Mohamed Hashi Elmi

Mohamed Hashi Elmi is a Somali politician who served as the Minister of Finance of Somaliland from July 2010 to March 2012. He is the former mayor of Hargeisa from 1993 to 1996.

Early life and education

In 1939, Mohamed Hashi Elmi was born in the city of Jigjiga, where he grew up and began studying the Quran. He belongs to the Sa'ad Musa sub-clan of the Habar Awal branch within the larger Isaaq clan.

He later moved to Hargeisa and completed his primary and intermediate education at the Hargeisa Trade School.

In 1982, Mohamed became the Secretary of Finance for the Somali National Movement and served until 1986. In this election, 315 selected delegates voted for the president instead of the public. Mohamed challenged the incumbent President Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal and politician Suleiman Mohamoud Adan, but he lost the election after receiving only two votes. In 2004, Mohamed challenged the government by distributing documents that showed the actual revenues of the country to oppose inaccurate budget forecasts. This action caused a severe political dispute with the administration, which led to his removal from the ministry in 2005. The government accused them of conducting illegal political activities outside the official election schedule and arrested the founders. Consequently, government authorities imprisoned them at Mandera Prison for four months and twenty days, and they were released on 18 December 2007. President also alongside Mohamed Abdi Gaboose as the Minister of Interior, placing the former Qaran leaders in the two most important cabinet posts.

In December 2010, Mohamed suddenly became very ill and was flown to Djibouti for urgent medical treatment. He stayed in a French military hospital for three weeks to recover. Later that month, he returned to Hargeisa, where government ministers and hundreds of citizens gathered at the airport to welcome him back.

In January 2011, Mohamed announced that public primary and intermediate schools in Somaliland would become completely free. He also doubled the salaries of teachers. Although the Ministry of Education requested to hire 2,000 new teachers to handle more students, Mohamed's ministry limited the number to 1,500 due to the government's financial capacity.

In November 2011, Mohamed issued an official decree to collect income taxes from private schools to increase national revenue. This new rule forced all private school teachers and workers to pay taxes from their salaries for the first time. The Ministry of Finance worked closely with the Ministry of Education to enforce this law on around 100 private schools in Hargeisa.

During his tenure as minister, Mohamed significantly improved the infrastructure of Hargeisa General Hospital. He replaced all the old hospital beds that had been used since the British colonial era with modern ones. Furthermore, he repaired the stored kidney dialysis machines and brought in specialized doctors from abroad, which allowed the hospital to cover 80% of the local need for dialysis treatment.

During his two-year tenure, Mohamed significantly increased the national budget, implemented currency reforms in Burao, and made primary education free. He also insisted that the Ministry of Finance must monitor all funds entering the country, which caused a severe dispute with the Minister of Minerals. This conflict led to his removal from office.

A political analyst revealed that Mohamed was removed from office because he blocked the ruling Kulmiye party from using public funds. The party had borrowed massive election campaign debts from wealthy business owners. When these traders demanded repayment, Mohamed strictly protected the treasury and refused to pay them with government money, leading to his dismissal.

Customs workers revealed that Mohamed's management style sometimes caused technical problems. Because he lacked deep experience with specialized customs equipment, he often bypassed official procedures. When citizens called him directly to complain about customs disputes, he made immediate personal decisions, which occasionally caused financial losses for the state. Some employees at the Ministry of Finance welcomed Mohamed's dismissal because he was an extremely hard worker who forced his staff to work very long hours. While staff members acknowledged his strong competence for the role, they also described him as a strict and stubborn leader who rarely trusted others. The group included former vice presidents and leaders of political organizations that had failed in previous elections. Mohamed became a key member to criticize the policies of the government. This change was made to avoid heavy legal threats and pressure from the government, which had claimed that using the word "Council" for a political group outside the constitution was completely illegal. He stated that the committee members would not bring any success to the country. He argued that instead of working for the independence of Somaliland, they were focusing too much on Somalia, which would fail to achieve any real results.

In November 2019, Mohamed criticized the main opposition party, the Waddani party, for showing a lack of respect toward the presidency. He stated that the party refused to use the official title of President Muse Bihi Abdi and instead called him only "Muse." He urged opposition politicians to respect the head of state despite their election losses. He also criticized former President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud and current President Muse Bihi Abdi for staying silent about the bad administration, warning voters against selecting incompetent candidates based on tribal loyalty. His report showed that the country spent over 3.3 billion dollars on importing cement and khat from 2004 to 2021. He stated that successive presidents failed to build local factories, causing massive financial losses.

Death In November 2023, Mohamed died at a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. President Muse Bihi Abdi and other national leaders sent condolences to his family, and local media broadcast details of his long political career.