Divisions widen between Somali PM and Farmaajo

Tension between outgoing Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble appear to be increasing after two officers of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) who were recently sacked got back their jobs.

Last week, Prime Minister Roble sacked Abdullahi Kulane and Abdiwahab Sheikh. Kulane had been the Deputy Director of NISA prior to his dismissal. Sheikh served as the spy in charge for NISA at the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu.

Kulane and Sheikh were returned to the agency in a letter dated July 28. However, Yasin reassigned the two with Kulane becoming a political and security assistant while Sheikh Ali now moves to planning and technology.

The return of the two puts the Prime Minister in an awkward position and further escalates his relationship with Farmaajo. NISA boss Fahad Yasin is a close ally of Farmaajo and is credited for his ascendency to power in 2017.

The development also brings to the fore power sharing and authority between the Prime Minister and President regarding the appointment and dismissal of heads of security agencies. Also in question is the human resource component within NISA and whether the Prime Minister has overriding power to discipline members of the agency.

To tighten his control of power, Fahad Yasin has dismantled the main pillars of the agency, replacing professional and experienced operatives with flattering amateurs loyal to Qatar, with the goal of sharing information for Qatari intelligence operations in the Horn of Africa.

Starting in 2018, with the encouragement of regional allies and Qatari money and through Yasin, outgoing Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo was able to legalize fraud in the elections in order to install loyalists.

In addition to bribery and favoritism, Farmaajo deployed the Federal Security Forces as tools of political control, with a disgraceful failure to combat the Al-Shabaab terrorist movement in favor of subjugating federal member states.