Nairobi, 29 June 2018 – Forty-two members of Somalia’s South West State Legislative Assembly, attending a six-day capacity building workshop in Kenya, had a firsthand experience on the functioning of a county assembly.
The MPs visited Kiambu County Assembly, on Thursday, where they observed their Kenyan counterparts conduct parliamentary business in the Chamber and in the House committees.
The event was part of a training organized by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), for state assemblies, to enable them effectively discharge their legislative roles and enhance the quality of debate in parliament.
The team comprising key officials of the 16 legislative and oversight committees of the South West State Parliament was joined by the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira, in the tour of Kiambu County, one of the 47 counties in Kenya.
Speaking during the visit, Ambassador Madeira hailed the role Kenya has played in restoring peace and stability in Somalia, which he noted commenced before the formation of AMISOM.
“It is not long ago, since Kenya hosted and mediated (peace) together with the countries of the region; that Africa, East Africa and IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) should come in and support their brothers in Somalia, whose state had collapsed,” Amb Madeira who is also the Head of Mission stated.
Kenya hosted mediation talks which led to the formation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) – the internationally recognized interim national authority in Somalia from April 2004 to August 2012. The TFG was superseded by the Federal Government of Somalia.
The SRCC hailed Kenya for deploying troops to Somalia, to help restore peace and security, and also allowing Somalia’s members of parliament to interact and exchange ideas with their Kenyan counterparts, complementing AMISOM’s effort to stabilize the horn of Africa country.
Ambassador Madeira urged African countries to aid the stabilization process, saying Somalia was a leading proponent of Pan-Africanism and contributed immensely in the establishment of the Organization of the African Union (OAU), which was later reconstituted to form the present-day African Union (AU).
The SRCC explained that helping to empower Somalia’s legislators to make good laws and be able to understand the aspirations of their people is the best way to ensure peace and stability in the country.
For his part, the Kiambu County Assembly Deputy Speaker, Philip Mubea Mwangi, noted that Kenya and other East African countries would greatly benefit from a secure Somalia in terms of security and trade.
“There is need to embrace regional integration more, for effective and efficient service delivery to the people. This kind of cooperation is an enabler to the regional peace and that is why our people are able to transact business without barriers,” Mr. Mwangi noted.
His South West State counterpart, Aweys Hussein Moalim, described the visit as historic, adding that he was thrilled by the prospect of cooperation between his region and the Kiambu County, both of which have relatively young parliaments.
“We came here so as to benefit from our brothers in Kiambu County to enhance our capacity, given that we are a state parliament. The reason we chose Kiambu County is because they are well ahead of us and we can learn from them,” said Mr. Moalim, the South West State Assembly’s 2ndDeputy Speaker.
South West State Parliament was inaugurated in January 2016 and has 149 members out of which 21 percent are women.
Kiambu Governor, Ferdinand Waititu, promised that the county will do everything within its means to help Somalia stabilize.
During the workshop, the parliamentarians will be taken through a number of topics, which include, among others, the separation of powers in a democracy, systems of government (presidential vs parliamentary) and roles and responsibilities of parliament. Others are roles and effective running of committees, structure and organization of the South West state, the legislative process and leadership skills for parliamentarians.
Apart from South West, other state assemblies that have benefitted from the training are Galmudug, Jubbaland and HirShabelle. The capacity-building programme is aimed at helping Somalia establish strong federal and state parliaments, which is critical in not only making laws, but also checking on the excesses of the executive.
