Focus on Mandera elders as 2022 aspirants jostle for political seats

As the 2022 general elections gets close, aspirants eying various political seats in Mandera have begun chasing the powerful council of elders for endorsement.

In Mandera, political decisions are made by a locally constituted council of elders, and in most cases, their candidates of choice normally triumph at the ballot.

“Elections are getting close and I want to urge our elders from different clans to come together and again form a council that will oversee and vet candidates for political seats. It will mean well if Mandera gets the best political leaders,” Ambassador Mohamed Mahat said at a ceremony on Thursday.

According to the ambassador, it is only clan elders who can give the best direction politically and ensure stability by equally and fairly distributing political positions.

The elders know who can deliver and who the failures are in the society according to the ambassador.

Return to politics

While Mr Mahat called on the elders’ to take up their role, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan — who lost to Governor Ali Roba in the 2017 elections — declared his return to politics.

“People have been talking here on what they want and asking to be re-elected in the coming elections. I was in the race and you all know what happened. I want my position too,” he said, signalling that he will be in the race for the gubernatorial seat in 2022.

Despite being fronted by the Garre Council of Elders in 2017, Mr Hassan was floored by Governor Roba, who is in his second and last term in office.

Mr Roba garnered 71,890 votes against Mr Hassan’s 62,769 votes.

He petitioned Governor Roba’s election but later withdrew the court case under unclear circumstances.

The gubernatorial seat in Mandera remains a Garre clan affair as different sub-clans battle it out.

The Garres are the majority in the county that is home to four other clans including the Degodia, Murule, the Marahan and the “corner tribes”.

Dominant clan

“Due to clan patterns in Mandera, the dominant clan will always produce the governor, the senator and the woman MP. The majority can never allow another candidate from a different clan win the highly conveted seat,” said Mr Ali Gure, a resident.

The Garre are divided into the Tuff and Quranyow sub-clans. While the Tuffs are further divided into the Ali and Adola groups, the Quranyow are divided into the Asare and Furkesha.

The clan is divided further down resulting into 20 sub-clans with each having a representative at the council of elders.

Negotiated democracy

In the infamous negotiated democracy, political seats are rotated among the sub-clans every five years.

Governor Roba, who defied the elders’ decree barring him from seeking re-election in 2017 after his first term, has since reconciled with the council.

He rallied other clans to vote him in after his own Garre clan disowned him for ‘disrespecting the elders”.

The Garre Council of Elders chaired by Mr Maalim Ali Noor during a meeting in Banisa town in 2016, adopted a resolution that no sub-clan within the community will be allowed to hold one political seat for more than one term regardless of one's performance record.

It is this resolution that has pushed many with political ambitions to hunt for elders early enough ahead of 2022 elections for endorsements.

Candidates seeking endorsement by their respective sub-clans include Senator Mohamud Maalim, Mandera County Assembly Speaker Mohamed Khalif, Mr Yusuf Mohamed Issack alias Yusuf Rafiki and Mr Feisal Abdulrahaman.

With Tuff having “eaten” their term (with Ali Roba in office) the Quranyow are looking for a candidate to present in 2022.

The two Quranyow sub-clans of the Asare and Furkesha are burning the midnight oil vetting the many candidates.

In the Asare sub-clan, the battle is between Mr Hassan Noor Hassan and Speaker Khalif while among the Furkesha, Senator Maalim has Mr Yussuf Rafiki and Mr Feisal Abdirahman to battle it out with.

Mr Issack Alio, a social and political commentator, said for the Tuff, despite not presenting a candidate since their term is over, any other person from within is free to try his luck though according to him, it will be a waste of their resources.

“Other candidates can vie but they will be seen as spoilers or will just end up wasting their resources since a decision is decided by the clan elders,” he said.

Mr Alio added, “It is too early to know who will be the next Mandera governor. A number of factors will influence and shape the contest. Political alignments at national level is one key factor. Somalis are known to be fence sitters in national matters but tend to go with national bandwagon and where state machineries are. In Mandera, judging by those who showed interest within the Gurreh tribe, it looks like a Qaranyow affair for now.”

Just like the Garre community, the other clans found in Mandera are also picking their political representatives under a similar arrangement.

In an exclusive interview with the Nation, Murule clan tradition leader Sultan Mohamed Khalif said the elders are better placed to give the best leaders to the community.

“The elders know everyone in the society and we can tell who can perform better in what position and that is why we choose our community leaders,” he said.

Garre and Murule

The good relationship between the Garre and the Murule clans has seen the latter get the deputy governor’s seat.

At a function on Thursday, Mandera Deputy Governor Mohamed Arai (Murule) said he has learnt how to work politically and he will be seeking a better position.

This indicated that he will be heading to his clan for endorsement for the governor’s position but how he will win the same against the united Garre clan remains to be seen.

The Degodia are left to fight for the Mandera North parliamentary seat and a few other ward representatives’ seats as the corner tribe only gets the ward positions.