The election season is heating up in Somalia, as yesterday’s enemies now converge and become allies. In a style characteristic of the fluidity & chaos inherent in our politics, a bizarre game of reinvention is taking place & in the process exposing moral bankrupt of opposition.

Just within the last few weeks, senior leaders of the opposition have met with the two most toxic & malignant figures within the FGS: @HSNQ_NISA DG Fahad Yassin & the disgraced ex PM @HassanAKhaire. The rationale behind these meetings was to probe areas of cooperation.

The strategy of the opposition in Mogadishu driven by a very cannibalistic exploitation of politics that manipulates popular frustrations and anger against the government to advance a very retrograde and discredited personal ambitions now lays exposed.

The probing of possible areas of cooperation, for electoral purposes, btwn the the above individuals and the opposition figures shows how the culture of the ‘the end justifies the means’ has utterly destabilized Somali politics and will continue to dictate norms.

For all intents and purposes, the opposition has stopped pretending to be an opposition soon after the Dhuusamreeb Deal between FGS & FMS was signed. Even as FGS manipulates events in Hiirshabelle & politicizes security forces, the opposition has adopted strategy of silence.

A political system dominated by a discredited government and a discredited opposition gives space for third forces to emerge and fill ensuing legitimacy vacuum. In Somalia, this vacuum is being filled by Al Shabab which now is the shadow gov’t.

The upcoming elections, far from resetting the system, threatens to further entrench and embolden the capture of power by discredited and corrupt groups. We already see this by the endless parade of idiots vying for MP & presidential positions.

The past decade of strong international support for FGS, backed largely by western funds and AU military weight, was meant to give Somalis the space to create a legitimate and functioning governance systems.

This has not happened. Instead, as Al Shabab morphs from a terror group to a governing authority, calls for withdrawal of critical American support are getting louder — and nor is AMISOM presence open-ended.

For Somalis hopeful of functional state, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s an Al Shabab train that will pulverize everything that stands on its path.