Hassan Ali Khayre

Hassan Ali Khaire (Somali: Xasan Cali Khayre, Arabic: حسن علي خيري‎; born 1968), popularly known as Hassan Khaire,[1] is a Somali activist and former refugee to Norway, manager, politician and is the former Prime Minister of Somalia. He was appointed on 23 February 2017 by Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed[2] and unanimously approved by the Parliament on 1 March 2017.[3] On the 25 July 2020, he was removed as Prime Minister by a vote of no confidence by legislators.[4][5]

His Excellency Hassan Ali Khayre
19th Prime Minister of Somalia
In office 1 March 2017 – 25 July 2020
President	Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed
Preceded by	Omar Sharmarke
Succeeded by	Mahdi Mohammed Gulaid (acting)
Personal details
Born	Hassan Ali Khaire 1968 Jacar, Galguduud, Somali Republic
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	University of Oslo Heriot-Watt University

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 Jacar Galgaduud,[8] some 50 kilometers from El Buur.[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]

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

After nearly a decade in the NGO field, Khaire moved on to the public sector joining Soma Oil & Gas as an Executive Director for Africa. According to the company's website, Hassan Khaire has been with the company since its inception in 2013.[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]

On 25 July 2020, unlawfully Speaker of Somalia's parliament announced that Somalia's parliament has removed Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre by a vote of no confidence. But then Kharie who was in Dhuusamareeb, Galmudug came back to Mogadishu and after short speech decided to resign, to ease the tensions.[24]

References

1. http://www.africanews.com/2018/08/14/eritrea-delegation-in-somalia-to-deepen-bilateral-relations/
2. M. "Somali new president appoints Hassan Ali Khaire as prime minister". Mareeg.com. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
3. "Parliament unanimously endorses Hassan Khaire as new PM". Goobjoog News. 1 March 2017.
4. "Somalia Lawmakers Remove Prime Minister in No-Confidence Vote". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
5. "Somalia's parliament votes to remove PM Hassan Ali Khaire: Report". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
6. Sætran, Frode. "Nordmann ny statsminister i Somalia". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
7. Guled, Abdi. "Somalia's new president appoints prime minister". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
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.
13. Aase, Kari Aarstad; Braaten, Magnus. "Norske Hassan ny statsminister i Somalia". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2017-02-24.
14. "የኦስሎ ዩንቨርሲቲ ምሩቁ የሱማሊያው አዲሱ ጠቅላይ ሚንስትር ማናቸው? ጠ/ሚሩ የካቢኔ አባሎቻቸውን ትናንት አስተዋውቀዋል። Somalian PM announced his cabinet ministers" (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. 2017-02-23. Archived from the original on 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
17. (BuzzFeed), Siraj Datoo. "Somalia-amp-Eritrea-Monitoring-Group". DocumentCloud. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
18. Ball, James. "Soma Oil Executive Cleared Of "Extremist Links" By UN Investigation". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
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. 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
21. "Mohamed A. Farmaajo on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
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. Hassan, Mohamed (25 July 2020). "Somalia's Parliament Votes Out Prime Minister". VOA. Retrieved 25 July 2020.

External link

• Media related to Hassan Ali Khayre at Wikimedia Commons

Political offices
Preceded by Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke	Prime Minister of Somalia 2017–present	Incumbent