Highlights
- International envoys warned on Thursday 20th August that passing an impeachment motion against Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is likely to slur development in Somalia as the country fights for peace.
- On Wednesday 12th August 2015, a total of 115 Somalia Parliamentarians supported an impeachment motion against Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
- President Hassan was accused of exceeding his constitutional powers.
- This was a close shave for President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud since the Somali constitution requires a total of 125 members of parliament to pass an impeachment decision of the house.
Analysis and Forecast
Intelligence analysis indicates that removing Somalia’s top leadership from the seat could be the worst decision Somali lawmakers made as Africa’s terror plagued country struggles to shed itself off militants amid regional aid.
The country’s economy is not supportive of the move either, with the militants having brought people’s living standards to their knees and the country majorly relying on foreign aid while part of its population live as refugees in other countries.
Creating a power vacuum in Somalia would only make the civil situation worse. The Al Shabaab militants have eyed the country’s top power for decades and a power vacuum would be filled by militants at all costs.
Al Qaeda-linked Harakat Al Shabaab Al Mujahideen (HSM), which wants to topple the Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia, has been driven out of major strongholds by the AMISOM and Somali forces but continues to launch bomb and gun attacks against officials, politicians and others.
To top on the situation, Somali federal Parliament is constituted on the basis of clans and toppling the president would create vengeance on the president’s clan, a situation that could plunge Somalia into yet a clan based civil crisis.
