The Failure of Conferences Held in Nairobi

The elders meeting in Nairobi are aware that only King Burhaan, after extensive consultations, can announce a traditional conference exclusive to the Daarood.

Bossaso (Commentary) — Nairobi is a capital that has many skeletons scattered after political projects labeled "Daarood" collapsed. When I heard "a Daarood conference is taking place in Nairobi", I recalled failures that began in 1978.

Nairobi is the city where Cabdullaahi Yuusuf announced an armed conflict against Maxamed Siyaad Barre and the Mareexaan clan, which he then described as a marginalized group. After that day, the failure of the movement led by Cabdullaahi Yuusuf began.

In 1991, men from the revolutionary government, who had fled to Nairobi, attempted to rally under the name Daarood. They wanted to fight against the forces of the USC with civilians and non-militants who had fled from Mogadishu.

The song “Daarood united, oh God” was sung during those days. That group in Nairobi and the camp at Utange, where they set up their tents, failed when, at the end of May 1991, Cabdirisaaq Xaaji Xuseen gave an interview to the Somali Service of the BBC.

Cabdirisaaq had come to Kismaayo with the aim of peacebuilding to support the interim government led by Cali Mahdi Maxamed. The leaders of the group established in Kismaayo, known as SNG, opposed that peacebuilding.

Cabdirisaaq was among those who fled to Libooyo, and then to Nairobi.

“Those who rejected peace could have taken peace now,” Cabdirisaaq told the BBC Somali Service. This statement restructured the political landscape of the Daarood clan after 1990.

The politics came under the control of Cabdirisaaq Xaaji Xuseen and Maxamed Abshir Muuse, who was the Deputy Prime Minister of the Transitional Government. The two leaders believed that Maxamed Siyaad Barre was not given the opportunity to exploit the Daarood clan after which he would instigate lasting conflict among Somalis.

The SNF organization was replaced by the SPM (Somali Patriotic Movement) founded by Axmed Cumar Jees. Another impact that Cabdirisaaq Xaaji Xuseen and Maxamed Abshir had on Daarood politics is: they educated people that the leadership should be separate from the people living in Somalia; that people who fled to Nairobi and were part of the revolutionary regime could not politically use the Daarood clan identity.

The third failure is the SSC (Sool, Sanaag & Cayn) organization established in 2009 in Nairobi which later ended up in Hargeysa after Xaglatoosiye surrendered there.

The program Waano iyo Warcelin in its segment on Search, which used to air on Radio Muqdisho before 1991, is remembered by many for the people who were searched for and were said to have been in Nairobi many years ago.

Nairobi is a city where the people and political projects of Somalis converge. Look at how Somalis are investing in Nairobi, fleeing or settling there while neglecting their homeland of Somalia. Nairobi is the city where the largest refugee camps intended for Somalis are located.

This perspective is solely that of the author signed .