators of imposing their vested interests on the Somali people.

Aideed told the East African Standard in an exclusive interview that the selection of MPs was unnecessarily hurried and was not done according to rules of procedure.

Neither has the arbitration commitee been allowed to iron out contentious issues, the Somali National Alliance-Somali Reconciliation and Reconstruction Council faction leader said.

"The process should avoid the pitfalls of TNG to give Somalis a hand-picked minority. I personally refused to be sworn-in because the process, as it has been, will likely take Somalia back on another five years of civil war," he said.