By ABDULKADIR KHALIF

More by this Author

Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire promptly resigned on Saturday after MPs passed a vote to impeach him.

Khaire was on his way to Mogadishu from Dhusamareb, the capital of Galmudug federal state where he had attended a conference on electoral plan, when Parliament passed the no-confidence motion.

MPs accuse him of having failed to secure a general election scheduled for 2020 and a presidential election slated for next year.

Further, the Lower House said he failed to implement a constitutional review programme.

On Saturday evening, Khaire, a former oil executive and humanitarian worker who became Somalia's prime minister in March 2017, addressed the media where he announced his resignation.“

I have decided to be an example for the Somali people by resigning from the position I have held for the Somali people,” said PM Khaire, adding that he was doing so to set a good example in leadership despite the MPs move which he termed unconstitutional.

“Knowing that what happened in Parliament was illegitimate, unprocedural, and was neither in the chamber’s agenda nor consistent with the constitution, I have decided to leave the position I have been holding for the Somali people,” he said.

Credited for returning Somalia to eligibility to borrow from international lenders and purging ghost workers in military, Khaire's failure to oversee a constitutional review and continued wrangles with federal states may have marked him for removal.

His ambitions, said to be presidential, may have also made him a target.

The Lower House has been siding with President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo as seen when it passed controversial electoral regulations that the President assented to, despite the Senate's claim the regulations had been doctored before they were voted on.

The electoral laws were also opposed by federal state presidents as well as opposition political parties. 

VOTE

Speaker Mursal Abdulrahman announced the outcome of the vote after the closure of the parliamentary session saying, “In a quorum of 178 legislators, the government lost the vote of confidence by 170." 

President Farmaajo, who accepted the outcome of the Parliament, appointed the Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled to act as prime minister.