Somalia Mourns Death of  Last Surviving Independence Parliamentarian

Somalia, 7 December 2025 -The Somali political and intellectual community is mourning the passing of Haji Ali Mohamed Hirabe “Hagarrey”, who died in Canada at the age of 107.

 His death marks the end of an era, as he was the last surviving member of Somalia’s 1960 Independence Parliament and one of the most prominent figures of the generation that laid the foundations of the modern Somali state.

Born in 1918 in the Adale district, Hagarrey received his early education in Qur’anic schools before becoming a teacher. From a young age, he was deeply influenced by the ideas of his Qur’anic teacher, Sheikh Ahmed Gabyoow, (The Poet) one of the leading religious and nationalist figures opposing colonial rule—an influence that shaped his worldview throughout his public life.

Hagarrey moved to Mogadishu in the 1940s to continue his education, and in 1943 he joined the Somali Youth League (SYL), the movement that led Somalia’s struggle for independence. In 1950, he became an employee in the first internal legislative body in southern Somalia, formed during the transitional administrative period that began gradually transferring political responsibility to Somalis.

As independence approached, he was elected in 1960 to the first national parliament, becoming part of the historic generation that witnessed the union of the north and south and the establishment of the Somali Republic.

After independence, Hagarrey was appointed Minister of Information and Tourism, the first to hold this portfolio between 1960 and 1964. He was widely respected for strengthening the national media, sending staff abroad for professional training, and raising institutional standards at a time when the country was building its state institutions from scratch.