Milking the Somali government: the politics of the status quo

[Deeq A.]

A depressingly familiar cycle has become set in Somali politics. Indirect electoral processes take place every four to five years. New faces come to power. Former officeholders join the opposition and fight for a return to government. Citizens have high expectations at the beginning of every new administration, but these soon evaporate once new rulers settle into their offices. “Citizens’’ realize that nothing has changed in their lives other than one set of kleptocratic politicians has traded positions with another. In the meantime, the next electoral cycle begins and people are yearning once more for transformational – rather than transactional – leadership. The incoming administration more often than not fails to reform Somalia’s crippling government and continues the same practices of its predecessors. This process is what political scientists describe as state capture.

Source: Hiiraan Online