The people against the telecom oligarchs

On August, Somaliland’s three largest private telecom companies—Telesom (a Hormuud subsidiary), Somtel (owned by the Dahabshiil Group), and the newest entrant, Solteco—faced intense public backlash after they attempted to simultaneously double the price of mobile data and prepaid services. Prominent human rights lawyer Guleid Ahmed Dafac was among the first to sound the alarm. Speaking to Geeska, Dafac called the move “illegal, and clearly an anti-competitive deal,” adding that it “goes against the free market” and could set a dangerous precedent for other sectors. “It will encourage other private companies to make such illegal deals, which will harm the poor community,” he warned.

Mobilizing the public online, Dafac announced a peaceful protest and sent a letter to the interior ministry informing them. “I felt it necessary to organize the public because this deal endangered justice and the rule of law,” Dafac said. However, the ministry later claimed it had not received the letter and said that “no protests are allowed,” despite the letter being made public. Public pressure, however, proved decisive. President Abdirahman Abdullahi Ciro ordered the price hike halted and instructed that prices return to their previous levels until further notice. Though Dafac announced the postponement of the protests, he remains skeptical, describing the directive as “vague and unclear.” Some of the companies later issued statements claiming they had “listened to the public.”

Speaking on the potential impact of the price rise, Dafac said: “It will contribute to the widening wealth gap, where wealth will fall into the hands of a few, making life much harder for the poor.” This has direct implications for the quality of Somaliland’s democracy. These companies, and their telecom subsidiaries, control a large share of the economy, bankroll the campaigns of politicians, and operate revolving doors of employees moving into government and back into company ranks. Claire Elder describes Somaliland more as an “oligopolistic state” than a democracy in the sense that power is concentrated among a few elites and corporate actors who limit genuine political competition. “We have constitutional weaknesses,” Dafac says, and “anti-corruption measures are largely absent.”