Security sector reform is an ongoing process — deliberate, political, and inherently slow. Yet insecurity and governance gaps demand action today, not years from now. The real challenge is balancing immediate stability with the long-term goal of building professional, accountable, and unified security institutions.
Balancing Now and Next. Reform is not a one-off event but a sustained effort that demands political consensus, legal frameworks, and institutional capacity. However, citizens cannot wait indefinitely for safety and effective governance. Reform efforts must therefore be phased, modular, and results-oriented, capable of delivering visible impact while laying the foundations for systemic change.
The Urgency of Immediate Relief. Communities across the country continue to face pressing security threats, localized violence, terrorist attacks, and clan conflicts. For many citizens, reform means little if it does not translate into improved safety and visible change.
What the public urgently needs is peace, stability, economic opportunity, and a government capable of delivering basic services. Without these, there can be no effective state, public safety, or trust in governance.
A functioning government requires legitimacy and public confidence to govern. Legitimacy depends on having a national army that enforces the law and protects the public. Public confidence depends on a state that can protect citizens, uphold the law, and deliver services.
Immediate Relief Measures. The first practical step is to integrate Somali National Army (SNA) under a single national command. Soldiers and commanders should serve based on national deployment decisions, not clan or regional affiliations.
This alone would give the government real capacity to govern, provide a unified command against terrorist groups, and reduce recurring clan-based clashes that erupt when local forces side with their kin during conflicts. It could also shift the country from a fragmented security structure to a coherent national defense posture.
To make this happen federal and state presidents must agree to implement the National Security Architecture adopted in London in May 2017. Parliament should then formalize oversight mechanisms to ensure accountability and continuity.
The administrative groundwork already exists. SNA has been largely registered, with personnel files, ID numbers, and payroll records established in previous reforms. With political commitment and prioritization of public interest, integration could be completed within six months.
Once the SNA is unified, other reforms in policing, intelligence, and corrections will be far easier to implement. What remains essential is solidarity, sacrifice, and a shared sense of national duty that transcends narrow political or clan interests.