Somaliland Mission premises at Runda, Nairobi on May 29, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] Some political questions refuse to go away, not because they are complicated, but because answering them would require a degree of honesty that we often overlook. Somaliland is one such case. For more than three decades, it has governed itself, held elections, maintained security, and managed its affairs with little outside assistance. And yet, officially, it remains unseen. Israel’s December 26, 2025, decision to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign and independent state, the first country in more than three decades to extend such recognition, has brought that…
Author: By Mohamed A Omar
Military officers escort the casket bearing the body of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga during the funeral service in Bondo, on October 19, 2025. [File, Standard] There are men whose names become punctuation marks in a nation’s story. A pause in the country’s weather. A shift in its breathing. The kind of men who compel a nation to confront difficult questions about its future and the direction it wants to take. Raila Amolo Odinga was one of those men. Across Kenya, he will be remembered as a central figure in the struggle for pluralism and constitutionalism. Across the wider region, he…