Mogadishu hotel cartels are keep the profit while breading insecurity.

[galbeedi]

A government based in a hotel since the year 2000. 

 

A government by Hotel was initiated by former president C/qasim Salaad , who after the formation of the Carta government in Djibouti , decided to settle in a hotel called Ramadan in the western part of the city. Villa Somalia was occupied by a clan militia loyal to Huseen Caydiid.

 

Nin Daar ku Jiraa daruur ma arko.

 

Rather than relocate to Baidoa which was relatively secure, or negotiate with the occupiers of Villa Somalia, C/qasiim decided to take the short cut and settled among warlords, clan militia and criminals. When he returns from travelling aboard, he used to land Ballidoogle military air strip, negotiates with the warlords manning the check points between Afgooye and the capital. and disappear to the hotel. Thus , the idea of a big landlord hosting a national government while bullets fly around had started and continues as we speak.

 

Cartels, in the sense of the word,  could have many different definitions in term of its operations and purpose, but the most fitting definition is an enterprise designed to limit competition and control prices. If unchecked they could become an organised criminal oligarch who will do anything including murder to keep their profits. Most people are familiar with the drug cartels of Latin America who would kill tens of thousands a year to control their drug turfs. These South American cartels elect presidents, assassinate both presidents and candidates to keep their profits. 

 

Some of you might be wondering how the Mogadishu hotels could probably have any thing in common with the criminal cartels.

 

First of all , they fit well on the issue of limiting competition and keeping the demand for lodging to keep the profit flowing. Their business model is very simple: an unstable national capital means billions of profits for the hotel cartel. To reveal their deep infiltration's of daily life, security, and the negative impacts on government institutions, needs more resources, but I would try to articulate the little on the surface information I collected from some public servants who reside in these hotels and how the money flows through banks in Nairobi and Mogadishu.

 

One former employee of the federal government told me how things operate on the part of the public servants employed by the foreign nations and the NGO's. There are hundreds of consultants, clerks, managers, and program directors employed by the federal government who are paid through foreign governments to build capacity and improve public institutions within government agencies. They work in major government Ministries including : the interior , foreign, health care, education, central bank, and the offices of the prime minister and his ministers. He said their hotel accommodations are minimum one hundred dollars per night.  He said, he wanted to get less than half of the nightly hotel bill and find his own accommodations within the city, but the NGO refused saying that it's their policy to keep their people in secure hotels. He said during the government of Hassan Ali Khayre, the Norwegian paid consultants working at the prime minister's office are escorted in the morning to the prime minister's office . Just like any other contractors who must perform a task and then disappear, the security guards open the office for them in the morning and close in the afternoon when they finish their work. He said we all reside in the same hotel. 

 

Now, let us examine how a simple lodging business became an organised cartel for profit.

 

Usually, the contract to host these workers is signed between the NGO representing a foreign government and the prime minister or in in many cases the government minister where these employees provide service like the foreign Ministry, education and so forth. Each major hotel gets close to a hundred people. Furthermore, major hotels also get a few dozen of the members of the parliament and a big chunk of the 70 members of the cabinet and their assistants. If you got a 100 people in your hotel charging $100/night, you take a cool $10,000 dollars a night. Do the maths yourself.

 

100 x 100= $10,000 per night.

10,000 x 30 days = $300,000 a month.

300,000 x 12 months = $ 3,600,000 a year.

 

That is from the foreign NGO only. Supplement that to other activities like charging $4 dollars for a cup of juice.  If you ask me that is a money printing business. Furthermore, like old colonial garrisons these hotels and those who connected have no direct relations with the residents of the city. It reminds me of how uptown Djibouti was years ago where associates of the French lived while the natives were secluded in dusty part of the town. Now, let us look how this huge profit would eventually transform itself from a business profit to a criminal cartel. 

 

To keep the contract and the profit flowing , the hotel cartel usually deploys all kind of schemes including bribes and even other evil things. For starters, the prime minister should be paid handsomely, and any obstacle must be removed. My source told many even went further and deployed their own men in the prime minister's cabinet like former national security minister Abuker Islaw who was representing one of the hotels owned by C/qadir Cosoble clan.  He said every major hotel has someone in the cabinet to protect their interest. Imagine, the security minister of a nation trying to stop bombings and other mischief is none other than a former hotel receptionist deployed to protect the interest of his boss.. 

 

 The biggest threat for a hotel cartel is an unexpected change of government or cabinet shuffle.  With the change of the prime minister, millions of profits could change hands. Sometimes through change of government or shuffle in the cabinet, they might lose the contract to another hotel. So, to get back the contract and teach a lesson to the other hotel cartel that tried to steal,  they deploy contract killers or worse even Al-Shabaab. My sources told me that most of the hotel bombings in Mogadishu are related to these contracts and relentless pursuit to keep the NGO money. Most of the contracts are signed in Nairobi and the money is deposited in banks every three months.

 

Also, most of these hotels pay their monthly taxes to Al-shabaab to keep their hotel with the good grace of the Al-shabaab killers. It is a deadly . When a hotel is bombed due to contract dispute or not paying Al-shabaab, it is quickly built and lesson learned. We talk about billions lost in Mogadishu through corruption, yet no one can deny the the central role hotels play in this program. While the UN and other agencies spend money of humanitarian and security issues, by far the largest NGO money goes to hotel cartels and the middlemen who arrange these deals. Hotel cartels also own their own security agencies to escort guests , and some of them sign separate contracts in Nairobi for the NGO's. An NGO might sign half million dollars security contract,  and the executor of the NGO might get a kick back of $200 in return. No wonder everyone is building a hotel in Mogadishu.

 

The central foundation of the profit is insecurity. In other words , peace is a threat to profit. In some countries it is the drug business, in others it is the war on terror, while business oligarchs operate in Russia and many places. In Somalia, we have the business oligarchs, hotel cartels and war on terror, a deadly combination. Going to town and renting an apartment is the most dangerous move one could make in Mogadishu. Anyone involved in any government business must stay away from normal homes and live in a hotel. To keep the profit both Al-shabaab and hotel cartels might have the same interest--keep the fear.

 

The only way to break this monopoly is to move the capital from Mogadishu. If that isn't possible politically, then move major government Ministries to safer places. The parliament could relocate to Garoowe, so does the education, healthcare, and other agencies that need a secure office and desk.

It has been twenty years since Carta and nothing changed . While the big man is residing Villa Somalia, everyone else is in a hotel.

 

 

[AbdillahiSamatar]

From your article I would have to conclude that Somalis are not Muslims and do not fear Allah. All their "piety" is for show and means nothing. So much chaos and destruction thrown onto the nation and these criminals open hotels while the masses weep for safe and peaceful country? Where is the shame? Where is the conscience? Yaab!

[galbeedi]

Unbeknown to most of us,  except very few  God fearing people,  most business oligarchs in Somalia are people who have blood in their hands or earned their wealth through illegal means. We are a nation that fears Allah others we wouldn't be even able to exist when you consider the kind of evil that has been exposed to our people.

No nation could endure what the Somali people had went through. It is our faith in Allah that sustained us for this long or we would have disappeared like many others.

 

 

[AbdillahiSamatar]

2 minutes ago, galbeedi said:

Unbeknown to most of us,  except very few  God fearing people,  most business oligarchs in Somalia are people who have blood in their hands or earned their wealth through illegal means. We are a nation that fears Allah others we wouldn't be even able to exist when you consider the kind of evil that has been exposed to our people.

No nation could endure what the Somali people had went through. It is our faith in Allah that sustained us for this long or we would have disappeared like many others.

 

 

I did not mean the innocent people that are victim of the criminal class. I mean the people that put up with the evil criminals because they are from the same clan. This is what destroyed Somalia totally. No ethnical standards to adhere too. 

[galbeedi]

2 minutes ago, AbdillahiSamatar said:

mean the people that put up with the evil criminals because they are from the same clan.

Somali clans are dump like a door knob. Last week 18 killers of Al-shabaab were shot dead by Puntland security after they were found guilty of many murders. When you enquire and ask how one person could kill 15 people for many years without being detected?  while incompetence is a major factor, the police and the locals thought that  a young man born and raised in Gaalkacayo wouldn't be killing his own kin for few hundred dollars. They were probably looking someone from Bay region or other places.

And the town of Mogadishu today is where all evil doers gather. Yet, the biggest difference in Mogadishu  today is people are known to shelter killers and Al-shabaab within their neighbourhood despite the deadly consequences. Al-shabaab could only thrive where locals are sympathisers of the movement.

 

[Arafaat]

Its called a ‘war economy’, and it’s far bigger then the Hospitality sector alone, think of the security sector, airlines, banks, telecommunication, energy, etc. They all charge extortive prices profiting from the lawlessness, and insecurity, which prevents Somalia from the transitional to a peace economy.  

 

[maakhiri1]

I have a friend whose family is from Mogadishu,  he has built and bought properties there, the other day he came to me and said , he has planned and wanted to take his kids to Mogadishu,  so they can learn dhaqanka but he has been troubled and his conscience is telling it is not right.

I asked him ,why? he says, his district is one of the  safest, with schools, mosques, shops, everything safe, and I asked what is the problem then. He says, everyone, including his family, in-laws, whole neighbourhoods pay,monthly rates ,tax to shabaab,  about $20 per house, and it is normal like electricity bills 

He says , he does not want to do anything with evil murdering group.

So you should add,  another BIG REVENUE,  is property TAX levied by shabaab from normal people, and how they accept and approve.