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M. Hassan Ali Khaire Xasan Cali Khayre حسن علي خيري | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Prime Minister of Somalia | |
| In office 1 March 2017 – 26 July 2020 | |
| President | Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed |
| Preceded by | Omar Sharmarke |
| Succeeded by | Mahdi Mohammed Gulaid (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 1968 |
| Party | Independent |
| Alma mater | University of Oslo Heriot-Watt University |
Mohamed Hassan Ali Khaire (or alternatively transliterated asHassan Ali Khayre;[1]Somali:Xasan Cali Khayre;Arabic:حسن علي خيري;[2] also popularly known asHassan Khaire;[3] born April 15, 1968) is a former prime minister ofSomalia. He was appointed on 23 February 2017 by Somalia PresidentMohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmaajo"[4] and resigned on Saturday July 25, 2020 after MPs passed a disputed vote of no confidence.[5]
Khaire is a former oil executive. He has been a regional director of theNorwegian Refugee Council charity and served as the director of the British oil companySoma Oil and Gas.[6][7]
Hassan Ali Khaire was born in the central Somalia town ofEl Buur on April 15[citation needed] 1968 and move to Mogadishu when He was 9 months old he graduated from primary and secondary school inMogadishu.[8] At the onset of the civil war, Khaire moved as a refugee to Norway in 1991,[9] where he enrolled at theUniversity of Oslo in 1994.[8]
After graduating in 1998 with a degree in political science and minor in sociology, Khaire went on to complete his MBA atEdinburgh Business School, the graduate school of business ofHeriot-Watt University, in 2001.[10][11]
Khaire is adual citizen of Norway and Somalia.[12]
After graduation, Khaire returned toOslo where he began working with theNorwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in 2002[13] at their headquarters as a coordinator for their readiness forces.[14]
Khaire briefly left theNGO for a few years to pursue business endeavors but in 2006 he returned to the NRC as an area manager.[14] He remained at the NRC for another nine years as he worked his way up to County Director and eventually the Regional Director for theHorn of Africa.[14]
Khaire joinedSoma Oil & Gas as an executive director for Africa; he started in the company at the time of its inception (2013), according to the company's website.[15]
In February 2016, a leaked memo, sent by aUnited 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, includingal-Shabaab, which had claimed responsibility for a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Somalia.[16] 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."[17]
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.[18][19]
On 23 February 2017, Soma Oil & Gas announced on their website the resignation of Khaire as the executive director for Africa.[15]
On 23 February 2017, President Mohamed announced on Twitter the appointment of Khaire as the newprime minister of Somalia.[20] 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.[21]On 21 March 2017, Khaire thanked lawmakers for their overwhelming support and submitted his nomination for theCabinet Ministers Somalia, on 29 March 2017 it was approved by parliament.[22]
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.[22]
On 25 July 2020, the Speaker of theHouse of the People of theFederal Parliament,Mohamed Mursal, announced in a press statement that 170 MPs hadwithdrawn confidence in Khaire's government, accusing the Prime Minister of failing to deliver promises including improving the national security and implementing a timelyone person, one vote election.[23][24] Members of the cabinet, however, disputed the legality of the motion and accused the Speaker of failing to respect theparliamentary rule of procedure.[25] TheEmbassy of the United States in Somalia has expressed concern over the "irregularities" of the voting process[26] and theHigh Representative of the European Union,Josep Borrell, has released a statement regretting that the motion of no-confidence did not meet the constitutional requirements.[27]
At the time of the parliament motion, the Prime Minister was away toDhuusamareeb,Galmudug, where he attended a Federal Government and Federal Member States talks over national elections.[28] After his return toMogadishu, he released a short statement calling the process of the motion of no-confidence unconstitutional and offering his resignation to "set a good example in leadership" and to ease the tensions.[29]
Media related toHassan Ali Khaire at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Somalia 2017–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Trust Territory of Somaliland (1956–1960) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Somali Republic (1960–1969) | ||
| Somali Democratic Republic (1969–1991) |
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| Interim Government of Somalia (1991–1997) | ||
| Transitional National Government of Somalia (2000–2004) | ||
| Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (2004–2012) | ||
| Federal Republic of Somalia (since 2012) | ||
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