The Status of Dire Dawa and the Appointment of a Mayor: 1991-2010:Core-Periphery in the City Council

Abstract

Dire Dawa has been a disputed city starting from the origin and the meaning of the word “Dire Dawa” among the Oromo and Somali ethnic groups. The federal arrangment has brought dispute and claim over territories ownership and ethnic identity. The dispute was transformed to over ownership of the city as of 1991.   The purpose of this study was to investigate the legal status of Dire Dawa and the appointment of a mayor from 1991-2010. Its aim was to investigate how the dispute among the Oromo and Somali regional state over the city was solved. To conduct this study, Historical research method was employed. To this end, both primary and secondary sources were employed. The primary sources include oral account (witnesses, participants, officials) and written materials-unpublished reports, and magazines published at the time. Secondary sources from different academic backgrounds were also utilized. All the data were critically examined, corroborated and analyzed. The finding of the study revealed that the status of Dire Dawa remained undecided from May 1991 to 2004 because of dispute between Oromo and Somali over the city. More importantly, it revealed that the identity of Gurgura was disputed between Oromo and Somali ethnic groups.  The 1995 constitution left the issue of Dire Dawa unresolved, that is, the city was neither included in the newly established regional states nor given its own status either as a multi-ethnic city or as one of the regional states. Thus, Dire Dawa was ruled by officials appointed by the central government starting from November 1991 up to January 2008. As of 2004, Dire Dawa became a chartered city- as temporary solution  and in 2008 established its own Council. The other important finding of the study was the division of power along 4:4:2(which resembles soccer lineup), 40% to Oromo political party; 40% to Somali political party; and the remaining 20% to other political parties after 2008. This meant that these contending parties were given equal share which was manifested in sharing 5 years- into two and a half year for each party, among themselves. This made Dire Dawa the first city in Ethiopia that had a mayor with two and a half years office terms and two mayors in 5 years. Such transfer also holds true for other offices. Furthermore, this arrangement was claimed to have brought the Somali and Oromo to the core. However, within the Somali ethnic groups, in the city council, Issa dominated the core with reserved post of mayor, while Gurgura was peripheralized as restricted to council spokesperson and city manager post. The paper concluded that such  division of power could not be compatible to good governance, democratic principles and meet peoples demand. Such arrangement should be abandoned and Dire Dawa need lasting solution.

Key words: Dire Dawa, Gurgura, Oromo, Somali, ethnic group, Periherpy