Author: Abdihakim Siyad

Kenya is entering another season of political turbulence, but something unusual is happening on the northern frontier. While politicians elsewhere are already crossing counties, building alliances, testing crowds and positioning themselves for the 2027 battle, North Eastern Kenya appears to be watching the national political storm from the balcony. Across the country, the temperature is rising. The Linda Mwananchi movement has been taking its message from one region to another, with figures such as Edwin Sifuna and Babu Owino becoming increasingly visible in the opposition’s mobilisation efforts. President William Ruto, meanwhile, is not merely defending his administration; he is increasingly…

Kenyan politics has rarely been a straight road from one election to the next. It is a winding political journey shaped by protests, alliances, betrayals, reconciliations, new movements and familiar faces returning in unfamiliar political formations. As the country edges closer to another electoral contest, the political class is already rearranging itself, and Kenyans are once again witnessing the early stages of a familiar cycle. In a thought-provoking script, Mandera Senator Ibrahim Ali Roba describes this journey through four distinct political seasons, offering an insider’s perspective on how Kenyan politics evolves between elections and why today’s political excitement should not…

Somalia is once again preparing to bring its national carrier back into the skies, with the Civil Aviation Authority announcing September 2026 as the latest target for the resumption of Somali Airlines flights, more than three decades after the airline was grounded following the collapse of the country’s central government. The announcement has revived hopes that Somalia could finally restore one of the most recognizable symbols of its aviation history. Civil Aviation Authority Director Ahmed Macallin said preparations for the relaunch had been completed and that Somali Airlines was expected to begin operating direct flights in September. If achieved, the…

Somalia may be moving closer to a defining moment in its long-running security transition, with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declaring that the country has reached the point where it should take full responsibility for its own security and bid farewell to foreign African troops. “The time has come for us to take charge of our own security. We should give the foreign forces a beautiful bouquet of flowers and let them go,” President Hassan Sheikh said on Sunday as he presided over the graduation of thousands of Somali National Army soldiers at Xananbuure in Galguduud region, Galmudug State. The unusually…

Four years after returning to office, Governor Ahmed Abdullahi’s administration can point to major investments in health, agriculture, water, education and social programmes but much of the county’s most visible transformation has also come through national-government projects, while Senate scrutiny over billions in liabilities continues to raise difficult questions about financial management. On August 9, 2022, Ahmed Abdullahi returned to the Wajir governorship, nearly four years after leaving office. He won with 35,533 votes on an ODM ticket, defeating his closest challenger, Hassan Mohamed Adam of Jubilee, who garnered 27,224 votes a margin of 8,309 votes. Out of 132,854 valid votes, Abdullahi’s…

As Kenya moves toward the 2027 General Election, the country’s emerging electoral arithmetic is beginning to reveal an important story: the regions with the largest voter populations are getting larger, but so are the smaller blocs that can become decisive in a closely contested presidential race. Nowhere is this tension more visible than in North Eastern, Kenya’s smallest traditional electoral region by registered voters. New voter-registration figures from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) show that North Eastern has added 97,859 voters during the latest Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) phase, taking its potential voter base from 882,677 in…

President William Ruto has launched a national dialogue on Kenya’s long-term future, calling for a new development blueprint that will look beyond Vision 2030 and position the country among the world’s wealthy and developed nations. Speaking in Nairobi during the Beyond 2030 Vision Dialogue, Ruto proposed the establishment of a technical committee to help steer the process, arguing that Kenya must now develop a long-term national plan that survives changes in government, political cycles and economic uncertainties. Ruto said the conversation had become necessary because Vision 2030 is approaching its conclusion, while the world has undergone profound changes driven by…

The future of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia is still being debated in diplomatic rooms, but on the ground, the transition of security responsibilities is already becoming visible. The latest sign came from Buurhakaba in Somalia’s Bay region, where Ethiopian forces serving under AUSSOM handed over their forward operating base to Somalia’s 60th Division after nearly 12 years of deployment. The handover, reportedly completed on August 8, marks another significant moment in Somalia’s long-running effort to move from dependence on foreign security forces toward full national ownership of its security. The timing is particularly important. The…

Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre has delivered one of his strongest messages yet to the country’s international partners, accusing elements of the international community of continuing to view Somalia through the lens of its darkest years  when the country lacked functioning national institutions and depended heavily on external actors to manage its affairs. Speaking in Mogadishu during the opening of the National Agri-Food Investment Summit, NAFIS 2026, Prime Minister Barre challenged what he described as an outdated mindset towards Somalia, arguing that the country has undergone significant political and institutional transformation and should increasingly be treated as a sovereign state…

The battle for Wajir’s gubernatorial seat in 2027 may ultimately be decided not only at the ballot box, but much earlier inside the political machinery of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). And as two increasingly confident aspirants position themselves for the ruling party’s ticket, the contest between former Wajir West MP Ahmed Kolosh Mohamed and Dr Hassan Mohamed Fuje is beginning to look less like an ordinary gubernatorial race and more like a struggle over who has the strongest political network, the deepest national connections and the ability to command the ruling party’s machinery when the nomination moment arrives. The…