- Jubaland leader Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe) jetted into Kenya on Saturday, November 29th, to attend a lavish wedding in Garissa County.
- Mohammed Noordin Mohamed Y. Haji, son of National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director-General Noordin Haji, married Jamila Mohamed in a high-profile Islamic Nikah ceremony held in Ijara Constituency.
- President William Ruto’s attendance alongside top state officials, including National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, propelled the event into national headlines at a time when the country is grappling with a security crisis in the North Eastern region.
- While the public focused on the customary display of elite opulence, political and security enthusiasts probed the significance of the powerful figures at the ceremony.
- Ethiopia’s National Intelligence Chief Redwan Hussein was also reportedly in attendance.
Madobe’s Presence in Garissa Raises Eyebrows After Collapsed Jubaland Talks
Madobe’s visit to Garissa, though ostensibly for a wedding, is being viewed in diplomatic circles as a tactful move to counter Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s recent trip to Nairobi.
Madobe, the President of Jubaland, a semi-autonomous region in southern Somalia, has long been at odds with the federal government over the region’s administration.
Tensions eventually boiled over into the deadly Ras Kamboni offensive in December 2024, when federal government forces clashed with Jubaland troops.
The confrontation came just weeks after Madobe secured a fourth term in an election strongly disputed by the federal government in Mogadishu.
Jubaland forces ultimately repelled the federal offensive, prompting reports of Somalia National Army soldiers fleeing into Kenya.
This pushed President Ruto’s government to initiate talks between the two sides.
The high-level talks, which were reportedly brokered by NIS Director General Noordin Haji on behalf of the Kenyan Government, ended in an acrimonious fashion with no agreement on the key issues.
Two Somali ministers who maintain residences in Kenya allegedly had their passports confiscated by Kenyan authorities for “sabotaging the negotiations.”
President Mohamud later made a condolence visit to Nairobi, where he held bilateral talks with President William Ruto on the sidelines of the historic state funeral of Raila Amolo Odinga.
The Jubaland dispute is believed to have been a topic of discussion, even as Mohamud’s administration moves to establish a parallel governing authority in the region to counter Madobe’s government.
Kenya’s Longstanding Interest in Jubaland
Jubaland is a breakaway region in Somalia that formally emerged around 2010, although its historical roots date back to 1925 as British Jubaland, before it was ceded to Italy under controversial colonial arrangements.
Its rise as a semi-autonomous region began in 2011, with Kenya reportedly playing a role in its formation as a strategic measure to curb terrorist incursions across its borders.
Experts viewed Jubaland as a buffer zone, where Al-Shabaab operatives could be contained farther from Kenya’s frontier.
In collaboration with its Ethiopian ally, Kenya has conducted anti-insurgency operations in Somalia for decades, spanning the 1963–1968 Shifta War, the 1977–1978 Ogaden War, and the 2011 Operation Linda Nchi.
Kenya has openly supported the Jubaland administration, a stance that has brought it into tension with Mogadishu, which decries Nairobi’s involvement as foreign interference.
Kenya’s position in Somalia is delicate, as the Kenya Defence Forces also maintain a cooperation agreement with the Somalia National Armed Forces, which has seen the two forces conducting joint operations against Al-Shabaab.
How Kenya will contain the simmering tensions between the two administrations, given its diplomatic patronage of both, remains to be seen.