News Analysis: Power struggle mars Somali gov't formation

The power struggles which have characterized the formation of a new cabinet in Somalia in the past month has entrenched deep political suspicions.

This has dragged the country into another political circus at the expense of development and restoration of peace.

Such has been the intrigues bedeviling the nomination process despite the international community's calling on the president, the prime minister and parliament to expedite the process of formation of an inclusive cabinet.

A joint statement by the United Nations and regional blocs like the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and European Union last week said further delays "would jeopardize the progress Somalia has made towards building peace and security, and critically, the country's efforts in holding general elections in 2016."

But the political machinations in naming a new cabinet has, this time around, been riddled with push and pull from the president's side, the prime minister and the parliament.

When parliament rejected the previous list of council of ministers presented by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, Sharmarke took another 10 days to redraw his list, coming back with a 20-member cabinet devoid of deputies.

With this, parliament heaped more pressure demanding that the prime minister table a full cabinet and it is here that the story took a different turn.

Ali Haji Hirsi, a political analyst says the decision to drop the four former ministers, christened the president's men, who had been at the center of contention by parliament, was a ploy by the president to silence his critics, but still maintain them in an almost official capacity in the background.

"The recently nominated cabinet pays allegiance to the four men and the president. The deal was that they first had to declare their acknowledgment of the president's men so that their names would survive the onslaught in parliament," Hirsi told Xinhua on Tuesday.

In his latest cabinet list yet to be approved by parliament, Sharmarke picked 20 ministers outside parliament, most of them technocrats, academics and civil society leaders, a scenario which has left parliament once again at odds with the prime minister whom they accuse of neglect.

The Somali constitution gives the prime minister the leeway to choose from within and without parliament.

Former lawmaker, Muse Ali Ilmi, observes that the biggest problem Somalia faces is that of a greedy parliament.

"Every Member of Parliament is jostling for a position in the cabinet, putting the prime minister in a difficult position. If they do not find their names in the list, then they start the no confidence vote against the prime minister," said Ilmi.

Mohamed Omar Dalha, another lawmaker, however, shares a different opinion, saying that not all lawmakers are focused on getting ministerial positions.

"My call to parliament is to give the prime minister an ample time to nominate his cabinet and move the country forward. We need peace in this country and not worrying every day in fear of Al- Shabaab," Dalha said.

The militant group Al-Shabaab has waged war in Somalia for many years, advancing its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, sharia, but have been decimated by the joint African Union force AMISOM and the Somalia National Army, though they have been launching attacks on government and UN installations.

Parliament has once again sent the prime minister back to name deputies since there was fear if parliament endorses ministers without deputies, the president's men may still find way back as deputy ministers. Endi