Number of MPs with dual citizenship falls from 198 t0 105 with British Somalis remaining the majority in parliament
British Somali Mps have the highest number of lawmakers in the Somali Parliament with 29 Mps followed by Somali Americans at 22 and Kenyan Somalis at 10, a report by Wakiil.org has indicated.
The number of SomaliMps with dual citizenship in the 10th Parliament is put at 105 indicating that the number had considerably dropped by 93 . The 9th Parliament had a total of 198 Mps with dual nationalities.
Somali Canadians follow Kenyan Somalis at 9 ,Ethiopia 7 , Dutch 6, Norwegian 5, Djiboutian 5, Australian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian and Swiss each having 1 Mp.
Somalis have expressed mixed reaction to the report with some concerned over possibility of foreign countries pushing their agenda through the Mps.
“Which of the passports will they serve? Possibly the more powerful one. No wonder all these Mps don’t serve beyond self interest” Abdi Abdo commented on Facebook.
“Politically they are all just Somali. The other passports are to facilitates passage. Since they do not participate in the politics of their adopted second countries I see no way they will while within the Somali political system pursue any agenda that is not primarily Somali” Abdulrahman Wandati argued.
Although the number of Somali Britins dropped from 54 to 29 analysts say they have a quorum to sway important motions in the parliament.
Western countries have shown a keen interest on Somalia as evidenced in the ongoing elections. Most important has been monitoring how their citizens have been participating in the elections which was widely reported to have been marred by alleged corruption.
UK and US issued a warning that it would prosecute any of its citizens involved in election fraud.
Analysts however say majority of the Mps if investigated by their adopted countries may be prosecuted for several other offences including knowingly giving incorrect information to attain the foreign citizenship they now enjoy.
“Its in public domain that Somalis from majority clans had seek asylum in the West pretending to be members of minority clans like the BanaadirBajun or Bantu . I am seeing some of these Mps prosecuted if their second countries investigate the truth but in most cases the host countries doesn’t follow these cases. It is beyond just election corruption” Mohamed Abdow a Mogadishu based political commentator told Radio Dalsan.
They have also been cases of holders of foreign passport avoiding to be monitored by their adopted countries when going back to Somalia.
“I know of cases where some avoid to have their new passports stamped while in Somalia. Some of them had indicated in their asylum seeking records that it was too dangerous to return to Somalia but they still manage to sneak in and out of Somalia regularly. Many are living a lie” Adow added.
The same case applies in the acquisition of passports in Ethiopia Kenya and Djibouti. Despite stringent citizenship policies in these countries Somali nationals through alleged bribery , kin or friendship links have been able to acquire passports from the country through short cuts.