\n\t\t\tMOGADISHU, Somalia (HORN OBSERVER) \u2014 On June 24, 2026, Somalia’s Second Deputy Prime Minister, Jibril Abdirashid Haji, arrived at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport aboard a flight from Mogadishu. Kenyan immigration officers stopped him at the gate. His Kenyan passport, they said, had been fraudulently obtained. He was deported back to Mogadishu \u2014 back to the country he was supposed to be governing.\n<\/p>\n
It took a Kenyan airport officer to do what Somalia’s own
\nconstitution could not.<\/p>\n
He was not alone. On July 26, State Minister at the Presidency
\nAbshir Bukhaari \u2014 a former First Deputy Speaker of Somalia’s Senate \u2014 was also
\ndenied entry at the same airport and placed on a return flight to Mogadishu
\nafter immigration officials raised questions about his travel documents.
\nNeither the Kenyan nor the Somali government has officially confirmed the
\nreasons behind the incident. Somalia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Kenya’s
\nambassador for consultations the following day.<\/p>\n
The embarrassments forced President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s
\nhand. In July, he issued an ultimatum: all cabinet ministers must surrender
\ntheir foreign passports or resign. On August 3, Jibril became the first senior
\nofficial to comply, formally handing his Kenyan passport, national ID, and
\nbirth certificate to the Kenyan Embassy in Mogadishu. Prime Minister Hamza Abdi
\nBarre followed with a directive requiring all officials to travel exclusively
\non Somali passports during state business.<\/p>\n
The crackdown is real. But it is also late \u2014 and incomplete.<\/p>\n
The scale of the problem<\/p>\n
Somalia’s dual-citizen governing class is not a new
\nphenomenon. It is a defining feature of how the state has operated for over two
\ndecades.<\/p>\n
According to Wakiil, the independent parliamentary
\naccountability initiative, 105 out of 275 Federal Parliament members \u2014 38
\npercent \u2014 held foreign passports in the 10th Parliament in 2017. Many of those
\nsame MPs continue to serve today. Sadaq John and Abdirahman Abdi Shakur \u2014 both
\nBritish citizens whose children live in the United Kingdom \u2014 joined as MPs in
\n2022.<\/p>\n
From 2000 until 2022, every Prime Minister appointed across
\nSomalia’s transitional and federal governments held dual citizenship from a
\nWestern country \u2014 Canadian, Norwegian, Swedish. The current Prime Minister,
\nHamza Abdi Barre, is the first exception.<\/p>\n
Within Mogadishu’s political community, factions are
\ninformally known by the Western cities where their members spent their years of
\nexile: the “American Camp,” the “Norwegian Colony,” the
\n“Canadian Corner.” These are not jokes. They describe real networks
\nof shared contacts and shared exit options.<\/p>\n
The pattern extends to the most senior levels. Ali Mohamed
\nOmar, widely known as Ali Balcad, serves as State Minister of Foreign Affairs.
\nA former IBM engineer and property owner in North Carolina, he has not
\nrenounced his US citizenship. When contacted by reporters, he did not deny it.
\n“My work serves Somalia’s legitimate interests as recognised by the
\ninternational community,” he said. “Any suggestion that this
\nconflicts with my American citizenship is misinformed.”<\/p>\n
Governing from the airport
\nhotel<\/p>\n
The foreign passport is not just a travel document. It shapes
\nhow officials physically govern.<\/p>\n
“They do not go to the neighbourhoods to see how
\ncivilians live their lives day by day,” one employee at a Mogadishu
\nministry told this reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They
\nonly come to town after midnight, when the streets are half empty \u2014 and even
\nthen they have a lot of military guards. They are normally between Villa
\nSomalia and the airport area.”<\/p>\n
A second ministry employee described something more troubling.
\nState ministers and deputy ministers who hold dual citizenship do not come to
\nthe ministry at all. They run their day-to-day operations from airport hotels \u2014
\nofficial stamps, documents, and administrative tools all relocated to the hotel
\nroom. “Only a secretary is at the ministry office,” this second source
\nsaid. “She is there to oversee the daily operations \u2014 who comes, who goes
\nin the ministry building.”<\/p>\n
In December 2022, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud himself
\nacknowledged the broader absence. His government’s biometric attendance system
\nshowed only 1,500 of more than 5,000 registered civil servants were present at
\ntheir offices. He called the rest ghost workers. Seventy percent of the civil
\nservice payroll \u2014 funded by World Bank and IMF budget support from European and
\nAmerican taxpayers \u2014 were drawing salaries without showing up.<\/p>\n
The escape hatch in action<\/p>\n
The case of Salah Ahmed Jama \u2014 who simultaneously served as
\nDeputy Prime Minister and Senator \u2014 is the starkest example of how the foreign
\npassport enables impunity.<\/p>\n
In October 2024, Somalia’s Senate Speaker announced that Jama
\nhad been formally dismissed from the Upper House for failing to attend four
\nconsecutive sessions without explanation. An investigative committee found he
\nhad been receiving salaries and allowances for two years without attending.
\nBefore entering government, Jama built his entire career in Ottawa, Canada, as
\na researcher and teaching assistant at Carleton University.<\/p>\n
Within three days, the political class reversed the decision.
\nThe Senate Speaker rescinded the dismissal. Jama kept his seat. He kept the
\nsalary. No one returned the money. Historically, no Somali official has ever
\nbeen forced to repay funds obtained during documented misconduct.<\/p>\n
“They only return when there is something to
\nnegotiate,” one senior civil society monitor in Mogadishu told this
\nreporter.<\/p>\n
What the crackdown cannot
\nfix<\/p>\n
Somalia’s 2026 constitution bars the President, Prime
\nMinister, Speaker of Parliament, and Chief Justice from holding dual
\ncitizenship. It requires formal renunciation. It even prohibits top officials
\nfrom being married to foreign nationals \u2014 a spousal clause with no precedent in
\nSomalia’s constitutional history.<\/p>\n
But the crackdown has clear limits.<\/p>\n
Parliament remains largely untouched \u2014 MPs may hold dual
\ncitizenship; only those seeking the Speaker’s role face a ban. The advisory and
\ntechnical class inside Villa Somalia and every major ministry is not covered.
\nAmerican and British passport holders shape national security strategy and
\ncommunications. Canadian and Swedish passport holders run finance and legal
\naffairs \u2014 because international donors, including the World Bank and IMF who
\nfund their salaries of between $5,000 and $10,000 per month, prefer
\nWestern-credentialled professionals.<\/p>\n
Somalia ranked 179th out of 180 countries on Transparency
\nInternational’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index. The Somali passport ranks
\n99th globally on the Henley Passport Index, granting visa-free access to only
\n32 countries. For officials accustomed to moving freely between Mogadishu and
\nLondon or Minneapolis, surrendering a Western passport is a real sacrifice.
\nThat is precisely why this structure will not dissolve because of a
\npresidential ultimatum alone.<\/p>\n
The foreign passport will not disappear from Somalia’s
\ngoverning class. It will retreat one tier and hold. Because it does not just
\noffer an exit \u2014 it opens doors. It enables visa-free travel to donor capitals.
\nIt builds credibility with international partners. For a government that
\ndepends on foreign aid for the vast majority of its budget, the foreign
\npassport is not a liability. It is an asset.<\/p>\n
The Somali people deserve leaders who cannot leave. What they
\nhave, for now, is leaders who have been told to use a different travel
\ndocument.<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/p>\n
Ismail Abukar is Co-founder and
\nChairperson of the Organization for Prisoners’ Rights (OPR), an independent
\ncivil society organization based in Mogadishu, Somalia. He has conducted
\nprimary field research in Somalia for seven years covering prisoners’ rights,
\nenforced disappearances, press freedom, and electoral corruption. His
\ninvestigations have been published by African Arguments: “The
\nDisappeared” (June 2026) and “The Journalists Who Disappeared”
\n(August 2026). He holds an MA in International Law and Human Rights from the
\nUniversity for Peace (UPEACE) and maintains an active ORCID record:
\n0009-0003-1435-3681.<\/p>\n
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