Hiiraan Online

Mogadishu (HOL) - The Speaker of Somalia's Lower House of Parliament, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nor Madobe, is involved in a property dispute in Baidoa, the administrative capital of the Southwest State. Somali-American environmental activist and Adeso co-founder Fatima Jibrell accused Madobe of looting her private property.

In an explosive interview with Ayaanle Hussein Abdi of Hanoolaato Media, Jibrell highlighted the abuse of power by politicians in Somalia and blasted senior leaders for not doing enough to respect citizens' property rights.

The issue has sparked outrage among Somalis, with many taking to social media to express their support for Jibrell and calling on Speaker Madobe to return her property. 

Jibrell said that she purchased the home in 1974 from a local couple with $6,000 that she was gifted by her father, a merchant marine who settled in New York City. Jibrell said that she bought a home owned by a woman named Amina Fidow and her Italian husband, who were planning to return to Italy.

Jibrell said that she has all the documentation proving her ownership of the property in her possession, both in Somali and Italian.

Jibrell clarified that the property belonged to her, not her late husband, Abdurahman Mohamoud Ali, a former colonel and military attaché in Somalia's military junta. Jibrell explained that military officials from the Siad Barre government interviewed her husband when she first bought the property. The officials suspected that the property might have been acquired by her husband illegally, but the investigation was quashed when she proved that she paid for the home with money wired from her father in the US directly to her bank in Somalia.

Jibrell and her family left Baidoa after her husband was transferred to posts in Mogadishu, Baghdad, and eventually the United States in 1981. She left her Baidoa home in the care of a relative who rented it out to the USAID-funded 'The Bay Project.' Her family remained in the US until the onset of the civil war, where she raised her five daughters and completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Jibrell, one of Somalia's preeminent environmental conservationists, returned to Somalia in 1994 to work on her NGO. Two years later, she was given a 10-day consultancy contract in Baidoa by UNICEF to train young women. During her visit, she found dozens of poor, internally displaced people occupying her property. Faced with few options, she allowed the displaced settlers to remain.

Jibrell said that she doesn't know how exactly Madobe came to acquire the property but learned from the media that he may have been given to him by the Southwest government. 

"When I asked about the property years later, I was told that Adan Madobe took over the home and kicked out the squatters," Jibrell said in the interview.

She told Hanoolato that she had yet to hear from Speaker Madobe directly but was asked by his son through intermediaries not to publicize her grievance in the media. Nevertheless, she said that she was left with limited options.

"I told him that I'll stop talking to the media when he (Madobe) calls me and reaches a suitable agreement. If he gives me back my property, I don't have any problems with him," Jibrell said in the interview. "I don't want backdated rent or any compensation. I just want my property back."

Jibrell said that she had not sought legal recourse because she believes that it needs to be a credible judicial institution in place to hear her case, adding that many people have tried before and it. 

"If I thought there was justice at the courts, I would have gone ages ago. How can a court that has yet to deliver justice to anyone do for me? He (Madobe) is a very powerful person. He is the acting head of state when the President is out of the country. Hey may be more powerful than the will of Somalia's court system and other institutions, but he is still not stronger than God, the ultimate judge in this life and the next."

Jibrell said that she is waiting on communication from the Prime Minister and the President, adding that she is no longer waiting on the goodwill of Adan Madobe to settle the dispute. She also said that she contacted Southwest State President Abdiaziz Laftagareen, who promised his government would take up her issue, but it's been two years without any meaningful progress.

Jibrell said she has become frustrated by the silence of parliamentarians, who may not want to speak out against their speaker for fear of political reprisal.

"It's embarrassing that there aren't even ten lawmakers in parliament who aren't standing up to Madobe and demanding he returns the (looted) property to this woman. Is that too difficult? I pray to God to guide you (lawmakers). You should at least try and do the right thing. It's Ramadan, and people should distance themselves from the robbery of an elderly woman's property."

Jibrell also revealed that she met Madobe in person about ten years ago at a hotel in Brussels, where the two were attending different events, likely on the sidelines of the EU-organized 'A New Deal for Somalia' conference in September 2013. She later confided in one of the conference administrators about the theft of her property, who recommended that she hold a press conference to publicize the issue.

"I decided against it because I did not want to air out my dirty laundry in front of foreigners," Jibrell said in the interview. "I believe that this issue should be handled internally as Somalis."

Jibrell recognizes that her position as a prominent Somali environmentalist and social activist affords her privileges that many Somalis in a similar circumstance might not have and advocates for change on behalf of those who are less fortunate.

Jibrell was most recently recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Somali Awards for her contribution to environmental protection.

"I'm fortunate enough to be able to speak to the media because there are many people who don't have the opportunity. I am obligated to seek justice."