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HOW ALSHABAB LEADER GODANE WAS SET UP BY HIS INNER CIRCLE AND KILLED BY US DRONES AND THE SECRETIVE LIFESTYLE HE LED

Sources Describe Final Days of Al-Shabab's Godane

September 26, 2014 10:21 AM

Harun Maruf

, 

Dan Joseph

Lower Shabelle, Shabelle and Bay regions of Somalia

It was shortly after 5:30 p.m. September 1, when Ahmed Abdi Godane and his bodyguards stopped their car along a road near Sablale, in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.
Sources disagree on why. Some say the al-Shabab militant leader and his comrades heard the sound of drones overhead. Some say they had stopped earlier, and were sitting near the car enjoying a snack of watermelon.
There is no disagreement on what happened next.
After they heard the drones, the men spread out and ran into the nearby jungle. Missiles started raining down immediately. Aerial bombardment of the area continued for about 20 minutes.

FILE - Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed, alias Ahmed Godane, is pictured in an undated handout photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.

Rescuers arrived
Al-Shabab rescuers from two nearby towns moved toward the area cautiously, fearing further attacks.
They were also unsure who had been targeted; Godane traveled secretly for security reasons. But when they finally arrived, they found the body of Godane and two comrades about 250 meters from the wreckage of the car.
The man who had led al-Shabab for nearly seven years -- who brought the Islamist group to the brink of power in Somalia and forged its alliance with al-Qaida -- was dead, at the hands of what would soon be revealed as a U.S. missile strike.
This account of Godane’s last hours is based on interviews with Somali officials, regional security officials and sources close to al-Shabab, by VOA’s Somali Service.
Most declined to speak on the record for fear of retaliation by the militant group, which remains a dangerous force in Somalia.
The lone exception is the governor of the Lower Shabelle region, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur.
Nur told VOA that Godane often came to Lower Shabelle, where al-Shabab still controls some territory.
“He was not the only one; al-Shabab foreigners loved the region, too,” he says. “The reasons are simple: People in the region are peaceful people, from a variety of backgrounds. This is a rich region with a river and lots of big farms and a jungle. It’s easy to hide.”
Nur declined to specify what role, if any, Somali government officials had in locating Godane ahead of the missile strike.
"A midwife doesn’t tell everything she knows,” he said. “We (the Somali government) were on his trail; international intelligences were on his trail. The combination of things helped.”
Cautious and unpredictable
Those who knew Godane’s habits said, for safety reasons, he was both cautious and unpredictable in his movements.
They said he often changed cars, rotated his group of 12 bodyguards -- drawn from three different clans -- and rarely drove with all of them so as to avoid drawing attention.
Sources said that in public Godane often covered his face, especially when traveling through towns. Sometimes he would pop up on front lines or make surprise appearances at meetings and mosques, then disappear quickly, they added.
Godane regularly changed his position, moving between spots in the Bay, Bakool, Middle Juba and Lower Shabelle regions.
However, his field of movement had shrunk in recent months, as al-Shabab lost significant areas in both Lower Shabelle and Bakool to African Union-led forces that are backed by the Somali government.
Limited contact
When it came to electronic communication, sources said Godane was aware of foreign intelligence voice-tracking.
He had avoided talking on telephones since September 2009, when U.S. Navy SEALs killed Saleh Ali Nabhan, an al-Qaida figure who allegedly played a role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa.
Godane was said to have communicated with his senior leadership team only by text messages.
Even with those precautions, multiple sources said that Godane feared for his safety.
One al-Shabab defector told VOA that the al-Shabab leader was afraid of drones, which the U.S. has used to kill other al-Shabab figures in Somalia.
Godane reportedly had barely escaped a U.S. drone strike in January.
The United States also had a $7 million price on his head, and he feared someone within his inner circle would betray him for the reward.
One security analyst who spoke to VOA believes that is what happened. The analyst thought Godane’s location was pinpointed through a cellphone in the car or a chip implanted in someone’s clothing.
Another theory: a Somali intelligence officer thinks Godane gave away his position through an ill-advised text message.
Final days in Lower Shabelle
Godane spent his final days traveling in Lower Shabelle.
Residents confirmed that Godane had met with local elders and farmers on August 30. He told them about jihad and said they should stand shoulder to shoulder with the mujahedeen.
Godane told them this, even though he knew that just 70 kilometers to the east, African Union troops and Somali government soldiers were pushing forward on two fronts -- one offensive targeting Sablale, the other toward Barawe, both towns controlled by al-Shabab.
One Somali official suggested Godane may have been thinking of going to a new area, deeper inside al-Shabab territory. Once the offensives drew closer, sources said Godane started moving to the northwest.
Godane was intercepted on one of the few major roads in southwest Somalia that al-Shabab still controls.
U.S. officials have not revealed what or who enabled them to locate and kill Godane.
Godane's name no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website -- although the names of several other identified al-Shabab leaders are listed, suggesting there may be additional U.S. drone strikes in Somalia.

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STOP THE USE OF WORD "GALLA" IN KENYA SCHOOLS...ITS RACIST AND DISRESPECT TO THE OROMO NATION

There is a Swahili Proverb  that goes “ Mgalla Mui Lakini Haki Mpe” which translated into English means The Galla (may be) a killer but  he  deserves to enjoy his rights. Now that is a saying that goes hundreds of years  back perhaps in the 14^th or 15^th century

From that we get to know that these so called Galla people had contact with the Swahili people of the Kenya coast as early as the 14^th or 15^th century. They were a Cushitic race who made conquest after conquest from Ethiopia to the Kenya coast …thousands of Kilometers away. Historians say their presence at the Coast led to the fall of several Swahili city states

So who are the Galla the feared conquering Cushitic  race from Ethiopia ?

The Oromo  do not call themselves  Galla . The word was used by its neighbours the Amharas, the Somalis in which the word  Galla-da meant non muslims, then it was later adopted by  the Arabs and Swahilis in Kenya and later by the Europeans  to refer to them. But at no time in history have the Oromo people call themselves Galla.

The word Galla according to some historians  mean savage, primitive, uncivilized . And this is exactly what it means when our history books in the Kenya education system keep  referring  the Oromo as Galla  a word that we have been taught since primary school and has stuck in our minds

But the word is racist and a disrespect  to the  second largest race in Africa ; The Oromo of Ethiopia and Kenya

The use of the Word Galla was banned in 1974 in Ethiopia after the revolution. In Kenya due to the colonial hangover the word is still been used without a care.  With the help of Oromo refugee teachers  I was able to confirm that  the word Galla  is still been taught to our kids at school …and we are in the year 2014! This is being racist !

This is some of the examples

The Evolution World, a History and Government course Form 1, by Oxford new edition 2010, under the

the  Cushites group comprised of……….Galla(Oromo)……...

page 78 and under the topic  Borana…………..

the Boran are branch the Oromo or Galla people……….they speak Cushitic language called Galligna……

on page 81 and also in other course book-Milestone in History and Government Form 1 by Longhorn publishers…..reprinted in 2010 under the topic Eastern Cushitic

Eastern Cushitic comprise of the Elmolo, Gabra, Oromo(Galla)….on page 40.

 “Such wrong terminology usage for Oromo identity  is illegal and it allows subjugation and victimization of Oromo children and people at large, infact it is clear violation of basic human Right Declaration of children’s basic right to good education and right to identify of Oromo nation.And this should not be allowed to continue by free and Democratic nation of Kenya and Africa” an Oromo teacher based in Kenya told me

             “This is to deny the Oromo people an identity”  he added  

Freedom fighters in Kenya shed their  blood to end the colonial racist British…and Kenya has since independence been a beacon of equal rights and justice. I don’t blame teachers   for the continued use of the word Galla but it seems someone at the Ministry of Education  is not aware that the use of the word puts the whole nation at an awkward situation. Someone at that Ministry needs to act….and act NOW.

Give the Oromo their right just as that  Swahili proverb (despite using the word Galla) said centuries ago


Follow the writer twitter  @yassinjuma
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WHY ETHIOPIA'S OROMO ARE ANGRY AT KTN

With my Cameraman Eric Okoth covering OLF rebels in Southern Ethiopia in 2009

The arrest of  foreign assassins   after  serial   killings  and terror attacks in a frontier town like Garissa  at a time when Kenya  is facing  a myriad of  insecurity incidents has indeed all the  characters of a  "juicy" story that would sell good  for any journalist

And that is exactly  what one Kenya based  correspondent for  the Chinese state news agency Xinhua realised . But only to realize later that  he had made a major blander in asserting who the suspected  assassins were angering Ethiopia's largest ethnic group,  the Oromo nation.

Monday, July 14, 2014NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan police said Sunday they have arrested five key suspects behind a spate of insecurity which has rocked the northern Kenya, particularly Garissa town, scarred by previous terrorist attacks.

Detectives have also released identities of the serial killers who have claimed five lives within two months. Regional Criminal Investigation Department commander Musa Yego told Xinhua that the police are interrogating three Ethiopians and two Kenyans in the last two days with regards to bomb and grenade attacks in Garissa town.
"We are happy that we have made a breakthrough to unravel unexplained killings that have thrown our town into security scare in the last two months," Yego said.
"Among those arrested are three Ethiopian suspected to be from the Somali region (Ethiopia), while two others were Kenyans, a taxi driver and a landlord," he added.
Yego said the taxi driver was helping to transport the killers to their destination during their killing spree in the town, while the landlord had been giving accommodation to the foreign criminals by renting his houses to them without informing the security agencies of their illegal presence in the country.
The investigators are being helped with investigation by one of the assailants, who was arrested last Wednesday by members of the public shortly after killing a prominent businessman along Gulled hotel area.
Yego said the police have recovered some vital documents, including an Ethiopian passport and communication tracks, that indicates there are teams of people believed to be security officials from the Somali region of Ethiopia sneaking into the country through Moyale and Mandera border points on a mission to kill people they suspect to have associations with a rebel group back at home and cause tribal clashes in the county.
"The passport carried by the suspected killer who was arrested in Garissa briefly after killing a businessman indicates he entered the country through Moyale border before heading to Nairobi, where we believe he met some people, before traveling to Garissa to cause a felony," he noted.
Yego urged the residents in northeast region to be on the look out and avoid embracing people from other countries and giving them accommodation without first establishing their motive in the country.
Two of the assassins, Khalif Hassan, 38, and Abdirahman Abdi, 40, who are the team leaders are among those in custody at Garissa police station now.
While speaking to Xinhua on phone from London, the Oromo National Liberation Front (ONLF) foreign secretary Abdirahman Sheikh Mahdi blamed the attacks in Garissa on Ethiopian intelligence officers of changing their tactics to fight them by carrying out criminal activities inside friendly country to discredit them.
"They want to carry out killings inside Kenya and in turn blame on us so that Kenya, which has been hosting hundreds of thousands of our refugees and asylum seekers, can turn hostile against our people," he said.
Source: Xinhua


I have no problems with the report until th correspondent quotes someone he says is the Oromo  National Liberation Front (ONLF) foreign secretary   Abdirahman Sheikh Mahdi.

The first question any one familiar with  Ethiopian politics would ask is if  there is any political group by the name of Oromo National Liberation Front (ONLF) in Ethiopia ?

Hell no. As far as my memory serves me good I never heard  of an Ethiopian political group going by the name  the Oromo National Liberation Front.

It is clear that the correspondent must have gotten  himself mixed up with the acronyms ONLF The only ONLF I know is the OGADEN  National Liberation Front which has been fighting for the self determination of the Somali region or Region 5 or Ogaden  in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's Oromo Liberation Front OLF rebels

Xinhua however was not far from the truth in suggesting through London based Mahdi's quote and that of the Kenya police that they suspect the  assassins had been sent by  Ethiopian authorities 

There was a rush for the story  by the  local media after the Xinhua scoop ...but the local media just fmessed up with the facts reporting a sensitive issue in reckless manner  

This is how The Star  read by “Smart people” reported the story

Garissa county commissioner Rashid Khator has once again warned suspected assassins and their accomplices from neighbouring Ethiopia behind recent killings in Garissa that the government will firmly deal with them.
Khator said the hit men are hired to carry out assassinations in Garissa because they don’t support the government of the day in their country (Ethiopia) will not be tolerated.
The rebels who are opposing the government are from Oromo Liberation Front[OLF].
His warning comes just two days after the arrest of one of the killers who has been carrying out attacks in the town.
The man was cornered and handed over to the police by members of the public after as he fled after killing a businessman in the town. Two of his accomplices escaped.
Khator said that the suspect was providing crucial information that will assist apprehend his accomplices and also nail those behind the attacks.
Khator who was speaking during a peace meeting held at Garissa primary playground urged members of the public to continue cooperating with the police to end the insecurity bedeviling the town.
By Jacob Songok

The Star suggests that its the Oromo Liberation Front members been targetted by the assasins

And KTN reports that those arrested are actually Oromo rebels! Check out the intro to this story. 

5 supected  members of the Oromo Liberation Front have been arrested in Garissa County. The suspects were found in possession of illegal arms smuggled in from Ethiopia. Police investigations have linked the five to the deaths of three Ethiopian businessmen in the past three months. County leaders are now saying they are determined to flashout anyone with links to the rebel group

The Garissa Commissioner's sound byte in Swahili does not in anyway suggest that those arrested are Oromo rebels but the intro is read by Anchor Bonny Tunya  in so much gusto that you would believe its the   Gospel Truth.

Now let me put the facts right for KTN. First, Garissa and Oromo, the two just don’t add up! As a journalist who has covered the Oromos and their self determination struggle if you are to get an Oromo in Kenya Garissa would be the last place …you should be talking of Moyale, Marsabit, Isiolo, Eastleigh and Kariobangi  

OLF rebel fighter  Falimatu

 

Abdi Oromo an OLF rebel fighter

Some history and geography lessons for KTN. Garissa is a hundred percent  ethnic  Somali town. The Majority clan is the Ogaden…get it ? Ogaden clan. The Ogaden in Kenya from  which top Kenyan politicians like  Aden Dualle , Farah Maalim, Yusuf  Hajji, General Mahmud Mohamed hail from are related  and have close links to the Ogaden Somalis living in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. They are one clan.

The Ogaden have been waging an insurgency in Ethiopia for decades and its no secret that some of its leaders have made Garissa and Eastleigh  their homes fleeing Ethiopian authorities. So the ONLF referred by Xinhua and KTN are not  Oromo rebels but actually the ethnic Somali  Ogaden National Liberation Front . And the acronym for the Oromo rebels is OLF Oromo Liberation Front not ONLF

KTN its beats logic  that rebels who have fled to Garissa for safety are again turning guns on each other or killing the locals . These are the  facts am giving for free.

1.     Yes,  some  of the The Ogaden National Liberation  Front leaders are present in Kenya for their safety no they have been no reported incident of them having   trouble with the authorities as the KTN report indicated

2.      Its an open secret that Ethiopia has been assassinating dissidents from the ONLF and OLF right here in Kenya so in this instance the five arrested by Kenyan authorities are actually  assassins sent by the Ethiopian government to gun down ONLF rebel leaders in Garissa. The Garissa Police Boss Yego is clear in the Xinhua report that Kenya will not entertain the assassination of people within our borders just because they are dissidents in their country   

C’mon KTN …that short story as much as you wouldn’t want to acknowledge has created ripples among the Oromo in Ethiopia and the Diaspora who perceive the  OLF as their liberator. There has been a major uproar  and condemnation on  KTN  with some suggesting that there may be an anti Oromo  agenda by the respected  media house and reputable media house but this report raised a lot of answered questions about its reputation in the media circles and the Oromo people.

It’s a sensitive matter touching on the country’s security and should have been treated with the sensitivity it deserves not reckless reporting. Somebody needs to apologise to Somebody..

I suggest to save their faces  KTN, Xinhua and The Star should try do a story on the unreported assassinations  of political  dissidents by Ethiopian spy agents right here in Kenya   


I rest my case

MY MOMENTS WITH ALJAZEERA'S PETER GREESTE

With Greeste in an Armored vehicle embedded with Ugandan  AU troops in Baidoa Somalia

Mohammed Nagy enters the court room packed with journalist a few minutes  past noon ….he is a large size man with  a weird sense of fashion…. wearing sunglasses in a court room ….but at  this moment and time he is the man with the last word.

Mohammed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed  and Peter Greeste in white prisoner uniform  hold each other and listen attentively  as the obese judge mumbles the long awaited  verdict in Arabic….they had already spent 177 days prison together.

In less than a minute the three journalists’ fate had been sealed by Judge Nagy .

As far as Egyptian authorities were concerned  these  award winning journalists were “terrorists” !!

In defiant a shocked Peter Greeste the Al Jazeera correspondent based in Nairobi raises a fist as he was escorted by the police to start a seven year long jail term in a foreign country. For a man I knew …this was  Injustice

………………………………………………………

The best I could catch was a two hour sleep in an air-conditioned cabin ( I just hate air conditioners) set at 24….sometimes switching it to 27…then  back to 23 degrees…the remote control playing around  with the Mogadishu heat outside and the extreme cold from the inside of this cabin at the African Union Troops camp

A white  South African Communications engineer had a surprise for us the previous night …it was my birthday , the second in a warzone …and as was the last in 2006 I literally had a blast…as in Bomb Blast…the same happened on the 5th of May  2013….The South African had brought a shisha bottle, tobacco and an electric gas cooker to burn the shisha charcoal…(that was very inventive of the Afrikaner…less hustle) 

Relaxing in a Maawis at my AU Base camp cabin

With CNNs Nima Elbagy at AU base, Mogadishu

With Nima ElBagiy at AU Base Camp

Ready for assignment at the AU base camp

We chewed the night away outside our cabins overlooking the Indian Ocean made beautiful by the moon reflection chatting with the CNN Correspondent Nina Elbagiy and her Kenyan producer Lepaso , my cameraman Kip and an AU Press guy Omar…the usual chit chat foreign journalists have after a long day of shooting ( I mean camera shooting),  shooting (now I mean gunshots), a bomb blast and an unforgiving heat of Mogadishu…scripting……voicing…..editing footage and crossing your fingers as you watch the percentage go up hoping that your story will make it  to the  email of some  un-appreciating- on- the -rush- to- get- the friday- booze- guy on the desk in   Nairobi,  without some internet  hitch

The day before had not been a good one for us…we were frustrated ….the AU command  in Kismayu had denied my crew and CNN  the greenlight to cover that city some 400 km south of Mogadishu  Reason?…..two warlords had turned their guns on  each other….and there were reports that Kenyan soldiers had been attacked…unconfirmed casualties …and that Kenya forces were backing one of the warlords…..not a good PR for KDF  in  this city which marks the highlight/ climax of Kenya’s military mission having lodged out the militant group Alshabaab from their stronghold in a commando operation in 2013. My target was not Kismayu though….I was hoping to reach Barawe the Alshabab remaining stronghold upon arrival  in Kismayu.

Sandwiched by Nima ElBagiy and Samira

Samira had a plan B. Samira headed the AU/IST press team. This  beautiful  Kenyan Somali go-getter had managed to organize for my crew a chopper flight to Baidoa city….some 300km north west of   Mogadishu..to “scratch for a story” She knew how disappointed I must have been but Samira always had away to make a stubborn reporter  forget his letdowns  . She had good experience working for Presidents Moi and Kibaki in the PPS

CNN declined the plan B. I had to say yes. We were to fly by chopper some 300 kms to Baidoa a city in the agricultural Bay region  central Somalia and “scratch for a story”. Samira would later tell me  in confidence that the KDF were not happy at a facebook status I had posted about a previous attack in Kismayu….KDF had actually called my bosses back in Nairobi on the issue. An Alshabaab militant had called to give me details of the attack….KDF must have been shocked how much info I had gathered about the Kismayu Airport attack despite been blocked from covering that beautiful Swahili city in Southern Somalia

..................................................

My sleep was disrupted when we had a bang on our cabin door….still sleepy from last night’s  chew and hubble bubble..….I couldn’t   make it out who had opened the door….it was as early as 7 am but the Mogadishu sun! waaa! You could have sworn it was  noon!

“Yassin up… up…haraka haraka (fast) you have to be at the airport like right now…the Ugandan Captain  has called says the chopper should be leaving anytime for Baidoa”. That was Samira

In no time (and no breakfast except for  some energy  bar  CNN’s Nina had offered me the night before)  we had packed our tv equipment and dashed  to a blue not new Toyota  Hilux Surf waiting for us a few meters from the cabin with Shariff  the ethnic Somali Ethiopian national driver giving us a wide grin……of course he knew why the night was long and sleepless for us .”MrYassin chat chat all night  ” he said in broken English as he engaged the gear and sped off

In no time we were at the the Abdille Aden International Airport…..it neighbours the AU military camp the where we were embedded  …..we  went through the security check and some confirmation of the  passenger  manifesto. Among the names on the manifesto was one Peter Greeste, the award winning Aljazeera correspondent

……………….

John Kinyua, Yassin and Peter Greeste, Baidoa

“YassinJuma!” an excited John Kinyua the Aljazeera cameraman shouted as we entered the lounge to wait to be allowed into the chopper

“ Miakamingi (its been many years)” he said as we shook hands.

“Peter this is YassinJuma. Yassin this is Peter Greeste” Kinyua introduced me to his correspondent. I had not met Greeste personally but I knew who he was … I admired  his reports. In journalism experience puts you above the rest…that was evidence in his reports

So we shook hands with this short Australian correspondent  who seemed a bit edgy at that time…. He was wearing a beige cap and   wasn’t sitting on the available lounge couches…sorry actually plastic chairs…it was Somalia….he stood beside his tv equipment lying  on the ground…..his light blue khaki shirt soaked in sweat that was continually generated by the heat of Mogadishu…a silver chain stuck on his sweating neck

Greeste seemed like he needed to gather as much info as he could before we land in Baidoa, our destination. So as we waited to be ushered in to the United Nations chopper I managed to brief him of what to expect in Baidoa….a city once referred to as the “city of death”, that I had visited for close to seven years during the Somalia civil war

“He is the expert on Somalia. You should listen to him” a smiling Kinyua, the Aljazeera cameraman, told Greeste.

“Yassin am told by someone you have been denied entry into Kismayu. Too bad. We actually had chartered  a plane to Kismayu but  we were turned back at the airport ” Kinyua told me laughing

“Actually my plan was to arrive in Kismayu and hit the road north to Barawe.  Alshabab head of Press was expecting me in Barawe…. but then again yesterday’s bomb blast ruined our plans. I told *****(Alshabaab head of press…sorry reader no giving out names here, professional ethics)  that I may have to postpone the trip”  I told Kinyua

Kinyua and I  go way back .We had been travelling to Somalia together  since 2004. In many cases no media houses was willing to risk the lives of their journalists in volatile Somalia  and so many times it would be my crew and Kinyua plus his correspondent the famous Mauritanian Correspondent Mohammed Sufi ( I don’t know  if he was famous in other countries but this man was a household name in Somalia then). They were the Aljazeera Arabic team that covered the horn of Africa region  (there was no Aljazeera English back  then)

Mohammed Sufi was not your everyday TV Reporter. This Mauritanian  Arab man was big and had a stature of some top ranking government official who must have been “eating well” in whatever government  department he was  heading . And despite the extreme temperatures in Somalia he would always wear a suit and  a tie

Mohammed Sufi would hardly go out to the field  for his assignments…he would leave all that to his cameraman John Kinyua.

I remember sometime back in 2006 in Jowhar a small agricultural town in Somalia, some 93 km northwest of Mogadishu. Jowhar was then the seat of the newly relocated Somali Transitional Government TFG (it had been operating from Nairobi, Mogadishu had not yet been liberated from the more than fourteen feared warlords who controlled its districts )

When one arrives in Jowhar the first shock you get is in realizing that there  are serious farming communities among the Somalis. The area is green with banana plantations, watermelons, spermutto and other fruits, rice, maize, sorghum, millet. Its not the poster desert dry country  we know. Majority are the Somali Bantus a shy marginalized community descendants of slaves from Tanzania Zagawa and Zaramo tribes. All these seem to have captured my sense and that of Mohammed Sufi

But he was not ready to accompany me and my cameraman James Opiyo “Japicha” so he decides I direct the shooting for Aljazeera  plus  script a short  PTC  (Piece to Camera) for him  that he would do later in Arabic outside the Governors compound….that was Mohammed Sufi for you.

Later I learnt  that this reporter doubled up as the Mauritanian Ambassador to Djibouti explaining why he slept at  Mohammed Dheere the  Governors home along with the late President Abdullahi Yusuf while we had to spend the night at some small town hotel....... and why he was always after some tender or deal to do with the Somali government officials while we sweated our backs looking for stories all day

……………………………………………………………….

The United Nations chopper was airborne and what a lovely view of  Mogadishu it was from above! The city had expanded since the last time I was here ….new buildings…. new neighbourhoods with iron sheets glittering under the Somali sun….more construction work , the expansive AU military camp and its long security fence a couple of white folks( I was shocked by the large number of whites in Mogadishu this time round) seen jogging in the morning  ,the  Indian Ocean and the white sandy beaches.

I have been travelling to Mogadishu or Hamaar as the locals call it , in four different phases of its twenty two years civil war …when it was under the control of the warlords…when it fell to the Islamic courts….When Ethiopian troops invaded and the transitional government took over and now when the AU are in control and the unending headache of Alshabab  insurgency

Greeste was sitting opposite me alongside five french speaking UN and AU officials probably  going back to their mission post  in Baidoa after some leave…the Russian crew a young man was busy glued to some game on his phone ....I was seated beside my cameraman Kip and Aljazeera’s KInyua time and again putting on some earphones to listen to some music for two good reason….I was kind of scared of a chopper flight since having a chopper crash while on duty in the Kenya Rift Valley sometime back.   Two…we had to kill time…it was a two hour-three hours flight to Baidoa on a chopper

Greeste seemed relaxed and was listening to some music too….a book on one hand ..sometime he would doze off…sometime he would put on his spectacles to read…. . I wouldn’t doze off myself….. time and again i looked down on the landscape that i had traversed for years …taking some photos using my cell phone. From above I managed to point out Buurhakaba …..some few kilometers from the town  back in 2007 I had a terrible motor accident while travelling on the Somali Prime Minister’s  Ali Gedi's motorcade  …it had me hospitalized for three months after three surgeries

The Chopper was  now descending and Baidoa…. green that time of the year…… could be seen from afar…beyond the city were green thickets and remote villages mostly controlled by Alshabaab….another remote  village a hideout for Abu Mansoor Al Amriki the rapping American Alshabab who had broken ranks with the leadership and was now a fugitive…hiding in the  remote bushes of  Bay region running away from Alshabaab and the Somali and AU troops

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We had less than two  hours for  Greeste and I   to cover Baidoa and let the world get a sense of what life was after the Al shabaab were forced to leave the city ( without a single bullet fired). It was a “tactical retreat” the militants later said. That’s very little time but Greeste and I were both experienced in covering war….i had covered the Somali war for seven years …he was much older than me…an old hand in the game  and had covered several wars across the world including Afghanistan and Iraq for “big” agencies Reuters , BBc and one time freelance …this was his second or third time in Somalia….but from our experience…..quick shots….keep rolling the camera ….have a list of  exactly what you  want but be on standby for anything unplanned…be aggressive but at the same time avoid being rude to get interviews

Four AU Armored vehicles were waiting to pick us up  at the small airport that was just next to a farm …an airport that had once a plane from Eritrea loaded with weapons landed to arm the militants….the same airport which back in 2005 we were taken hostage for hours on  by militia loyal to a local warlord who wasn’t very happy that we were leaving the city without being “taxed”….among the hostages was the late Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf  , two planes and a delegation of the Somali government…..a Russian plane crew. Me and my cameraman Robert “Gichboy” Gichira were the only press

“Afande iko sawa….twendewambele….tunafatawapili….tunaelekea mnyumba ya governor” the Ugandan AU officer  in charge of the convoy shouted out the  commands on a radio call inside the armored vehicles we had been ushered in . The instruction language for Uganda military is strictly Swahili…..despite the fact that majority of  Ugandans shun using that language that reached that country in the mid 1800s through Arabs and Swahili traders and later widely used by the military (Its an Idd Amin hangover someone told me in Kampala when I wanted to know why Ugandans have no interest in learning Swahili)

The heat inside the Armored vehicle was baking us …Greeste, Kip , Kinyua and I were sweating and bumping on each others shoulders as the uncomfortable monster  made its turns and brakes and bumps….and that ugly noise it made  as we snaked through the bushes on the Baidoa outskirts and the ruins that invite you to this city reminds you that you are in a warzone just in case you forgot.  We passed  the Ethiopian contingent camp…..the Burundian camp  …and made a sudden stop in front of a green gate where we found about 20 Ugandan soldiers guarding the compound …this was the governor’s residence

This was not what  Greeste and I had  expected …we had very little time and the formality of meeting the governor and cover what we later learnt was an elders meeting wasn’t our idea of a meaty warzone story . So for a moment Greeste and I looked at each other puzzled but unable to speak…it would be rude do speak …..any cameraman will tell you shooting inside a room, and poor lit to be precise…in  a story related to war  just doesn’t add up .  What we wanted was to be on the streets of Baidoa…get some noisy natural sounds of the market and donkey carts , of traders hawking their goods, old men chit chatting in some open tea kiosk 

Seated were about twelve  Somali elders from local clan the Rahaweyn….all wearing an embroidered  Muslim cap,a shirt  and  a maawis(loincloth), and their beard red with heena to dye the white  . The governor was meeting them and we found ourselves forced to cover the event….just to be polite enough to be given a greenlight to go  shooting in the city center …..the Governor was the last word here so we had to go by his wishes

While I was getting restless Greeste on the other hand was very diplomatic and took the initiative at the table to be our spokesman and explained to the governor and the elders eager to watch themselves on tv later in the evening what our mission in the city was

The Bay region Governor was in his fourties …. a young man (but clan equations made him very influential) who had left a  comfortable  life in the US  to help his war ravaged  country get back on its feet

The experienced Greeste takes the opportunity to have a one on one with the Governor and I take a lesson or two from the old guard admiring his interviewing skills. Before the interview he beckons me aside to ask if there was anything special I wanted to cover so that we can have an understanding on  what we want and what we dint ….to save time i.e

“Waryaa….jog …jog !” ( stop stop) the governors militia brandishing their AK 47s shouted at a a Donkey cart driver on the streets of  Baidoa who passed so close to the governor as he walked the streets to show us how the city had changed since Alshabaab were ousted . He was surrounded by the UPDF and his militia ..... there was so much tension in the air enough to let you know that things were not as good as the governor would have wanted us to believe

We were on the busy streets of Baidoa ….a city that had changed so much since my last visit . Kinyua was taking shots of Greeste  walking with the governor …I was busy looking for “everyday people” shots but still cautious of the danger i had presented myself to . We were heavily…heavily surrounded by the governor militia…the Somali national army and the Ugandan army….Even when Greeste and I stood to make some quick PTC (Reporter Piece to Camera) at the market ….the soldiers were all over our shots

I was used to quick shots and interviews in dangerous places under extreme heat carrying heavy tv equipment…I was hoping Greeste and Kinyua would manage…they tried the best they could ..as for me and Kip we had disappeared into the market  to get  some “real people” sound bytes…despite some warning from the AU  that we should not be out of sight ….understandably the city still had  a number of Alshabaab sympathisers and a foreign journalist presents a good target

Come to think of it now that Greeste is in jail. I never saw nothing that would have linked this seasoned  Aussie journalist to a terror group as the Egyptian authorities would want us to believe. The Prosecutor must have used some miracle to have a court convinced with absolutely no evidence presented before the Cairo court...kind of reminds me of Moses and Harun at an ancient Egyptian palace trying to convince the Pharaoh to let their people go

But it happens to journalists. It happened to me back in 2009 when the Ethiopian government branded me a “Somali terrorist disguise as reporter” when I reported the unreported struggle of the ethnic Oromo people …a majority ethnic group that have for years felt marginalised  by the minority Tigreans and Amharas…I spent seven days in the bush with the OLF rebels documenting  their daily life. Today I am a persona non grata in Ethiopia.

I remember in 2010…..I was on a fly 540 stop over  to Djibouti in Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport and the then Deputy Speaker of Kenya Parliament Farah Maalim looked back at me from where he was seated  and joked   “Yassin what if these people arrest you here…the plane is taking unusually too long for a stop over.”

For once I thought  the delay had everything to do with me.....those who know will tell you dont ever underestimate Ethiopia's spy agency  and  you must be aware of  Ethiopia’s history with journalists…..i thought I was gonna get arrested by Ethiopian security . In fact it would have been  two arrests....on this trip  I was accompanied by the same cameraman who had given the world those exclusive footage of the ragtag OLF  militia…one Eric Okoth. But somehow we arrived in Djibouti without a hitch

Having contacts  with groups like Alshabaab in search of a story has also made me viewed in suspicion  by authorities in Somalia and Kenya….always on the watch list with  spy agencies luring you with big money talk if you give them some info on some outlawed group or personality….you say no you are branded a terrorist sympathizer at best ...at worst a terrorist

This is  exactly the situation that  Greeste is caged in  

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I always assumed Egypt was the big brother of Africa…..we all looked upon its success…its largest armed forces in the continent….Cairos infrastructure....  the largest  city in Africa with the largest population ..

And of course the thrill of Kenya’s Gor Mahia or AFC leopards playing Zamalek…Zamalek was such a household name in Kenya since my teens…so much that one of my Uncles decided to call his son, my cousin, Zamalek. And if you are as old as this writer you should recall that Gor Mahia player  Abbas Khamis Magongo nicknamed “Zamalek”

Oh Egypt mother of Africa (All African folktale will tell you their origin is Misri or Egypt)…is this what you say is a track back to democracy ? Whatever happened to Egypt  after the Arab Spring?

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The footage of Greeste and his colleagues literally caged in courtrooms captures the saddest moment in journalism. Journalism is not a Crime. Free Peter Greeste !! Keep his story alive lest we forget ….he is going through all these on behalf of all journalists in the world.

Greeste and I in the armored vehicle