Somalia’s president dodges impeachment move

MOGADISHU: A bid to impeach Somalia’s president for alleged abuse of office was ruled "invalid" on Tuesday after the parliamentary clerk said over a dozen MPs had denied signing the motion.

"We have received written statements from 14 lawmakers who claim their names have been used wrongly in the list of signatories of the motion against the president," parliamentary clerk Abdikarim Haji Abdi Buh said in a statement.

"These legislators are not withdrawing from the impeachment motion, but are confirming that they have totally never signed the document," he added. The removal of the signatories leaves only 78 out of 275 legislators supporting the impeachment of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, which falls short of the legal requirements rendering the motion "invalid", according to Buh.

The impeachment document had accused the president, commonly known as Farmajo, of violating the constitution "by engaging (in a) secret memorandum of understanding with foreign countries." It specified control over Somalia’s ports "and uniting the country with Ethiopia and Eritrea", two old enemies.

The motion was filed after Farmajo met Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki for talks on cementing economic ties between their once-rival nations, and accepted by parliament’s speaker on Sunday. The tri-nation diplomatic breakthrough was made possibly by a rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, engineered by Abiy.