The Amino-Weris Case

EDITORIAL

It is quite obvious that the Somaliland government has covertly and overtly sought to stop Amino-Weris, a Somaliland citizen, from being employed as team leader for Care International’s office in Hargeysa. The government has been caught red handed while trying to block Amino-Weris’s recruitment. The subject has been amply covered by both this newspaper and its sister publication “Haatuf”, a Somali language daily, as well as other sectors of the Somaliland media.

Haatuf first broke the story of the government’s interference with the recruitment of Amino-Weris in its March 7, 2006 edition. Mr. Tim Muia, a Kenyan whom Amino-Weris was supposed to replace, confirmed to Haatuf on March 6, 2006 that he was contacted by the minister of Planning, Ahmed H. Dahir, with regard to Amino-Weris’s employment.

According to Mr. Muia, the minister advised Care against going ahead with the recruitment of the lady due to “her anti-Somaliland government stance”. Care tried to allay the government’s fears first by informing the minister of Foreign Affairs, Edna Adan, of their intention to offer a job to Amino-Weris and secondly by reassuring the minister of Health and Labour in writing that the appointee wouldn’t use her position for politically motivated ends. Though Ms Edna Adan praised the appointment of Amino-Weris to the post of team leader, however Care withdrew the offer due to “internal issues in Hargeysa office”.

Care seemed to have understood well that despite the Foreign minister’s endorsement of the deal, the only way to ascertain if the government had actually dropped its reservations or not, was to find out the position taken by minister Ahmed H. Dahir, one of president Rayale’s closest confidants. As it turned out, the Planning minister was still opposed to Amino-Weris’s appointment.

Neither Care nor the Somaliland government came out publicly to respond to press reports that the two conspired to deny Amino-Weris the job she had originally been given on merit. But the public outcry that this issue has triggered is not expected to die down anytime soon.

Amino-Weris has a case. Care withdrew its offer under government coercion. And the government, particularly president Rayale and his crony, the Planning minister, didn’t want Amino-Weris, a woman known for her integrity at both the personal and professional levels, to get the job simply because she was the wife of Ahmed Sillanyo, the leader of the KULMIYE opposition party.

If Mr. Rayale wasn’t involved why he didn’t act to rectify his government’s wrongdoing immediately after the first press reports on the story started to emerge back in early March?

The president was even given two opportunities for face saving first by the elders of the Guurti (upper house) and then by the leaders of the lower house. However instead of capitalizing on at least one of these two instances, Mr. Rayale chose to miss both of them. Now he risks a direct confrontation with both houses of Parliament and the public not only over the Amino-Weris drama, but also the gross incompetence and widespread corruption in government that has so far been associated with him as a leader.

Source: Somaliland Times

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