Honorable Buri Mohamed
Hamza, a Somali parliamentarian and junior minister, was killed in the recent
hotel bombing in Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab ten days ago.
Buri, who hailed from the
coastal town of Baraawe, was an intellectual, a political activist, and an
avowed environmentalist. He always saw politics as a way of serving his people.
I was 18 when I first
met Buri in Cairo, Egypt. He was then a graduate student on break from Tunisia
with full scholarship from the Arab League. What amazed me was his great mental
capacity, razor-sharp humor, and fervent passion for politics. He and his
colleague, Yusuf, a northerner, were fun to be with. Yusuf especially had a
knack for constantly joking about the cultural clashes between southerners and
northerners. It was interesting that Buri, who was studying science—probably
Chemistry—had such penchant for politics.
Buri left his adopted
country—Canada—during the first Somali Transitional Government as a major
advisor for then Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galeyr. As a protégé of the premier,
he became exposed to the day-to-day political intrigue of running the first
Somali transitional government after the collapse of Siad Barre’s regime in
1991. It was dysfunctional and rife with constant jostling for power and
backstabbing between President Abdiqassim Salad and PM Galeyr until it finally
led to a tangible constrain between the two officials. Galeyr was dismissed and
Buri returned to Toronto.
He became bored with
the mundane life in Canada and found himself in Mogadishu. He became a parliamentarian
and successfully held ministerial positions in the Foreign Ministry,
Environment, and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Buri is best remembered
for being committed to preserving the environment. He wrote extensively about
the danger of foreign countries dumping chemicals in the country’s shorelines
and the baneful effect of cutting trees for charcoal and exporting them. He had
officially represented his country important international conferences on the
environment.
I last saw Buri in
Europe in 2012 in an international conference on Somalia. It was a chance
encounter at the cafeteria during lunch. He was accompanied by Ambassador
Mohamed Sharif, a veteran diplomat who, like Buri, also hailed from Barawe.
Buri was then working as an advisor to Sharif Hassan, then the Speaker of
Parliament. Always jovial, enthusiastic, and full of energy, Buri sensed that I
was a bit bewildered with his employment with the Speaker, a man full of
indiscretions. “Did Buri know that his job came with a collateral damage? Was
it a tragic lapse of judgment on Buri’s part? Was the Speaker dragging him to
the wrong path,” I wondered. Buri was perfectly aware of my critical position of
the Speaker.
Buri, a smirk
flickering across his face, asked me if I knew whom he was working for.
“Oh, yes,” I responded,
smiling.
Despite his subtle jab
at his boss, Buri was not the one to be dissuaded from his objective of seeing
Somalia end transitional governments. Paradoxically, that job, which many of
his friends gasp, came into an inauspicious end. A new government was formed in
2012 to end transition, the Speaker lost his job, and Buri retained his
parliamentary seat.
Buri cared about his
country and its political welfare. One things that stands out about Buri is: He
led a life devoid of tribalism. He got along with many people; educated,
politicians, activists, and laypersons. May God Bless him.
