Constitutional Review Conference Due to Conclude in Mogadishu

The Constitutional review process at the ongoing National Convention is expected to conclude today.

Over 300 representatives from the Federal Government, Member states, civil society, Somali Diaspora are contributing their views to the provisional constitution of Somalia.

The participants of the three-day conference will also peruse the several chapters of the constitution including resource-sharing, Mogadishu status and among other.

Somali Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Kheire who attended the conference during the opening day said there was a need to finalize the constitutional process to unify the country and promote economic growth.

Kheire pledged that his government will provide 3 million USD for finalizing the constitution.

“I hereby confirm that my government has pledged $3million for the constitution process to be finalized. However, this pledge should produce a Somalia-owned document, Somali thinking, Somali economy, Somali advice and new Somali unity that rebuilds the Somali nation we lost,” Prime Minister said.

The Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Abdirahman Hosh Jibril, traced the history of the constitution making in Somalia, which began in 2000 in Djibouti and later moved to Nairobi, Kenya, before the eventual adoption of a Provisional Constitution in 2012 through a Constituent Assembly.

“The agreement which we signed at the Office of the Prime minister last November made us become a united group without any divisions,” the minister said of the tripartite agreement signed by the Constitution Review Commission, the Parliamentary Oversight Committee and his ministry.

Hosh said through the tripartite agreement, the Constitution Review Commission is determined to give the people of Somalia a new document as soon as possible so that the next elections in 2020 are held under a new political dispensation

Somalia is currently governed by a Provisional Constitution adopted on August 1, 2012, after years of conflict. The federal and state governments plan to have a new document ready ahead of the one-made-one-vote elections scheduled for 2020.