In a dramatic turn of political events in Somalia, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has suspended Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble from office as the investigation into his misappropriation of public land reserved for the Somali National Army (SNA) is underway.
On December 22, Navy Commander General Abdihamid Dirir released a video alleging that senior government officials, especially Prime Minister Roble, had embezzled beachfront land belonging to the Navy for their personal use. Prime Minister Roble has taken the unprecedented step to sack the high-ranking officer, clearly overstepping his constitutional power.
Mr. Roble has rejected any advice from the Defense Minister to let a panel of military officers investigate the matter before such draconian step is taken. The panel was formed and an investigation into General Dirir’s allegations was opened, but Prime Minister Roble joined in and called for the officer’s dismissal without investigation or trial by his peers.
Moreover, Prime Minister Roble’s frustration with a lengthy and possibly messy investigation came at a time when elections were going nowhere and calls for regional states to modify the ratified September 17 election deal to satisfy his friends from the opposition have been repeatedly ignored.
On the night of December 25, President Farmajo withdrew from Mr. Roble the control of the elections to which he had entrusted him, with the approval of Parliament, on May 1. Instead, the president called for a national consultation on the direction of these elections, which have now dragged on for 14 months.
The next day, in desperation as media predicted his removal and perhaps also out of fear of more revelations in the military investigation, Prime Minister Roble abruptly replaced without regard to due process the Minister of Defense and appointed a young minister to change the national security arrangement.
This decision did not sit well with the president who saw in the unauthorized change of the Minister of Defense a measure likely to influence the investigation and even to hamper his presidential power in matters of security, and decided on the night of December 27 to suspend the Prime Minister from his functions.
In Somalia, while the Joint Chiefs of Staff may recommend the removal of a high-ranking security officer, the president, as the supreme leader of all national armed forces, has the constitutional power to dismiss an officer.
On September 17, Roble was also sanctioned by the president after a failed attempt to remove all of the president’s allies from office and even move the command of the national security forces under his wing. He had been stripped then of almost all of his executive powers and until two nights ago his remaining task was to oversee the regular work of the cabinet and to finalize the much delayed elections.
