At least 60% of newly elected MPs in Hirshabelle state are illiterate, an official at the Office of the President in the state told Radio Dalsan.
“Some 60% of the MPs that were elected cannot read or right” Ali Galad said.
The high number of illiterate MPs is attributed to the limited time there was to elect MPs in Somalia’s newest state.
“There were only three days to elect all the MPs. Most of the elected MPs are either soldiers and drivers or people who have not stepped in a school” Galad told Radio Dalsan in the Friday debate programme.
Hirshabelle may be having the highest number of illiterate MPs in the next Somalia parliament.
Galad blames the current situation to a negative attitude that the President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh and Interior Minister Abdirahman Hussein Odawa had towards the new state.
Hirshabelle which brought together Hiraan and Lower Shabelle regions is the newest state in Somalia with its headquarters in Jowhar.
