The Kenyan invasion of Somalia has exposed the pitiful nature of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG). A normal government would have announced a position on the invasion and then taken concrete steps to implement that position or policy. As expected, the TFG did not do that. They took contradictory positions, with the prime minister first defending the Kenyan invasion, then going against it, then agreeing with it, while Sheikh Sharif made statements opposing it then kept his mouth shut. After sowing so much confusion, the heads of the TFG simply left the country. The president went to Uganda, while the prime minister and the speaker of parliament flew to Saudi Arabia. As they probably saw it, with those contradictory statements, they had fulfilled their duty and there was, for the time being, not much for them to do inside the country.
Though unintended, through their actions, the TFG officials were admitting their irrelevance, that they hardly have any impact on the course of events on the ground, so they might as well pack and leave. The people in South Somalia are dealing with the unfolding situation of the Kenyan incursion on their own, as they would have done whether the TFG officials were in their bunkers in Mogadishu guarded by AMISOM troops or whether TFG is outside the country.
The international community that funds the TFG and keeps it on life-support does not seem to mind such irresponsible behavior from TFG officials, and so the circus goes on. When the TFG officials come back to Mogadishu, they will, as usual, start issuing press releases and making various pronouncements and pretend that they are a real government. To give the devil his due, pretending is something the TFG is very good at, actually, the only thing they good are at, and so they are going to keep on pretending. In the mean time their dysfunction and irrelevance becomes more and more exposed.

















 

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