Africa: Somalia - a Government With One Foot Out the Door

What the report says

Somalia’s government is facing renewed scrutiny after Kenyan immigration officials recently stopped two senior Somali officials at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport over questions tied to their travel documents. One, Second Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji, was reportedly deported to Mogadishu on June 24, 2026; another, State Minister at the Presidency Abshir Bukhaari, was denied entry on July 26. Somalia’s Foreign Ministry later summoned Kenya’s ambassador for consultations, while Somali authorities have not publicly confirmed the reasons for either incident.

The article, published by African Arguments and republished by AllAfrica, uses those events to argue that the passport issue reflects a broader governance problem. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had ordered cabinet ministers in July to surrender foreign passports or resign, and Jibril later became the first senior official to publicly comply. The piece says the policy is affecting part of the cabinet, but not the larger network of advisers, technical staff and lawmakers who reportedly still hold foreign citizenship and often work from airport-area hotels rather than government offices in Mogadishu.

The report places Somalia’s passport politics in a longer pattern of weak state administration, absentee officials and overlapping loyalties. It cites figures from parliamentary accountability groups and past investigations to show that dual citizenship has been common among top officials for years, including in parliament, the Senate and successive prime ministers. The argument is that foreign passports have become both a symbol and a tool of political life in Somalia, offering an exit option that can weaken accountability and public trust.