On ahmed MadoobeWe pressed on until we finally made it to Kismaayu. It’s really beautiful to enter the city
for the first time because everything becomes extremely green and there are some rolling
hills, and then long flat plains, filled with all types of cattle. We had seen many beautiful
sights prior to that but this time we were happy to see our new home so it made it all the
more beautiful.
Jilib for instance, is full of mango trees that line the banks of the Jubba River. There are
monkeys and all types of wildlife. There are banana trees and papaya. The whole scene
looks incredibly tropical.
Kaamsuuma is also not really much different in its description but during the flood season
we didn’t really go looking around like we did in Jilib.
We entered Kismaayu and we were taken to the house previously owned by the criminal
Barey Hiiraale (which literally means the man with freckles and balding streaks). He used
to run the city for a pretty long time on behalf of his tribe (Marexaan) which was also the
tribe of the former president Siyaad Barey.
Axmad Madobe was with us that night as well. He was
the ‘Mayor’ of Kismaayu and he was posing as a very hardcore member of the Shabaab at
that time (later it become known to me that in reality he was a very hardcore supporter of
his own stomach and then of his own particular tribe)
