Somalia is not just applying to join East African Community, it is being invited in
EAC Secretary-General Peter Mathuki (left) presents a copy of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC to Somalia President Hassan Mohamud in Mogadishu. PHOTO | COURTESY | EAC
Nearly 13 years ago, when even inside the high-security African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) camp they wouldn’t allow visiting journalists to step out of their rooms at the media reception centre to smoke without a flak on, we arrived in Mogadishu, which was mostly bombed out buildings. A Ugandan commander with the country’s Amisom contingent said the place “looked like a lunar surface”.
The difference between Mogadishu today and then is like day and night. Amisom has morphed into the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). A verification team from the East African Community is about to leave Mogadishu, where they had gone to sniff for signs that Somalia has what it takes to be admitted to the bloc.
