Amid the fighting and tensions between Kenya and Somalia, Kenyan organisations, private and non-governmental, are still active in Mogadishu.
One of these is IDM International Consultancy Ltd, a company involved in training and capacity building for the next generation leaders in the Eastern Africa region.
The team, led by Major General (Rtd) Charles Mwanzia has successfully carried out various voluntary training assignments for Somalia regional government administrators with Amisom assistance.
Mwanzia served the Kenya Defence Forces as director of Military Intelligence, Commandant Defence Staff College, Kenya Military Academy and Directing Staff at National Defence College Karen, Nairobi.
Some of the beneficiaries are from Jubaland and South West States and the Federal Government of Somalia itself. The latest trainees were Jubaland parliamentarians, including the speaker.
Since the team doesn’t have any major sponsorship, it currently depends on well-wishers for logistical assembly of participants. Amisom support, for instance, has made logistics easier by sponsoring some of the participants to train in Kampala and Nairobi.
AU Special Mission Representative to Somalia Amb Francisco Madeira officially opened one of the training sessions in Nairobi in February 2016, which was attended by the speaker and Members of Jubaland State parliament.
Mwanzia says he was inspired by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s call to Kenyans “to assist Somalis to put their house in order.”
Over the years in Somalia has been in crisis, government institutions collapsed, resulting in increased insecurity and protracted humanitarian emergency. This consequently created wide capacity gaps that international organisations have been trying to fix.
“We are recognised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. We are in touch with the DRC National Assembly, and South Kivu Provincial Parliament in Bukavu, and we are planning to train them in bilingual classes — English and French,” Mwanzia says.
The team plans to train the remaining parliamentarians from Jubaland state and extend their service to the other regional governments of Galmudug and Hirshabelle, South Sudan as well as Kenyan MPs through various specialised committees.
