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HARGEISA – A clumsy attempt at state-sponsored disinformation has forced President Abdirahman M. Abdillahi “Cirro” into a humiliating public retreat, compelling Somaliland’s telecommunication oligarchy to suspend a coordinated price hike. The scandal, which saw the Ministry of Interior fabricate evidence to crush dissent, has exposed the rot of institutional capture and the government’s readiness to protect corporate interests over the constitutional rights of its citizens.
The crisis began when Somaliland’s three telecommunications giants—Telesom, SOMTEL, and Soltelco—executed a synchronized price increase for internet and mobile services on August 9th. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology immediately endorsed the coordinated hikes in a statement citing the need for “quality services,” effectively rubber-stamping what consumers saw as corporate price-gouging.
When citizen Guleid Ahmed Jama (Guleid Dafac) filed a formal request with the Ministry of Interior to organize a peaceful demonstration against the price hikes on August 10th, the ministry responded with an outright lie, claiming no such request had been received. To compound the deception, the ministry simultaneously circulated an image of Dafac’s actual letter stamped with “FAKE” in red letters, contradicting their claim that no request existed.
The contradictory statements quickly spread on social media, generating widespread criticism of the ministry’s fabrication and raising fundamental questions about the government’s relationship with the telecommunications oligarchy.
Presidential Damage Control
Following mounting public pressure and exposure of the ministry’s lies, President Cirro met with executives from the three telecommunications companies and announced that the price increases would be suspended indefinitely.
“The president listened to the concerns of the people,” said a government spokesperson. The spokesperson tellingly declined to address questions about the ministry’s fabrication, an indefensible action for which the administration has yet to offer any explanation or accountability measures.
The reversal represents a significant retreat for both the companies and the government ministries that initially supported the price increases. Industry observers note that coordinated pricing moves by the three dominant firms are unprecedented and suggest extensive advance planning and government coordination.
The Oligarchy’s Corporate Web
The government’s initial willingness to back the price hikes and suppress protest does not exist in a vacuum. It is undergirded by a deep, systemic network of financial and personnel connections that blurs the line between regulator and regulated.
The three companies involved in the price coordination are subsidiaries of some of Somaliland’s largest business groups. SOMTEL is wholly owned by Dahabshiil Group, while Telesom operates under the Hormuud Group umbrella. Both parent companies have extensive holdings in banking, money transfer, and real estate sectors, electricity, transportation, forming a business oligarchy that touches virtually every aspect of Somaliland’s economy.
Dahabshiil Group’s 2021 initial public offering of SOMTEL shares drew scrutiny for charging investors a predatory 20% “service fee” and failing to provide basic financial information typically required for public stock offerings, according to previous Somaliland Chronicle reporting. The company refused to provide standard disclosure information such as company valuation, earnings data, or the total number of shares being offered to the public—practices that would constitute fraud in regulated markets.
The telecommunications sector operates with minimal regulatory oversight in Somaliland, with companies able to coordinate pricing and business practices with limited government interference. Industry analysts say the lack of independent regulatory authority makes consumer protection virtually impossible when the supposed regulators are captured by the regulated.
The Revolving Door System
A review of current government appointments reveals the systematic colonization of state institutions by the telecommunications oligarchy through strategic personnel placement.
The current Minister of Presidency previously worked for Telesom. The Head of Somaliland’s Intelligence agency is a former Dahabshiil employee. The Minister of Aviation built his career at SOMTEL, Dahabshiil’s telecommunications subsidiary. The Chairman of the ruling Waddani party also previously worked for Dahabshiil Group.
This pattern extends across multiple previous administrations, with former employees of both Dahabshiil and Telesom holding senior government positions across sectors including finance, telecommunications policy, and regulatory oversight. The result is a government where key decision-makers are often ruling on matters affecting their former employers, current business partners, and potential future employers.
Government officials contacted for this story did not respond to questions about potential conflicts of interest, recusal policies for former corporate employees, or whether current appointees maintain financial relationships with their previous employers.
Financial Capture: The State as a Hostage to Its Creditors
The final and perhaps most insidious mechanism of state capture is financial: the Somaliland government is deeply indebted to the very corporate oligarchs it is constitutionally mandated to regulate.
According to financial industry sources, these telecommunication companies and their parent groups function as a de facto lender of last resort for a government that is perpetually cash-strapped. This creditor relationship is not merely a conflict of interest; it is the primary instrument of corporate leverage over state policy. Any genuine attempt at robust regulation—be it enforcing fair competition, imposing penalties, or blocking collusive price hikes—carries the implicit threat of corporate retaliation.
The government is perpetually faced with the risk that its largest creditors could suspend credit lines or deny future financing, a move that could trigger a fiscal crisis. This dynamic transforms the state from a sovereign regulator into a hostage, forced to prioritize the financial demands of its creditors over the economic welfare of its citizens.
When combined with the systemic revolving door of personnel detailed previously, this financial dependency completes a perfect, unbreakable circle of capture. The government is staffed by former employees of the oligarchy and financed by the oligarchy itself. In such a system, independent oversight is not just difficult; it is a structural impossibility, and accountability is a concept with no practical meaning.
Parliamentary and Media Silence
Despite the significant constitutional issues raised by the Ministry of Interior’s fabrication of evidence against a citizen exercising protest rights, Parliament has not announced any investigations or hearings into the matter. Opposition MPs who frequently criticize government actions have issued no statements about the ministry’s lies regarding fundamental constitutional rights.
Major media outlets have provided limited coverage of the fabrication allegations, focusing primarily on the price hike suspension rather than the government’s systematic attempt to criminalize lawful dissent. Several journalists contacted for this story declined to comment on their outlets’ coverage decisions, suggesting the oligarchy’s influence extends deep into media institutions as well.
Analysis: The Hypocrisy of Power
The episode reveals more than just tensions within Somaliland’s governance system—it exposes the complete betrayal of democratic principles by leaders who built their careers defending those same principles.
President Cirro inherited a system where personnel exchanges between major corporations and government have been routine for decades. However, for an administration led by a party that masterfully utilized public protest during its long years in opposition, the turn towards suppressing those same rights represents a particularly stark betrayal of political principle.
Cirro and his Waddani party spent years positioning themselves as champions of constitutional rights, organizing demonstrations and challenging government overreach. They built their political identity on the sacred right of citizens to peaceful assembly and dissent. Now in power, their administration deployed fabricated evidence and threatened state violence to deny citizens the very rights they once claimed as sacrosanct.
The public’s ability to expose the ministry’s lies through social media demonstrates how information technology can serve as a check on government power, even as telecommunications companies seek to increase costs for these same services. The irony is perfect: citizens used the very services the oligarchy wanted to make more expensive to expose the government lies designed to protect that price increase.
The reversal of price hikes shows that public pressure can still influence government decisions, but it also raises fundamental questions about why such pressure was necessary to address what should have been prevented by existing regulatory mechanisms—if those mechanisms weren’t captured by the companies they’re supposed to regulate.
The Broader Implications
This scandal illuminates the reality of governance in Somaliland: a system where a small group of interconnected business families exercise effective control over state institutions through financial dependency, personnel placement, and systematic regulatory capture.
The telecommunications episode is likely just the visible tip of a much larger iceberg. If government ministries will fabricate evidence to protect telecom price hikes, what other corporate interests are they willing to defend through deception and state power?
For President Cirro, the episode presents both a political opportunity and a test of character. Public support for his intervention in the price hike dispute could provide political capital to address the broader structural issues that made the scandal possible. The question is whether he will use this rare moment of public awakening to tackle the oligarchy system that compromises governance, or whether he will settle for managing individual scandals while leaving the underlying capture intact.
Questions That Demand Answers
The incident leaves several critical issues unresolved that warrant continued investigation:
- Will any government officials face consequences for fabricating evidence against a citizen exercising constitutional rights?
- Why has Parliament remained silent on such a clear violation of democratic norms?
- What other policy decisions have been influenced by the financial relationships between these companies and the government?
- How extensive is the oligarchy’s personnel placement across government institutions?
- Will President Cirro use his political capital from this episode to address systematic state capture, or will existing patterns of corporate influence remain intact?
The telecommunications companies have not explained their coordination on pricing or addressed questions about their extensive relationships with government officials. Their silence, combined with the government’s fabrication scandal, suggests an oligarchy confident that temporary public pressure will pass while their structural advantages remain untouched.
The broader question for Somaliland is whether democratic institutions can survive when major corporations maintain such extensive financial and personnel control over government agencies. This week’s events suggest the current system may be fundamentally inadequate for that task.
Unless this moment of public awakening translates into systematic reform of the relationships between corporate power and government authority, similar scandals are inevitable. The oligarchy that sought to increase phone bills while criminalizing protest will simply wait for public attention to move elsewhere, then continue operating as they always have.
