He has overcome adversity to excel where the privileged have foundered
Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Hussein Mohamed. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI
Abdikadir Hussein Mohamed is not very tall, but what he lacks in height, he makes up in intellect and attitude. He is amiable, jovial and a keen listener. And he is as sharp a dresser as he is a lawyer.
The brisk walker wears formal suits most of the time, except on weekends and holidays when he dresses down to what he calls his “hip-hop” Muslim — kanzu and cap.
His carefully styled black curly hair hints at regular visits to the barbershop, but he wears neither bling nor heavy cologne.
The man who weighs in at 70 kilos enjoys his ugali and rice with boiled meat he calls mboiro; but you will not find him at the gym because he claims he has no weight to lose.
In fact, this lover of pasta and chapatis, says his inability to finish large plates of food “is not something that pleases” his highly educated wife Amina, an education specialist at Unicef’s Kenya country office in Nairobi.
“I have no particular dish. But I enjoy my ugali and rice. My wife complains I don’t eat very well,” he told Lifestyle in a candid, relaxed interview at the offices of Ahmednasir, Abdikadir & Co Advocates in Nairobi.
Juice and water
A devout Muslim from Rhamu village on the border between Kenya and Ethiopia, Mr Mohamed drinks only milk, orange juice and water.
The 38-year-old father of three boys between the ages of two and 12 likes travelling and reading law journals. Although he was raised along the crocodile-infested Daua River, swimming comes naturally to him.
Until he was elected to Parliament from Mandera Central in 2007, and fellow MPs elected him chairman of two parliamentary committees: Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs and Constitution Review, the lawyer-cum-politician was little known outside the law firm that he co-founded with his mentor Ahmednasir Abdullahi in 1996.
“I am not shy, but I don’t like drama so much. I enjoy business and office work as opposed to litigation. My colleague, Mr Abdullahi, is in charge of litigation, and I am in charge of corporate affairs at the firm. That explains why I seem to keep a low profile. Even in the PSC, I would be happy to have done my work quietly without drama, noise and ABCD.”
Academic credentials
He may not have weight to throw around, but his academic credentials speak volumes.
From a small village school about 80 km west of Mandera town, itself about 1,500 km northeast of Nairobi, Mr Mohamed made his academic way to Kenya’s top secondary school, top university, and one of the world’s leading law schools. He entered Harvard Law School in 2000, about 10 years after US President Barack Obama had left.
In admitting him on March 24, 2000, the institution’s Graduate and International Legal Studies director Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote: “It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Harvard Law School LL.M. degree class 2000-2001.
It is an even greater pleasure to advise you that, from the many outstanding applications that we received, yours was one of a select group that most impressed the Committee on Graduate Studies.
“Your excellent academic record speaks for itself. The committee was equally impressed by the courage and determination you have shown in overcoming personal hardships and institutional obstacles; your track record as a practitioner in an influential law firm; your record of engagement in human rights education and in professional activities through the Kenya Law Society;
the thoughtful way in which you discuss your experiences, legal interests and career plans; and the depth of your commitment to help find practical ways of alleviating the poverty of your home province . . . In recognition of your accomplishments, you have been named one of Harvard Law School’s Landon H. Gammon Fellows for the 2000-2001 academic year."
Mr Mohamed’s thesis at Harvard Law dealt with alternative forms of finance friendly to Muslims. Later, in 2007, he and Mr Abdullahi would co-found the First Community Bank, Kenya’s first Islamic bank to offer sharia-compliant financial instruments and which serves both Muslims and non-Muslims.
The hardships and obstacles Prof Slaughter alluded to seem fresh in the lawyer’s mind as Kenyans seek to continue the quest for a new constitution that began nearly 20 years ago.
Mr Mohamed says he might never have been where he is today had it not been for the elders who snatched him from an Islamic madrassa and whisked him off to Alliance High School in Kikuyu against the wishes of his father. He remembers how his class master at Rhamu Primary Abdi Sheikh insisted that he choose Alliance, even before the exams.
“He told me: ‘Alliance is the right choice for you.’ I always tell him that was a wonderful decision he made for me,’’ Mr Mohamed said. From Standard Five on he finished at the top of his class and scored 27 of the maximum 36 points in the Certificate of Primary Education examination. Thanks to the quota system, he was admitted to Alliance in 1984.
But his pastoralist, polygamous father Hussein Mohamed did not want the second-born son of his first wife’s four children to go to a secular school.
“My father wanted me to go through the madrassa programme, and I was too young to know why or discuss the ABCD with him,” Mr Mohamed said. “I had no choice. I could not resist. The decision was not mine.”
“A bunch of 13 boys and I were put in a hired bus and driven to Majengo in Nyeri where we were enrolled for madrassa programmes. My father did not explain to me, but I would imagine that religious scholarship being well-respected among the Muslims, he wanted me to attend a religious school.”
“But just about that time, there was a push to get a number of young boys and girls to go to national schools. The (North Eastern) provincial education officer came to Mandera and wanted all the boys who had been admitted to the national schools to be supported to report to the schools.
"I learnt later that the PEO and other elders paid my father a visit and asked him to let me go to Alliance. He agreed on condition another boy of his choice replaced me. One cold morning, my uncle led a group of elders to Majengo. He told me: ‘You are now heading to school. We have brought your cousin to replace you.’ ”
That cousin, Adow Abdullahi, now a businessman, would years later become the chairman of the Mandera County Council.
Culture shock
“I had a culture shock at Alliance,” he said. “It was run on strict rules. No freedom to walk out of school. The environment was completely different: from a hot climate back home to the cold weather of Kikuyu. I was used to maize meal, rice and pasta.
"At Alliance the food was interesting. I was introduced to githeri and njenga (crushed maize) and fish. Dress code was also different. Back home, I used to wear kaptula (short trousers); there were no shoes. I wore long trousers for the first time at Alliance. I was also very uncomfortable with a necktie.
“Back home, everyone was a Somali. But at Alliance, you would find people from every part of the country. That is the most enriching thing I benefited from — interacting and making friends with people from various backgrounds.”
In addition to the distance between Alliance and Rhamu — 1,600 km — Mr Mohamed says he was frustrated by the stiff competition that would not see him among the top students.
Indeed, he yearned to complete Form Four and pursue A-levels at Garissa High, a less competitive rural school that is now called Sheikh Ali.
“I really did not settle down at school; probably that is the reason I went back to rural school afterwards for my A-levels,” he said.
“My results at Alliance were first affected seriously by the death of my mother Batulo Dubat. I was in Form Two. Her death interfered with family stability.
"Then I was constantly moving up and down, losing a week or two and sometimes a month before returning to school after holidays. I had to go back home every holiday because I did not know anybody around to stay with. Then I would be terribly homesick. I also was not very serious in my school work.”
And when he did his O-levels and got a Second Division, his community back home was not amused. “My family members, friends and relatives were very disappointed. They would tell me: ‘we took you to Alliance, and you come back with Division Two. How dare you?’
“But my dad had faith in me. If he was also disappointed, he did not show it. I decided to go for A-levels at a rural school back home. I wanted to prove to the people that the problem was not Alliance but me. I wanted to show them I could succeed even in a rural school.”
Public schools
Mr Mohamed says learning was fine in Form Five, but everything changed for the worse when he entered Form Six, and President Moi directed that Ugandan teachers could no longer be employed in Kenyan public schools.
“All the five teachers for A-level classes, who were Ugandans, left. We were about 12 students, and we studied on our own the whole year.”
However, the teenager made it to the University of Nairobi where he would become president of his second and third year law classes.
His classmates included MPs Peter Munya and Danson Mungatana, who had also been his classmate at Alliance. Both MPs are his colleagues on the parliamentary reform committees.
Mr Mohamed says 1996 remains his most memorable year. He married his village mate and former schoolmate at Rhamu Primary, Amina Ibrahim, got admitted to the bar on March 7, and on the same day represented his first clients in a court and won.
Law firm
It was also on the same day that he and Mr Abdullahi registered their law firm.
“1996 was a special year for me; I married, I won my first case, we registered our law firm, I was admitted both to the bar and to the club ya wazee (married men).”
His wife also went to the University of Nairobi after Alliance Girls and then to University of London where she obtained a Master of Science degree in development studies.
Mr Mohamed is beginning to have dark circles under his eyes, perhaps an indication that he is working late into the night and waking up early to cope with the increased workload. His hectic day starts just before 6 a.m. when he goes to pray and ends “depending on what needs to be done”.
Could Kenyans see in him a future Obama?
“I will leave that to Kenyans. Obama is a great man. I would not pretend to have the ambitions of being a president.”
Let him show us what he's done to Mandera. But who said that Kenya has managed to separate State and Religion? How about this hypothesis; After the last general election, there was enormous external pressure on Kivuitu not to announce the results simply because one of the 'possible winners' had 'unpredictable' religious leanings. Don't joke...Kenyans, you are still pawns in these games. Think.
Hon. Abdikadir, that is a very impresive cv. Am afriad though that I have not heard you aticulate the issues in your constituency like, the clan fights in Ghale hills, military operation, illegal business popurally known as magendo, sale of food aid, or is it that I have not been keen. Am working in your constituency and I think my reception is clear enough..... please do something before you become like...I don't need to mention.
How Abdkadir as chair steers the constitutional review process will test his worth as a future Obama.
Any MP who can collect the exobitant amounts of money as salary during this period of time, and fail to ask for a pay cut or pay taxes should not be anyone we are looking up to. We need a leader who can inspire and also see and address what is wrong with our government today. For all I know, this fella is just like the rest of them. Happily collecting a fat pay while his people starve to death. I won't be watching him!
I only voted in 1997, but if this fellow can prove himself in the coming four years on his political ambitions to lead this nation best way possible, I will register as a voter come 2012 and mote for him.
am you first vote in case you stand for president. Go for it! we need fresh blood and clean young leaders to change the tradition of inheriting politics and the old corrupt tribalic leaders
lifestyle, we do not need this guy to pose for us telling us abt his carly hair and the way he eats macaroni. what are the credentials for? is he hunting for a job still? can he tell us abt constitutional review and post a draft for us to go thru?
He should start paying tax on his hefty package. Only then will I take him seriously. His got a good resume but that's his personal thing. It has no bearing on me.
Whats the point of the Nation bragging to us about credentials that cannot be translated into real solutions in Kenya? We need guys who change Kenya to development route,,seriously i have a problem with this big credentials n pple still in camps n others dying of hunger
Does he pay taxes? Just wondering.
I am impressed with the achievements of Abdikadir and this will make me believe that God is preparing a leader that is clean from the corruption. This is what Kenya is eagerly waiting for, “We are troubled from every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed.” This is daily prayer for a common Kenyan. Let us Hope he is the man for Kenay. Peter K USA
It's admirable to have a man that doesn't blow his own trupet, isn't selfish, and strives for excellence. Perhaps the "Obama" of Kenya... lols.
davai...u can do it!! we r expectin more frm you!
This is the crop of leadership that can change Kenya; free from kleptocracy nad clearly understands poverty!
My congrat`s Mheshimiwa! I started reading everything about him when he got the Chair of the 2 parliament Committes and Now I must say he is the kind of readers we need in our country.No corrupt deals and lot`s of brains !hOW I wish all contituencies could emulate Mandera Central and only Vote under 40 MP`s who have excelled in various fields come 2011?? CHEERS MANDERA CENTRAL,CHEERS HON. HUSSEIN
bwana mheshimiwa, now that you have the chance prove to kenyans that you are one different from others in the bunge la chang"aa ya kulala, while they r sleeping in their posh cars, kwa nyumba na hata ndani ya ndege, make your c.v now that we know you, we are busy watching you! we want a really change!! obama juuu.
