Late Mayor of Mogadishu “Mungab”. Progress and challenges during his office tenure.
A country like Somalia where the governance is not effective, dismissal of officials is an easy as a hungry cat kills a rat. Mogadishu constitutes the capital city of Somalia. It has been experiencing intense hardships such wars, disasters and droughts, hosting much number of IDPs and fragile administrations that are replaced within short terms based on political will, bargain and interests.
General, Hassan Mohamed Hussein (Mungab) is among mayors/governors of Mogadishu. He was appointed on 27th Feb, 2014 by H.E. Hassan Shiekh Mohamud, the president of the federal Republic of Somalia as a time for huge security problems in Mogadishu. After one year and seven months dated on 25th Oct, 2015, President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud has sacked General Mungab from the office replacing with a new Mayor/Governor for Banadir region.
The political analysts describe that the Somali presidents’ elite and his group have some disputes with Mayor Mungab that finally they proposed to the president with his dismissal as they have fears and frustrations on the growing credits and performance Mr Mungab has been doing that will make him to launch political competition with the President and his alliance in 2016 Somali presidential elections.
During his term, late mayor Mr Mungab is said that he achieved an impressive performance in his administration while there are people who criticize him with stumpy work. Below are the most tangible accomplishments he made;-
* Administrative reform on all 17 districts where controlled by ex-pro war-loads in Mogadishu. This was not a simple step-forward but with painfully decided to do for a purpose of convincing new political-administrative reform and change that leads to accomplish the rest of program agenda by the mayor. He appointed new DCs characterized with education, middle working age and free from violent activities in the country.
* Uplifting skills, knowledge and administrative capacities of Mogadishu Municipal employees both regional and districts levels. There have been home-organized trainings and as well as study tour by municipality workers to abroad countries such turkey where
Mogadishu and Istanbul jointly agreed to provide trainings and skill building for the personnel of Mogadishu local government.
* He succeeded to renovate the historical city hall of Mogadishu Municipality which was destroyed during the civil deadly conflicts in Mogadishu. The renovation of the house of Mogadishu municipality has costed near two million US dollars donated by the Somali business companies and the Banadir administration. The building is expected to contribute the delivery of citizen services in Mogadishu.
* Upgrading Local community mobilization has been another strength he contributed to create an effective government security agencies relation with the local residents to jointly protect the security through sensitive information sharing by the community to the concerned agencies. Practical Neighborhood program has been launched in Mogadishu in history that has worked effectively in terms of tracking, record of civilians and cooperation with security institutions.
* Mogadishu streets sanitation and lighting have been intensively upgraded while additional streets have been installed with solar lights such 30th and Industrial Roads in Mogadishu.
* He also achieved to rebuild very essential community centers and markets in Mogadishu for promoting quality and speedy citizen services. Very core roads in Mogadishu have been renovated to facilitate public transportation.
* Properly organized property taxes have been launched in the capital Mogadishu by the municipality. Mayor Mungab has pledged that he will use the generated taxes revenues in rebuilding Mogadishu main road called “Heart Street” approximately 12KM long.
The above points have been regarded the most and year and half accomplishments Mr Mungab made during his leadership in Banadir administration. Somali’s political analysts say that the late Mogadishu mayor Mr. Mungab encountered with huge implications that hindered him from achieving certain main goals he had. Below are mentioned some of the key challenges he had during his office term.
* Unfulfilled promises by the central government such the regional police and NISA will come under his command as outlined by the country’s long existing rule of law. This
unmet vow caused that he loudly said he is not accountable for the insecurity in Mogadishu but keep working with the security agencies effectively at his best.
* Inadequate financial and political support expected by the central government to his administration to fulfill many key important community programs.
* He could not achieve a very interesting goal that was about holding local election in Mogadishu to elect local councils and Mayor through fare and democratic process by the residents of Mogadishu. Trainings and sessions to discuss the possibility of this have been made but finally, it didn’t work due to unrevealed reasons. Some people have the argument saying the there were pressure from the central executive government on stopping this process as well as the absence of funds to implement the program.
* Mayor Mungab is said to be very spirited and brave person in terms of persistence on the law and good moral. He clashed with some ineffective ministries of the central government based in Mogadishu on various issues such taxations and city planning, building and maintenance maters that legally under his jurisdiction as the lawyers argued.
The above challenges and implications are still shaping new ones a head of the new Mayor/Governor. Those who know about newly appointed Governor Point out that he is capable to overcome those hinders as he is educated and energetic. He is said that he will likely find support and moral from the central government.
No one can now predict the future political agenda of the farmer Mayor Mungab as Mogadishu residents have been rumoring he has long term vision in the political arena as he is young in age and energetic with a good recorded performance in both the Somali army tribunal and the Banadir Regional Administration.
By: Ahmed Hussein Wasuge, Somali political analyst and author
Mogadishu-Somalia E-mail: badal55@hotmail.com