Hassan Ali Khaire

Hassan Ali Khaire Xasan Cali Khayre حسن علي خيري
Official portrait, 2020
Prime Minister of Somalia
In office 1 March 2017 – 26 July 2020
President	Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed
Preceded by	Omar Sharmarke
Succeeded by	Mahdi Mohammed Gulaid (acting)
Personal details
Born	Hassan Ali Khaire April 15,^[citation needed] 1967 age 57 [1] Ceelbuur, Galguduud, Somali Republic^[citation needed]
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	University of Oslo Heriot-Watt University

Hassan Ali Khaire (or alternatively transliterated as Hassan Ali Khayre,^[2] Somali: Xasan Cali Khayre, Arabic: حسن علي خيري; born April 15,^{[citation needed]} 1967^[1]), in Ceelbuur Galguduud popularly known as Hassan Khaire,^[3] is a senior politician and is the former prime minister of Somalia. He was appointed on 23 February 2017 by Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmaajo"^[4] and resigned on Saturday July 25, 2020 after MPs passed a disputed vote of no confidence.^[5]

Khaire is a former oil executive. He has been a regional director of the Norwegian Refugee Council charity and served as the director of the British oil company Soma Oil and Gas.^[6][7]

Background

Early life and education

Hassan Ali Khaire was born in the central Somalia town of ,El Buur^[8] he spent his early time in Mogadishu.^[9][10]He graduated from primary and secondary school in Mogadishu.^[11]At the onset of the civil war, Khaire moved as a refugee to Norway in 1991,^[12] where he enrolled at the University of Oslo in 1994.^[11]

Khaire is a dual citizen of Norway and Somalia.^[13]

After graduating in 1998 with a degree in political science and minor in sociology, Khaire went on to complete his MBA at Edinburgh Business School, the graduate school of business of Heriot-Watt University, in 2001.^[14][9]

Personal life-on 22 January 2001 Hassan Ali Khaire married to his long time friend in Osol Norway she hailed from Marehan clan,together they have 5 children He is known as a protective father and keeps his children away from the media. He stated that he wants to "give them a normal childhood. Khaire was initially a religious, practising who regularly visited a religious places cross the country.

Career

Early career

After graduation, he moved back to Oslo where he began working with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in 2002^[10] at their headquarters as a coordinator for their readiness forces.^[15]

Khaire briefly left the NGO for a few years to pursue business endeavors but in 2006 he returned to the NRC as an area manager.^[15] He remained at the NRC for another nine years as he worked his way up to County Director and eventually the Regional Director for the Horn of Africa.^[15]

Soma Oil & Gas

Khaire joined Soma Oil & Gas as an executive director for Africa; he started in the company at the time of its inception (2013), according to the company's website.^[16]

In February 2016, a leaked memo, sent by a United Nations watchdog to diplomats in the United Kingdom and Norway, revealed that the executive director for Africa at Soma Oil and Gas was under investigation by the United Nations Monitoring group for Somalia and Eritrea for possible ties to extremist groups in East Africa, including al-Shabaab, which had claimed responsibility for a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Somalia.^[17] The UN letter, dated 17 February 2016, showed investigators raised concerns over Khaire's possible links to extremist groups after obtaining his "electronic contact list", which it analysed with the cooperation of an unidentified UN member state. They all maintained their innocence from the beginning and were eventually cleared by their accusers after rigorous scrutiny. The UN Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) said that it "has not found credible evidence of such links and that, in the absence of any new information received by the SEMG clearly demonstrating such links, we now consider this line of inquiry to have reached a conclusion."^[18]

Soma has also been under investigation for corruption, but the investigation was dropped because of lack of evidence, although the investigators maintained that there were still reasons for suspicions.^[19][20]

On 23 February 2017, Soma Oil & Gas announced on their website the resignation of Khaire as the executive director for Africa.^[16]

Prime minister

On 23 February 2017, President Mohamed announced on Twitter the appointment of Khaire as the new prime minister of Somalia.^[21] Prior to his appointment, Khaire had never held public office, although over the course of his career he has worked with a range of high-level executives and government officials in various capacities.

In a session held on 1 March 2017, Members of Parliament overwhelmingly approved Khaire's appointment as prime minister, 231 of the MPs endorsed the selection.^[22] On 21 March 2017, Khaire thanked lawmakers for their overwhelming support and submitted his nomination for the Cabinet Ministers Somalia, on 29 March 2017 it was approved by parliament.^[23]

He also vowed to tackle corruption by prosecuting individuals involved, regardless of their position, and chaired his first official Cabinet meeting, he reminded the gathered Ministers of his and their duties as statesmen, noting that the administration's focus should be on strengthening the security sector, accelerating institutional reform. Some regional governments, however, have accused Mr. Khaire for disregarding the Federal constitution.^[23]

Resignation

On 25 July 2020, the Speaker of the House of the People of the Federal Parliament, Mohamed Mursal, announced in a press statement that 170 MPs had withdrawn confidence in Khaire's government, accusing the Prime Minister of failing to deliver promises including improving the national security and implementing a timely one person, one vote election.^[24][25] Members of the cabinet, however, disputed the legality of the motion and accused the Speaker of failing to respect the parliamentary rule of procedure.^[26] The Embassy of the United States in Somalia has expressed concern over the "irregularities" of the voting process^[27] and the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, has released a statement regretting that the motion of no-confidence did not meet the constitutional requirements.^[28]

At the time of the parliament motion, the Prime Minister was away to Dhuusamareeb, Galmudug, where he attended a Federal Government and Federal Member States talks over national elections.^[29] After his return to Mogadishu, he released a short statement calling the process of the motion of no-confidence unconstitutional and offering his resignation to "set a good example in leadership" and to ease the tensions.^[30]

References

1. "Who is Hassan Ali Khaire? Somalia's newly appointed Prime Minister". Hiiraan Online. Hiiraan Online. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
2. "Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale Meeting with Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre - United States Department of State". Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
3. "Eritrea delegation in Somalia to deepen bilateral relations". 14 August 2018.
4. M. "Somali new president appoints Hassan Ali Khaire as prime minister". Mareeg.com. Retrieved 26 February 2017.^{[permanent dead link]} and "Parliament unanimously endorses Hassan Khaire as new PM". Goobjoog News. 1 March 2017.
5. "Somalia PM Hassan Khaire resigns after no-confidence vote". The East African. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
6. Sætran, Frode. "Nordmann ny statsminister i Somalia". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
7. Guled, Abdi. "Somalia's new president appoints prime minister". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
8. "حسن خيري.. "دفة التوازن" القبلي تقود الحكومة الصومالية" (in Arabic). AR.HABERLER.COM. 25 February 2017.
9. "من هو رئيس وزراء الصومال الجديد حسن خيري؟" (in Arabic). Al Jazeera. 24 February 2017.
10. "الصومال: فرماجو يعين رئيسا للوزراء بتغريدة" (in Arabic). Aawsat. 24 February 2017.
11. "Who is Hassan Ali Khaire, Somalia's new Prime Minister?". IB Times. 24 February 2017.
12. "من هو رئيس الوزراء الجديد حسن علي خيري ؟" (in Arabic). Mogadishu Center for Research and Studies. 23 February 2017. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
13. Aase, Kari Aarstad; Braaten, Magnus. "Norske Hassan ny statsminister i Somalia". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 24 February 2017.
14. "የኦስሎ ዩንቨርሲቲ ምሩቁ የሱማሊያው አዲሱ ጠቅላይ ሚንስትር ማናቸው? ጠ/ሚሩ የካቢኔ አባሎቻቸውን ትናንት አስተዋውቀዋል። Somalian PM announced his cabinet ministers^{[permanent dead link]}" (22 March 2017) at Ethio Explorer
15. "Prime Minister". Somali Embassy in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
16. "Resignation of Hassan Khaire on his appointment as Prime Minister of Somalia – Soma Oil & Gas". Soma Oil & Gas. 23 February 2017. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
17. (BuzzFeed), Siraj Datoo. "Somalia-amp-Eritrea-Monitoring-Group". DocumentCloud. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
18. Ball, James. "Soma Oil Executive Cleared Of "Extremist Links" By UN Investigation". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
19. "Serious Fraud Office Closes Corruption Investigation of Soma Oil". The Wall Street Journal. 15 December 2016.
20. "Executive of oil company chaired by Michael Howard investigated by UN over links to al-Shabaab". The Independent. 10 March 2016. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
21. "Mohamed A. Farmaajo on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
22. "Hassan Ali Khaire confirmed as Prime Minister by Parliament, vows to tackle corruption". Hiiraan Online. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
23. "PM Khaire announces 27 member cabinet". Hiiraan Online. 21 March 2017.
24. "Somalia's parliament votes to remove PM Hassan Ali Khaire". Al Jazeera. 25 July 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
25. Sheikh, Abdi (25 July 2020). "Somalia's parliament ousts prime minister in no-confidence vote". Reuters. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
26. Hassan, Mohamed (25 July 2020). "Somalia's Parliament Votes Out Prime Minister". VOA. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
27. "United States Concerned Over Irregularities of No-confidence Vote; Somalia's Future Elections Process". USEmbassy.gov. U.S. Embassy in Somalia. 25 July 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
28. "Somalia: Statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell on the recent developments in the House of people". Europa.eu. European External Action Service. 26 July 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
29. Jamal, Mohamed (23 July 2020). "FGS, FMS Conference Concludes In Dhusamareb". SONNA.so. Somali National News Agency. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
30. Khalif, Abdulkadir (28 July 2020). "Somalia PM Hassan Khaire resigns after no-confidence vote". The East African. Retrieved 30 August 2020.

External links

• Media related to Hassan Ali Khaire at Wikimedia Commons

Political offices
Preceded by Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke	Prime Minister of Somalia 2017–2020	Succeeded by Mahdi Mohammed Gulaid Acting