By Abukar Sanei, Ph.D.
November 5, 2026
Mr. Hamza Abdi Barre, as your official term as a prime minister has expired, I am not sure if I can still call you as a “prime minister,” but for the sake of the formality of this letter, I will be calling you with that title throughout this letter. Also, since I will be mentioning Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in this letter, I will be referring him as former president, and in some cases, I will be using his full name throughout the letter. I am doing this, because based on the constitution that he was sworn in, his term as the official president of Somalia expired on May 15, 2026. With that in mind, Mr. Prime Minister, there are three purposes that I am writing this open letter to you. First, I want to give you a clear picture about where the condition of the country is now. Our country is now under one man’s rule and that man is former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as there are no institutions that balance his power. Second, I want to remind you that as a leader, you have a responsibility to save the country from former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Yes, there is a prior relationship between you and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as you served as the secretary-general of his Peace and Development Party from 2011 to 2017. However, the responsibility that you have now on your shoulders is not about your personal relationship with Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. It is about a governance relationship that is based on laws, and if these laws are not effectively upheld, there is no governance relationship. I know that you are aware of these basic rules, but I am just playing here as a reminder, because I believe that if you care about legacy, your swift action against the behavior of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will positively mark your name in the history books of Somalia. Third, this open letter will conclude with three action items that are at your disposal for saving the country from the current political crisis.
Mr. Prime Minister, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appointed you on June 14, 2022, about a month after his election on May 15, 2022. On June 25, 2022, about ten days after your appointment, you received an overwhelming endorsement of the Somali MPs. However, prior to your appointment, no one knows the process that you were appointed as well as who campaigned for you to become the prime minister. Some analysts say that the only qualification that former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used to select you was that you were an “insider” of his camp. As stipulated in Chapter 8, Article 104 of the Transitional Constitution of 2012 (the only document that has the consensus of the Somali people), you said, “I swear by the name of Allah that I will discharge my duties honestly, and in the best interest of the country, the people, and the religion, and that I will uphold the national constitution and all other laws of the land.” (emphasis is mine for the importance of this oath). However, after you were sworn in, you briefly addressed the members of the parliament and the Somali people, and you stated, “I feel the burden of this position and the expectations that you (the MPs) and the people that you represent in this house have on me. I have a fear to balance the challenges that we are surrounded with and the expectations that the Somali people have on me.”
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (right), Hamza Abdi Barre (left), Photo Credit: https://www.facebook.com/HamzaAbdiBarre
Mr. Prime Minister, it is now over four years since you came to that office with the oath of upholding the constitution and all other laws of the land, and as you are well aware, the condition of the country is not the one that you inherited from your predecessor, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble. As some argued during the political transition of 2021-2022, your predecessor refused to be “a rubber stamp” for the incumbent president as he led the country to elections. Mr. Prime Minister, I want to challenge you with this question: have you really uphold the national constitution that you were sworn in on June 25, 2022? As you are a man of faith, I am sure that you are aware of the negative consequences that come with an oath if it is not fulfilled. Mr. Prime Minister, since Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came back to power in 2022, he was only acting and using the state as his own private entity. If this is what Somali people wanted, why did we revolt against the powerful military government that ruled the country for two decades? I am thankful to Almighty Allah that in late 2022, I started my warnings about the dictatorship mentality and the power grab that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was entertaining himself with. This is the time everyone was cheering Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. However, I predicted that by the end of his term, we will not have a country, and the signs of that direction are very clear today for anyone who cares about the country. Mr. Prime Minister, before you even formed your government, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and some members of his close circles were doing international travels that as of now, no one knows their detailed records. On June 20, 2022, he went to Abu Dubai with undisclosed agenda. Even though the UAE’s Foreign Ministry published this visit in its website, the Somali people have not been informed yet about the details of why Hassan Sheikh Mohamud went to the UAE. Moreover, as reported by Hiiraan Online, on July 3rd, 2022, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud traveled to Türkiye for a two day visit as this trip was described as “an official invitation by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan” for a purpose of “strengthening the bilateral relations and signing new agreements between the two governments during the two-day visit.” As of today, many members of the Somali Parliament don’t know the details of the “agreements” that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed with the Turkish officials. Other international travels by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud before your own government was established include Eritrea, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya. Unfortunately, with the exception of few, many in the Somali Parliament have never asked the details and the outcomes of these foreign trips. This is what happens when the government institutions that are designed to balance the power cease to take their responsibility seriously or they are bribed/manipulated or intimidated.
Former Prime Minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble; Photo Credit: https://x.com/MohamedHRoble
Mr. Prime Minister, these foreign trips and what came afterwards were some of the hidden agenda that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has formulated in his mind as he is now running the country without any other effective institutions. As it is clear for anyone who cares about our country’s governance and institution building, Mr. Prime Minister, Somalia is now not governed by laws and institutions; it is governed by the wishes and the dreams of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Mr. Prime Minister, I am very sure that no one knows better than you about this condition, and you are the one who has the opportunity to balance the power grab that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been doing since 2022. There are four elements that come around the oath that you had in June 25, 2022 when you took office. The first element of your oath was the country. In this case, you are responsible for the country’s unity and well-being. The second element of your oath was to protect the people. Today, many people in the capital and in the peripheries don’t have the government protection. On the contrary, the people are wronged by the very government that was supposed to protect them. The people of Mogadishu are wronged by their own government as their homes were destroyed without any alternatives to relocate them somewhere else. The people of the Southwest region of Somalia now consider the federal government as “their own enemy.” Mr. Prime Minister, when people feel that they are wronged by their own government, you cannot remain as a spectator unless you are intentionally violating the oath that you have taken. By fulfilling your oath, it is your responsibility to be the defender of the people. The third element of your oath was that you protect the religion. The preservation of religion, in this case, generally involves what the religious scholars refer to as the purpose of the Shari’ah, which includes the preservation of the people’s properties/wealth, the preservation of the intellect, the preservation of life and the preservation of lineage/family. The fourth element in your oath was to protect and uphold the constitution of the country as well as all other laws of the land. Mr. Prime Minister, as of now, this is where you are badly needed, and the sooner you act, the better for our country and our people. What you are responsible to uphold and protect is the very constitution that you were sworn in in June 25, 2022, not the “constitution” that former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamed has invented to get away with his abuse of power.
Mr. Prime Minister, let me remind you two more important principles that our Third Republic was built in the Arta Peace Conference in Djibouti in 2000. The first principle is the model of our governance system, which is a parliamentarian system. The very reason of the model of governance was to establish branches of government that can balance each other. In this case, if you may not know, your office is very powerful as it was not meant to be a rubber stamp for the office of the presidency. The only collaboration between the office of the prime minister and the office of the president is when the constitution is upheld and the laws of the land are protected. In the last four years, under your watch, Mr. Prime Minister, this did not happen. However, it is not too late to change the course, and changing the course requires courage, which is all about leadership.
Mr. Prime Minister, the second principle that was officially implemented (even though it came before the Arta Conference) is the system of 4.5, which was meant as a mechanism for power sharing formula and as a temporary cure from the grievances that the civil war has created. Of course, no one likes this system as it is not the efficient way to govern ourselves, but the reality is that as of today, Somali people have not genuinely reconciled from the wrongs that they have done to each other during the civil war. Mr. Prime Minister, what is happening today in Baydhaba and other regions of the country are mostly due to political and social grievances that are still not resolved. This is also a reason that your own constituencies in Puntland and Jubaland are not in agreement with the way that former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is micro-managing the country. As many observers believe, leaders from Jubaland and Puntland have legitimate arguments for cutting their relationship with the federal government, and the argument is mainly about a constitutional issue. Mr. Prime Minister, even though it is not my intention to push you to defend your constituencies when they are wrong, the fact is that the office that you are in is exclusively meant to balance the power of our political and governance system. This balancing of power mechanism is good for everyone for the continuation of our governance system as we need to avoid the consolidation of power in one hand as the signs that we are in now are going into that direction.
Mr. Prime Minister, this open letter is meant as an attempt to change the course that we are in as former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud seems to be hard-headed as he is incapable to listen the voices of reason. There are three options that are in front of you, and it is up to your conscious to take them as I believe they will save this country from the power grab mentality of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. First, establish a closed-doors communication with Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with the objective of going back to the very constitution that you and him were sworn in in 2022. Second, if your efforts of closed-doors communication with Hassan Sheikh Mohamud fail (most likely, it will fail) to succeed, use your office as your power base and address the public about the political impasse that the country is in as you underscore that the root cause of this problem is Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Third, initiate fresh and honest negotiations with the opposition groups including Jubaland and Puntland leaders as you personally play a leadership role for achieving a political consensus on how to prepare the country for free and fair elections. Throughout this process, you will remain in your office as a caretaker prime minister as your only task is to prepare the country for elections.
Mr. Prime Minister, by taking the three options above, you will save the country from the power abuse of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. It is my hope that you will receive this open letter with open eyes. Somali people cannot afford to continue with never-ending chaos and political uncertainty.
