Factors Influencing Power Sharing System in Somali Politics

Although Somali people share the same religion, language and culture, unlike most African countries, one of the worst civil wars in history has destroyed their country for more than two decades. There has been lack of properly functioning government in Somalia since 1991. This Research Project examined the key factors influencing the Political Power Sharing System in Somalia. The study also explored the effect these factors had on peace and stability in Somalia as a whole. In the end, it highlighted the strategies that could help establish long-lasting peace, stability and properly functioning government. The researcher argued that external mediation, top-down peace talks and the constitution review influenced negatively the current power sharing system in Somali politics and these were the basic factors obstructing the functioning of Somali power sharing system. The way the international community was addressing the mediation in Somalia which was making the Somalis guests instead of owners, lack of bottom-up peace talks and the struggle of finding genuine representation of all parts of the Somali society including women and youth and the introduction of federalism in the constitution review at a time Somalia had not been ready for it attributed to the failure of the political power sharing system in Somalia. Therefore, all these factors that were barrier to successful power sharing in Somalia were investigated in this study. The target population was from the five major clans in Somalia and the study was conducted in Mogadishu where all representatives could be reached. Questionnaires and interviews were used as data collection instruments and the collected data was processed and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to find answers to the long lasting conflicts in Somalia and strategies to tackle these factors. Key Words: Power Sharing, Mediation, Peace Talks, Constitution Review, Federalism, Clan