By LUCAS BARASA and JAMI MAKAN, THE DAILY NATION –
NAIROBI, KENYA – Five countries have taken the Somali Transitional Federal Government leaders to task over their failure to end turmoil in the country.
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) council of ministers chairman Seyoum Mesfin, who is Ethiopia’s Woyanne Foreign Affairs minister, and his Kenyan counterpart Moses Wetang’ula, led the onslaught on the Somali leadership on Tuesday, blaming it for the instability.
Mr Wetang’ula accused some of the leaders of benefiting from the mayhem in the Horn of Africa country. The other Igad countries are Djibouti, Uganda and Sudan.
Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mesfin accused Somalia’s President, Prime Minister and National Assembly Speaker of jostling for power at the expense of Somalis, who had hoped for an end to 14 years of war following the ouster of dictator Siad Barre and the setting up of the TFG in Nairobi four years ago.
The Somali leadership was accused of failing to set up institutions of governance that could have seen the country return to its feet in accordance with the Transitional Federal Charter.
“Little has been accomplished in the last four years,” Mr Wetang’ula said of the charter that expires next September.
The TFG had been expected to develop a new constitution to take over from the charter, set boundaries of federal states and enact a Political Parties Bill in readiness for elections in 2009.
The new constitution should have been in place two-and-a-half years after the signing of the Somali peace deal.
Mr Wetang’ula urged the UN to take over the role of AU forces in Somalia as the African body did not have sufficient funds to sustain them.
He said Kenya wanted a peaceful and prosperous Somalia. “We must all realise we don’t have any more time to discuss the Somalia crisis in capital cities. Somalis have suffered for too long — 18 years,” Mr Wetang’ula said.
Mr Mesfin said the clock was ticking and that in 10 months, the institutions in Somalia will not be legal and that Ethiopian Woyanne forces will also have to be removed.
He said the international community was not proud of its record in Somalia as it had ignored the country for too long.
Igad executive secretary Mahboub Maalim said the security situation in Somalia was deteriorating and called for the strengthening of ongoing peace efforts in Djibouti. Fourteen previous attempts to bring peace to Somalia have failed.
Mr Maalim, who was addressing his first extraordinary meeting since being appointed to the post in June, promised to build the organisation to greater heights.