Tuesday, November 25, 2008A deal has been struck enabling more than 100 Somali MPs who have been stranded in Kenya for the last month to start returning home from Tuesday.
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula met the 145 MPs, including President Abdullahi Yusuf, at a Nairobi hotel where the agreement was reached. The MPs have been stranded in Nairobi since the end of an Igad conference after organisers failed to pay for their air travel to Somalia, meals and accommodation. Somali Transitional Federal Government first deputy Speaker Mohamed Omar said the MPs will be given a one-month allowance for the time they have been stuck in the country.“The allowances will be paid by UNDP while other donors will provide five flights on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said.
Yesterday, the MPs showed the Nation invitation letters detailing the European Commission’s willingness to meet “costs related to air and ground transport, accommodation” and other expenses. The news of the MPs’ departure coincided with the establishment of a local authority in Mogadishu on Sunday in line with a regional leaders’ directive aimed at restoring peace to that country. President Yusuf is headed for Djibouti where power sharing talks with the Islamic Courts Union are in progress.During the meeting with Mr Wetang’ula, the Somali MPs said the minister’s earlier instructions that they should go back to Somalia were offensive.
Second home
They said they regarded Nairobi as their second home since the current Somali government was formed in Kenya.Nairobi was also important to Somalis, they said, because apart from investing money and resources in areas like Eastleigh, the city hosts the UN headquarters, its agencies other world bodies operating in Somalia.
The MPs threatened to lobby for the transfer of these bodies to Kampala, Djibouti, Addis Ababa, Eden or Dubai if the Kenyan Government was unhappy with their stay.
SOURCE: Daily Nation, Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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