Mukhtar Mohammed Hussein

Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein

Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein ( Somali : Sheekh Mukhtaar Maxamed Xuseen, Arabic الشيخ محمد حسين مختار; * 1912 ; died June 12, 2012 , Nairobi , Kenya ) was a Somali politician. He was speaker of the parliament and in 1969 briefly the interim president of Somalia .

Life

Hussein was born in Huddur in the Bakool region and was part of the Hadame clan , a subgroup of the Rahanweyn (Digil-Mirifle).

As was customary at the time, he studied the Koran by memorizing entire suras . Later he also studied Islamic history .

Hussein first worked as a trader and built a shop in Huddur, which he later expanded and even opened a shop in the town of Baidoa . Only later did he go into politics.

Political career

In the 1940s, Hussein joined the then-rising nationalist party of the Somali Youth Club (later Somali Youth League , Xisbiga Midowga Dhalinyarada Soomaaliyeed, SYL). He worked at the headquarters of the SYL in what was then Upper Jubba - today divided into several regions in south-west Somalia. He gained influence and in 1956 he was elected to the first national assembly of the Somali people, the Legislative Assembly , which was still under the auspices of the Italians. Hussein was accepted into the first, albeit limited, government under Prime Minister Abdullahi Issa . First he served as Deputy Minister of Justice and then as Minister of Justice himself.

Hussein was re-elected in 1959, shortly before the state finally gained independence. He was then a member of the Constituent Assembly and was re-elected in 1964. Hussein was speaker of parliament from 1965 to 1969. He briefly became president when President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated on October 15, 1969 . This term of office only lasted a week, however, because a coup then overthrew the parliament.

Along with other celebrities, Hussein was placed under house arrest by the new President Mohamed Siad Barre . For several years he lived under severe restrictions, only after a few years were his conditions of detention eased and later he also regained his freedom. With that, however, he also disappeared from politics. He devoted his time to his farm in Afgooye and studying Islam.

He died on June 12th in Nairobi , Kenya, at the age of a hundred . He received a state funeral in Mogadishu , Somalia and was buried there on June 15, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ worldstatesmen.org
2. ^ Abdulkadir Khalif: Somalia remembers fall democracy icon. in: Africa Review, National Media Group, Kenya 2012-06-19.
3. ↑ Amisom express train his condolences for the death of Sheikh Mukhtar Mohammed Hussein, former Speaker of Somalia Parliament. Mareeg June 16, 2012.