As senior police officer is in detention on suspicion of abetting the botched assassination attempt on the life of deputy Kulmiye party chair
By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The waning fortunes of the ruling Kulmiye party have changed dramatically after eleven members of parliament defecting from UCID and defunct UDUB party
The parliamentarians all sitting in the house of representatives formally relinquished membership of their former UCID and UDUB parties to official join Kulmiye at a ceremony held at a hotel in Hargeisa where hundreds of party supporters, cabinet ministers and fellow legislators were in attendance as witness.
As he welcomed the new heavyweight members a jubilant deputy party chair Mohamed Kahin who thanked the new party members for the foresight in ditching their former sponsors to parliament in favour of the ruling one said, “You have made the right choice because Kulmiye is a democratic party where internal conscious is the norm”
“We welcome you with open arms which not only embrace you but your ideas, thoughts and strategies that are not only for party development but the Somaliland nation as well”
In clear reference to the proposed national dialogue meeting planned by the unregistered National Consultative Forum Mr. Mohamed Kahin who was the recent target of an assassination attempt by aggrieved party members had this to say:
“Somaliland has three constitutional governing bodies namely the executive, parliament and judiciary thus any other entity purporting to be a people’s representative is unconstitutional and any national consultation it convenes is illegal”
The sentiments by Kahin were echoed by all speakers at the function that saw legislators Mohamed Baruud Shide, Ahmed Barkad Obsiye, Muse Mohamed Ismail, Abdi Mohamed Jama and Saeed Artan Osman among others join the circus of sitting members who have ditched their sponsoring political parties to unashamedly join hitherto opponents.
Meanwhile Police in Hargeisa have detained a number of people in connection to the assassination attempt of ruling party senior functionary.
Among those in custody is the national police medical officer-in-Charge Lieutenant Colonel Dr Oday who is spending his third day under investigation.
Last weekend AK 47 armed people said to number three accosted the Kulmiye party deputy Chair Mohamed Kahin near the party offices in Hargeisa and fired four bullets at him.
The botched assassination is reportedly related to the controversial membership of the Kulmiye party’s national conference organizing committee.
Meanwhile the national police commissioner Brigadier General Abdilahi Fadal Iman has revealed the arrest of three suspected perpetrators of the act he termed “Heinous and a shame to the nation”
Though he did not name names sources indicate that apart from Dr Oday one of his co-suspects now in custody is a Mr. Khalid Abdilahi Falago who is purported to have fired the four shots that narrowly missed Kahin.
The attempt on Kahin’s life has exacerbated the saga of the ruling party’s national delegates convention planned for this December which ensued with the discernible sidelining of the chairman Muse Bihi through selection of members known to support his opponent Abdiaziz Samale the current finance minister who is gunning for t
he Bihi seat.
While underground machinations continue to unseat Bihi and through him to the wolves those fronting the act in favour of Samale are yet to realize that Bihi does not only have nine skins but has the 100% backing of his boss and president of Somaliland Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo.
On the other hand both insiders of the party and ordinary citizens who acknowledge that Samale has the right to vie for any seat, want he, Samale, to resign his ministerial post in the finance docket for fair competition with Bihi.
But without question, most surprising, interesting and saddening of the entire Kulmiye party leadership saga is not the attempt to overthrow Bihi or assassinate Kahin but the lack of ambition portrayed by Silanyo’s deputy and Somaliland Vice president Abdirahman Abdilahi Sayli
VP Sayli who is supposedly the heir apparent is either cowed or without confidence thence his failure to declare his candidature for not only any party post but the presidency as well.
With stakes so high a slight blunder by ruling party functionaries might result in the demise of Kulmiye as a political force, just as happened to UDUB it former nemesis and oldest political entity of Somaliland
