Mogadishu (Commentary) — The Federal Government of Somalia aims to join the East African Community, but is oblivious to legal hurdles that pose a threat to the limited sovereignty of Somalia. A country with a draft constitution whose citizens have no clear citizenship rights – the draft constitution is based on the discriminatory 4.5 system in which some clans have lesser political and economic rights – is in a weaker position to reap membership benefits in a regional intergovernmental organisation.
Article 39 of the United Nations Charter states: “The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.” António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, invoked this article as a reference at the London Somalia Conference of 2017. The threat that Somalia is believed to be posing to the global security does not stem from the political authority ( the Federal Government of Somalia), but from Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, a proscribed, transnational organisation that does not view Somalia a sovereign nation state. The reason for placing Somalia under the Chapter 7 article pertains to the inability of the Federal Government of Somalia to protect itself against Al-shabaab
Those institutional constraints should have alerted the Federal Government of Somalia leaders to the futility of pushing the agenda for Somalia to join the East African Community. The bigger threat to the sovereignty of Somalia, in its present state, lies in the standard Somalia foreign policy about inter-country borders, particularly those between Somalia and Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia and Somalia and Djibouti.
Somalia views its borders with the neighbouring countries as arbitrary — xudduud beenaadka, to use the accurate Somali phrase. No Somali government has revised this designation based on the contention that colonial administrations divided up Somali territories. With peacekeeping forces from Kenya and Ethiopia in Somalia under ATMIS, Somalis may find themselves in another scramble for its territories.
Reviewing The Somali Peninsula: A New Light on Imperial Motives in Africa journal, the late I M Lewis wrote: “This handsome volume is an important contribution to the nineteenth and early twentieth century history of North-East Africa. Excellent use is made of the Foreign Office and India Office records of the period to show how, after the Italian defeat of the battle of Adowa in 1896, Italy, Britain and France sought to establish viable relations with Ethiopia. In the case of Britain particularly, this involved the abandoning of Somali clans whose independence the British government had undertaken to ‘protect’”
The times are different but the scenario is almost the same. Somalia is now divided into clan fiefdoms, but boasts a Federal Government whose writ does not run throughout the country. Joining the East African Community, whose member states enjoy full sovereignty compared to Somalia whose political situation was, in 2013, described by the former UNSOM Chief Nick Kay as a “fragile state”, one rung above failed state, the s detrimental to the national interest of Somalia whose federal leaders expect to have their request to join EAC expedited.
Entering into economic integration from the position of institutional and political weaknesses will have wider repercussions for the sovereignty of Somalia. A country that cannot protect its borders should not be allowed to join the East African Community. In 2009, Kenya took advantage of Somalia and persuaded Transitional Federal Government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that questioned Somalia’s maritime territories.
The intention to join EAC does not reflect the political situation obtaining in Somalia, a country whose citizens suffer under the practice of elite bargain and political marketplace. Somalia should explore joining the East African Community only when the Horn of Africa country is no longer seen as a threat to global security.ReplyReply AllForwardEdit as new
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