“Either we have it, or no one does🇺🇳”, is the position of East African leaders on Veto power and permanent seats for African countries. Yes, you can argue that being “offered” seats at the table without an actual voice is just ceremonial, a bigger question is, why does the Veto(the ability to completely stop any one action decided on my the council) even exist? The guys from Malaysia argue that it should be abolished.

Ganging up on Ethiopia? - The leaders of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea met up in the Eritrean capital Asmara to discuss deeper cooperation. Some see it as an attempt to increase pressure on Addis Ababa, in light of recent tension, But the Somali foreign minister was quick to deny that.

Uri🕵🏾

Bro. I’ve noticed among my contacts that more people are going to Ethiopian weddings and restaurants lately. It’s nice that people are getting exposed to more cultures of the people around us. One of my boys told me he was at an African food festival in Kampala, and Somalia took the prize for best food.

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

It's dope to see curiosity growing around in the Horn of Africa. I’m thinking it will only increase. I came across this story by NTV done a couple of years ago, profiling the Eritrean community in Kampala, and it had more than 300k views!

Uri🕵🏾

On one of my favorite podcasts, there was a discussion about whether you would still patronize a business if you knew that it was Somali. Apparently they own a lot of Bandali Rise

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

I had no idea! The club scene is not really my thing but yeah, in business, those guys aren’t sleeping.

Uri🕵🏾

Here in Nairobi, particularly Eastleigh - it's on a whole other level. The best figure I could find on the value of Somali investments in Kenya was around $1.4Billion. And this was in 2004! I wonder what that figure looks like now.

Uri🕵🏾

Kenyans and Ugandans definitely feel threatened by their entrepreneurial prowess, though. I know the community is close-knit and keep to themselves, that ends up rubbing Ugandans and Kenyans the wrong way.

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

And, with Uganda and Kenya both being victims of Al-Shabaab linked terror attacks, people tend to perceive Somalis as terrorists with ties to illegal money and are not to be trusted. In fact, the media has played a big part in ensuring that when people think about Somalia today, the first images that come to their minds are war, suicide bombers. FEAR. Despair. No go zone. No wonder there exist significant skepticisms about Somalia joining the EAC

Uri🕵🏾

But I think there's a massive need for new thinking in how everyone, including East African countries like Uganda and Kenya, is approaching safety there. It's been the same thing again and again for years - set up a military peacekeeping force with soldiers from several countries to go in and “establish peace and security. Don’t get me wrong; there’s been some progress, but it is very slow - with delay after delay

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

My guy, You can’t disregard how hard it is to establish a stable functioning state though. For context, a very long civil war that began in 1991, with several clans among the Somalis fighting amongst themselves to gain control of the country, is how we got here in the first place.The situation is complex and there are sooooo many factors that can lead to the mission being constantly delayed. For now I think it would be relevant to focus on two factors; Money + Influence for the players involved, and the fact that Somali states and its federal government don’t really see eye to eye.

Uri🕵🏾

Aaah interesting. I have always wondered how much money Uganda is making out of those deployments.

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

There has been an African Union - Led peacekeeping force in Somalia since 2007 called AMISOM - short for African Union Mission in Somalia - that in 2022 was renamed ATMIS - short for African Union Transition Mission in Somalia. It’s made up of 5 countries - Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi and Djibouti that contribute troops to this force, but the biggest contributions come from Uganda and Kenya. 

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

What’s in it for these two countries? For one, MONEY. A good chunk. ATMIS, through funding partners like the EU and the UN, pays troops salaries and other fees intended for deployment, as well as reimbursement to the participating governments for military equipment. Since 2007, the EU has given AMISOM at least €5 Billion! Most of that money has been going to paying troops allowances; each soldier is entitled to $1080 per month, but $200 is withheld by their respective governments as an administrative fee. That’s A LOT of money, and I bet no one is in a hurry to see that flow stop. 

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

ATMIS is supposed to pull out of Somalia at the end of this year, but a replacement for it is already cooking, with Egypt and Djibouti as contributing countries.

Uri🕵🏾

Funny how the soldiers aren’t even being paid that money. Uganda’s troops are going several months without pay. The government says there is a delay from the EU, but the EU says they have disbursed all funds without fail, and that the problem is “elsewhere.” 👀

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

🤦🏾‍♂️ Then there’s the aspect of influence. Kenya particularly has been riding high on the clout that has come with them getting involved with peacekeeping in Somalia. The media loves to prop them up as “East Africa’s big Brother” with their subsequent involvement in Congo and Sudan, and even internationally. In 2021 they were voted as a non permanent member to the UN security council, plus, as we’ve covered in a previous issue, very cozy with the US. Uganda on the other hand has emerged at the center of IGAD(which we also explored further here) influences, not to mention the amount of foreign aid and military experience it has leveraged out of its involvement with AMISOM and now ATMIS.

Uri🕵🏾

What about this other point you mentioned about a misunderstanding between the federal government and the Somali states?

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

So, Somalia is a federal government. The status suits it well, given that it's made up of various clans that all look out for their own interest. Having semi-autonomous states allows for smoother collaboration without compromising any one community’s interest. Well. In theory.🥴

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

The reality is that the Somali state is in many ways almost an imaginary concept. The 6 states disagree with the central authority on how power is shared, how revenue and resources are shared, and even security; - how to tackle Alshabaab. In fact, the reason that Alshabaab persists is because of these gaps in governance, and the holes they can fill in providing communities with security. They tend to exploit this privilege though, and extort the people with high taxes and violence to enforce it.

So the reality on the ground is one of who can keep me safe, and not entirely revolving around “scary islamist ideology” as the west likes to say.

Malcolm👨🏽‍⚖️

Crazy thing is when you think about it, Al-Shabaab is not the only one taking advantage of the chaos. Egypt has taken advantage of the security situation coupled with the bad blood between Somalia and Ethiopia, to get an invite for its troops to Somalia which borders Ethiopia.