The Gurmad Platform and Manifesto

The Gurmad Party will prioritize, emphasize, and implement the following five pillars and manifest a change in the course for Somalia during its first term in office.

•  Security & Justice
•  State Building & National Reconciliation
•  Good Governance & Institutional Building
•  Social and Economic Development
•  International & Regional Cooperation

Security and Justice

Security and Justice will be the priority for a Gurmad Party-led government. Somalia has a fragile state government, which is in the process of state and peacebuilding to rebuild all sectors in government. There is no better time to strengthen the pillars of Security and Justice than in the early stages of state-building.

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SECURITY and JUSTICE is the single most critical factor that halts the Somali people from unleashing their fullest potential to rebuild their country. Terrorism, piracy, widespread availability of arms, and ineffective security institutions make the Somalis victims and vulnerable to unchecked intervention by criminal groups and foreign forces alike. Despite the increasing attacks faced by southern Somalia, in particular by the capital of Somalia Mogadishu, Somali intelligence agencies did not consider much about the growing threat of terrorism.

The recent trend of ongoing attacks where a vehicle/truck loaded with explosives is driven towards the hotels, busy markets, and other critical infrastructures and exploded is a sign of intelligence failure and lack of accountability. These attacks could have been prevented to avoid large scale catastrophes.

Thousands of innocent Somali lives were lost in those attacks as a result of the failure of security inelegance and lack of partnership and collaboration with the public. The individuals who are involved in planning attacks evade security forces and hence, could not be captured. Some can strike several times again, except for a few cases where high profile AS commanders got targeted and killed by the Somali Special Forces and/or the US forces; the security forces have also foiled VBIED operations in inadequate proportions.

The Al-Shabaab terrorists are currently able to bring in materials used to disrupt the stability of Somalia from abroad and usually produce improvised explosives in secret workshops that are not outside the targeted city.

The Gurmad-led government will be tough on terrorism, piracy, and other crimes and will be even tougher on addressing the root causes of insecurity in Somalia: poverty and lack of opportunity, exclusion from government, injustice, and past grievances. Security Agencies, especially NISA & Police both have not become accustomed to the realities on the ground in Somalia. The turf battles between security agencies as well as state and federal administrations result in the lack of information sharing that contributed to the intelligence community’s inability to forecast and/or prevent attacks at commendable rates.

The strong and cohesive national army and police force will be established to protect the country and achieve durable security and peace in Somalia. The Gurmad Party-led government will build inclusive, cohesive, and strong national security institutions to protect our borders by developing strategies to reform and professionalize the security agencies to improve Government-Community relations – through community policing and by building public confidence on our law enforcement agencies.

By establishing a strong and cohesive national army and police force to protect the country and achieve durable security in Somalia, the Gurmad-led government will:

• Build inclusive, cohesive, and strong national security institutions to protect our borders by developing strategies to reform and professionalize the security agencies to improve Government-Community relations and build public confidence in our law enforcement agencies.
• Provide proper remunerations, training, equipment, community relations, and engagement with local leaders and our national security forces to galvanize public support for the government initiatives.
• Review the intelligence agency’s scope of challenges and appoint leadership capable of introducing new effective programs to combat terrorism.
• Establish proper security reforms to select and recruit effective and capable candidates on a merit base to lead the Somali Intelligence and security forces.
• Introduce a workable plan on forecasting and preventing attacks nationwide, which the intelligence community has to adapt and work with.

• Put an intense effort to disrupt Al-Shabaab supply channels and destroy its capability to produce explosives and carry out IED attacks, as well as infiltrating and putting an end to both their conventional and unconventional financing mechanisms.
• Hampering the free movement of terrorists and criminals to travel across borders and hide within communities, by introducing robust border security mechanisms and building the capacity of the immigration agency around the country.
• Launch a well-coordinated and equipped offensive campaign to liberate all districts of Somalia, including rural areas and extend services to all regions within the first 18 months of taking office.
• Develop a Somali owned and led strategy to eliminate terrorism by partnering with the public and our international and regional partners.
• Establish an effective defectors’ rehabilitation program that will suit those ill-advised and radicalized youth to rehabilitate them back to the community and offer them livelihood.
• Ensure local ownership of security including the establishment of community policing and reintroducing the Somali Police Camel Regiment in rural areas.
• Double the efforts to eradicate piracy, illegal fishing, toxic waste dumping, human smuggling, and drug trafficking. Build on the success of EUNAVFOR and be able to fill the gap before their mandate ends in December 2020 by establishing Somali coastguards to counter-piracy and prevent attacks before they happen, with the support of our allies.
• Uphold the freedoms of the media, democracy, and human rights even though security is a priority. But we will crack down and prosecute those who are a challenge to the stability of Somalia within the laws of the country.
• Take full responsibility for securing Somalia’s land, sea, and air within 18 months.

Further, a Gurmad-led government will engage the public including youth and women through civic education, by protecting the business community and creating employment opportunities, and we will couple this aggressive media campaign against the violent and extreme ideologies of Al-Shabab, which is led by well-known religious scholars, prominent Somali figures, and the well-known national band of Waaberi and their counterparts.

Furthermore, a Gurmad government will support and facilitate disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants, whether it is conventional militia or Al Shabab, by implementing an effective defector strategy to compact the threat of Al-Shabab, which successfully undermines support to Al-Shabab through no kinetic means but through the construction of more centres and the revision of the National Program, through which we wish to build on the program’s past success.

To make headway in the security sector, we will ensure those who are in charge of security and public safety are provided with proper remunerations, training, equipment, community relations, and engagement with local leaders and our national security forces to galvanize public support for the government initiatives.

Upon assuming government responsibilities, we will review the intelligence agency’s scope of challenges and appoint leadership based on merits that are capable of introducing new effective programs to combat security challenges and protect the public. This leadership will select, recruit, and train more staff and will also establish proper reforms including the expansion of NISA basis and operational capacity in all the regions of the country.

In a Gurmad-led government, strengthening the justice and security sector will be the number one priority. Security and Justice remain one of the biggest challenges facing Somalia today. Without proper reforms in the security and justice system in place, it will be difficult for any Somali Government to make headway in other sectors in government. Security and Justice is often is a matter of life and death for every Somali. It is the very reason why Somalia is where it is today.

We will ensure proper intelligence-sharing between security and policing agencies as well as state and federal administrations to serve, forecast, and prevent attacks on institutions and civilians at all costs. A Gurmad-led government will work with AMISOM and International partners on an exit strategy for AMISOM and ensure the Somali security forces are well equipped to replace AMISOM forces. Somali security forces will continue with a co-ordinate and adequately equipped offensive campaign to liberate all districts of Somalia, including rural areas, and extend services to all regions within a year of taking office. Security forces will facilitate disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants, whether it is conventional militia or extremist militants.

The Gurmad Party and the Gurmad-led government will focus on the fragmentation of social cohesion and seek regional and international cooperation to rebuild the Security and Justice fabric of Somalia to achieve sustainable security and justice services in every part of Somalia.