Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh welcomes newly elected East African Legislative Assembly members in Mogadishu

Somalia’s Seat at East Africa’s Table: Why Mogadishu’s New EALA Delegation Matters

A quiet milestone in Mogadishu

In a bright room at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud welcomed Somalia’s first full slate of lawmakers to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). The ceremony, following a parliamentary vote that selected nine representatives, was deliberately understated — no brass bands, no triumphal headlines. Yet the significance should not be missed. Less than a year after its admission to the East African Community (EAC), Somalia has formally taken a voice inside one of the bloc’s key institutions.

The president congratulated the group and, by all accounts, pressed them to carry the national interest into the regional chamber with discipline and pride. The names are new to Arusha’s corridors, but they will soon matter: Hussein Hassan Mohamed, Ilhaan Ali Gasar, Faysal Abdi Roble, Abdisalaam Hadliye, Abdirahman Bashir Sharif, Fahma Ahmed Nur, Fadumo Abdullahi, Abukar Mardaadi, and Sahra Ali Hassan. Four are women — a notable signal in a region where glass ceilings crack slowly.

EALA’s power: modest chamber, outsized signal

To be clear, EALA is not a parliament in the classic sense. It doesn’t topple governments. It cannot unilaterally spend money. But it drafts laws that shape the customs union and common market, plays watchdog over regional institutions, and — crucially — gives citizens a forum to press for freer movement and fewer trade barriers. It’s the place where the practical stuff of regional integration gets hammered out: sanitary standards for livestock, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, rules for cross-border insurance, and how fast a truck carrying fish, cement, or cables can move from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam to landlocked cities and, eventually, to Somalia’s ports.

For Somalia, being in EALA is a signal as much as a seat. It says Mogadishu isn’t just visiting the region; it intends to help shape it.

What Somalia stands to gain

Ask a young entrepreneur at Bakara Market what the EAC means and you’ll hear practical dreams. Lower costs to import cooking oil and cement. More predictable standards for milk and meat products. A legal framework that makes it easier to sell software across borders or to ship fish from Kismayo to Kampala without unpredictable delays at a frontier post.

Somalia’s economy is more diversified than stereotypes admit. The country’s livestock, fisheries, and telecom sectors are resilient — and increasingly connected to global markets via mobile money. Aligning with the EAC’s rules could unlock new outlets for goods and services across a region now stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic basin, after the Democratic Republic of Congo joined in 2022. Taken together, the EAC’s population is well over 300 million, with a consumer base that’s young, urbanizing, and mobile-first. Somalia is stepping into a market that is both familiar and formidable.

There are tangible opportunities:

• Trade corridors: Tighter links between Somali ports and the Northern Corridor could reduce transport costs for imports and exports, aiding traders from Mogadishu to Baidoa.
• Digital finance: Somalia’s near-ubiquitous mobile money ecosystem can plug into regional payment systems if rules align, making transactions cheaper for families and small businesses.
• Skills and standards: Mutual recognition of qualifications can help Somali professionals work across borders, while harmonized standards can open markets for Somali products.

What could go wrong

Integration always promises more than it delivers in the first years. EALA can pass a bill harmonizing product standards, but customs officers and border agencies have to implement it. Somalia faces a steep to-do list to align with the EAC’s Common External Tariff, adjust domestic tax codes, and build the administrative capacity to manage rules of origin, import documentation, and sanitary checks. For a government battling a jihadist insurgency and rebuilding institutions after decades of conflict, this is heavy lift, not light touch.

There’s also the politics of adjustment. If imported goods get cheaper, local producers may face new competition. If regional carriers and firms expand into Somalia, the benefits may feel uneven at first. And free movement — the beating heart of the EAC’s common market — remains aspirational across much of the region. Border openings must be paired with security management along frontier towns and rural crossings.

The nine faces — and the task ahead

Somalia’s delegation will arrive in Arusha to find a complex agenda. Key files likely to cross their desks include non-tariff barriers, the future of the EAC’s digital markets framework, and the slow march toward a monetary union. They’ll sit on committees, negotiate compromises, and defend national interests while helping to bind a region still wrangling over everything from visas to transit fees.

Representation matters. This slate blends experience from public service and civic spaces, and improves gender representation in a way that many Somalis — particularly a young generation raised on the internet, not checkpoints — want to see. The job description is not glamorous: long meetings, dense legal texts, and constant coordination with a home government that will juggle security imperatives and economic reforms. But the results — the ability of a Somali trucker, coder, fisher, or teacher to move more freely and sell more widely — could be profound.

The politics beyond the chamber

Regional work succeeds when local buy-in is real. That means federal member states, business associations, pastoralist cooperatives, women’s groups, and universities in Somalia need a voice in how laws land on the ground. If new EAC rules feel imposed from the top, they will be slow to take root. The delegation’s value will partly be measured by what it brings home — outreach, listening sessions, and practical guidance for domestic agencies trying to harmonize regulations.

This is also a test of coalition-building. Somalia’s own political realities — clan balance, federal-federal member state relations, and elections on the horizon — will shadow every regional decision. The delegation’s ability to stay focused on national interests rather than factional ones may be its biggest contribution.

A regional project under stress

The EAC is not a tidy project. Disputes over trade curbs resurface. Tensions between members can spill into policy. The long-promised monetary union slips further on the calendar. Expansion has brought promise and friction in equal measure. Yet even with the strains, the bloc has been one of Africa’s most persistent experiments in practical integration — harmonizing standards, piloting one-stop border posts, and experimenting with shared infrastructure and energy projects.

Somalia’s arrival tests whether the EAC can keep expanding without losing coherence. It also tests whether regionalism can make a visible difference in places where insecurity and underinvestment have choked growth. If the EAC can help Somalia lower trade costs, formalize cross-border commerce, and attract targeted investment in ports, logistics, and value chains, momentum will build. If not, skepticism will harden.

What to watch next

In the coming months, look for these signals:

• Committee assignments: Which portfolios the Somali MPs secure inside EALA will reveal their leverage and priorities.
• Regulatory alignment: Concrete steps by Mogadishu to adopt the Common External Tariff and streamline customs procedures.
• Mobility: Early arrangements to ease travel for Somali traders and students, even before full free-movement protocols are in place.
• Standards and SPS: Practical progress on livestock and fisheries standards, crucial for Somalia’s export base.
• Private sector voice: Forums that bring Somali business and civil society into the integration process — not as spectators, but as co-authors.

The scene at the palace was cordial and hopeful. The harder work will happen far from Mogadishu’s chandeliers — in committee rooms, border posts, port yards, and small workshops where cross-border trade is a ledger, a truck, and a promise. For Somalia, EALA is not an endpoint but a door. The question now is how widely it can be opened — and for whom.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.