City inspirations and elections in the air: my visit to Garowe

Since the last time (February 2021) I was in Garowe, there have been a lot of investments and the city is attracting a significant amount of Somali capital. New hotels are on the rise. Coincidently, two Somali Public Agenda (SPA) colleagues arrived at Garowe from Gaalkacyo the same day I landed. They were staying at a newly constructed hotel called Dream Point. In the evening, I would walk from Martisoor Hotel to Dream Point to catch up and have dinner with my colleagues and friends.

In the evening, I often had dinner with friends in Garowe. The city has youthful intellectuals who work in the public, nonprofit, and business sectors. However, several friends were in Garacad during my visit as they were attending the opening ceremony of the locally financed Garacad Port. One night, a friend – Farah Osman, who I first met in Bosaso in 2016 – took us to a restaurant called Higlo. Six of us had dinner together. One item on the menu was called Baxnaano. I told them that I am familiar with the Baxnaano social safety net project that the FGS Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and other organizations are currently implementing in Somalia. The friend who took us to the restaurant jokingly said to me ‘you will eat the Baxnaano project tonight’. I excitedly ordered this to test out the theory. I must say, it was a delicious and healthy mix of organic food. The restaurant must be creative in its naming of contemporary dishes.

As the capital city of Puntland, intellectuals in Garowe are often well-informed about Somalia’s politics and have strong views on certain issues. We – Somali Public Agenda & Somali Dialogue Platform – held a policy dialogue on reviving the negotiations of contentious political issues in Somalia in Garowe. When I presented the paper to policymakers and civil society actors at the PDRC hall, I was asked questions and clarifications on issues such as whether we should talk about the status of Mogadishu or the status of the capital city; why we used ‘dowlad-goboleed’ to refer the Federal Member States in the Somali version of the policy paper instead of ‘Dowladaha Xubnaha ka ah Dowladda Federaalka’; and whether the paper proposes a mixed federal election model in 2026 where elements of direct elections and elements of 4.5 are combined. These and other questions demonstrate how many people in Garowe are informed and have views on key governance questions in Somalia.

A friend invited us to a Friday lunch at the 22^nd Farm (Beerta 22-aad) on the outskirts of Garowe. The farm is 22 kilometers away from the town. Camel milk, tea, rice, and goat meat were served at a reserved seat. Many other groups had lunch events on the farm. It was my second time going for lunch to the Beerta 22-aad (I went there first in February 2021). The farm is a sort of ‘proof of concept’ for people in Garowe to show that fruits and vegetables can be produced in Puntland’s stony soils. A diverse group of people were at the dinner, and we had an engaging and interesting discussion on democratization and elections.

Starting with the national elections and what a friend at the gathering called ‘the mathematics of 4.5’, we extensively discussed why some groups/clans advocate for the direct district-based national elections and why others support the 4.5 power sharing. The discussion turned to local elections in Puntland. It was a rare conversation with rich and insightful off-the-record analysis and frank discussion.