Hiiraan Online
Friday August 23, 2019
NAIROBI (HOL) - Kenya has hailed the election of Ahmed Madobe as president of Jubbaland terming it ‘peaceful and credible’ even as the Federal Government in Mogadishu rubbished the outcome.
In a statement to newsrooms, the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry also assured the Jubbaland administration of its support ‘for sustainable peace and stability’.
“Kenya shares with the great people of Jubbaland the joy of peaceful electoral process, a demonstration of a strong and unwavering will of the people to determine their governance and guarantee their security and political stability even in the face of extreme pressure,” the statement read in part.
The Kenyan government also praised the Jubbaland parliament, elders and civil society ‘for demonstrating that peaceful and credible elections can indeed be held in Somalia’.
The Nairobi statement comes barely hours after Mogadishu once again expressed displeasure over the process noting it would not recognize it.
The Interior Ministry last evening reiterated its earlier position that it would not recognize the outcome of the elections including that of the parallel parliament noting it went against the Federal rules and procedures. It earlier declared the election of the new parliament ‘null and void’.
Kenya which had thrown its weight behind Ahmed Madobe in the build up to the elections last week castigated the UN envoy in Somalia James Swan for ‘making demands and imposing them as conditions for the presidential elections to take place’.
At the regional front, Kenya’s endorsement of Madobe’s elections is a slap in the face on Ethiopia which had put its bet on the FGS backed candidates and even unsuccessfully attempted to send some of its troops to Kismayu.
The military plane carrying the Ethiopia forces was blocked from landing in Kismayu airport by a combined force of Kenyan and Jubbaland State troops.
The aftermath of the elections leaves behind a widened rift between Nairobi on the one side and Mogadishu-Addis Ababa on the other even as the region awaits the verdict of the International Court of Justice slated for a start next month.