Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali ( so, Maxamed Xuseen Cali; born 1956 in

Eldoret Eldoret is a principal town in the Rift Valley region of Kenya and serves as the capital of Uasin Gishu County. The town was referred to by white settlers as Farm 64, 64 and colloquially by locals as 'Sisibo'. As per the 2019 Kenya Population ...

) is a Kenyan military commander. He was formerly commissioner of the

Kenya Police ) , formedyear = 1906 , formedmonthday = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , employees = approx. 101,000= , volunteers = , budget = , country = Kenya , ...

. He is currently chief executive of the

Postal Corporation of Kenya The Postal Corporation of Kenya is the company responsible for postal service in Kenya. It is also known as Posta Kenya. Kenyan post system was formerly part of the Kenya Post & Telecommunication Corporation (KP&TC), which was split into Posta, ...

Early life

Ali's family belongs to the

Sheekhaal The Sheekhaal (var. Sheikhaal ( ar, شيخال), also known as Fiqi Omar, is a Somali clan. They inhabit Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and with considerable numbers also found in the North Eastern Province (Kenya), Northern Frontier District (NFD ...

, an ethnic Somali clan. Ali went to Uasin Gishu High School and then proceeded to Kolanya Boys' High School in Busia District. He dropped out of high school after the death of his father to take care of his four younger siblings.

Career

Military

In 1977, Ali joined the

Kenyan Army The Kenya Army is the land arm of the Kenya Defence Forces. History The origin of the present day Kenya Army lie with the British Army's King's African Rifles. In the last quarter of the 19th Century the British began actively enforcing the aboli ...

. He was eventually promoted to

brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

in 2003 and to

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

in 2005. During his military career, he served as a

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

in Zimbabwe and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, and was commanding officer of the Western Brigade of the Kenya Army Paratrooper Battalion, as well as 50 Air Cavalry Battalion in

Embakasi Embakasi is a neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. It is approximately , southeast of the central business district. Embakasi is considered part of Nairobi's Eastlands area, lying to the south-east of Nairobi County. The Embakasi proper covers ...

. He is also a former chairman of the

Ulinzi Stars Ulinzi Stars Football Club is an association football club based in Nakuru, Kenya. They compete in the Kenyan Premier League, where they won three consecutive titles from 2003 to 2005. They are the only team to have done so, along with AFC Leopar ...

football club.

Police

Ali was appointed to the position of commissioner of the Kenya Police in 2004 by the former president of Kenya,

Mwai Kibaki Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers. He had previously ser ...

, while then holding the rank of brigadier in the

Kenya Army The Kenya Army is the land arm of the Kenya Defence Forces. History The origin of the present day Kenya Army lie with the British Army's King's African Rifles. In the last quarter of the 19th Century the British began actively enforcing the abo ...

. Ali was the first police commander to assume office from a post outside the police force.

Anti-vice and corruption reform

Ali's first significant act upon his appointment was to disband the then feared

Kenya Police Reserve The Kenya Police Reserve (KPR) was formed in 1948 to assist the regular Kenya Police in the maintenance of law and order. The KPR now only exists in arid and semi arid rural areas of Kenya, particularly in Northern Kenya. The KPR is not to be conf ...

, and to draft new recruitment procedures. He also authorised a mass clear-out of the police's hierarchy in a move to reform the force, which had long had a poor reputation and faced accusations of corruption and criminal involvement. The reform constituted the largest shake up of the police since independence.

Crackdown on the Mungiki sect

Starting 2007, Ali's charges in the Kenyan police began severely cracking down on the notorious Mungiki

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

, a local politico-religious group and banned

criminal organisation Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While o ...

known for, among other things, decapitating policemen. For this perceived excessive use of force on its part, the police drew heavy criticism from human rights groups, particularly over the deaths of several hundred youth in its custody without trial over alleged links to the sect.

2008 post-election crisis

In 2008, controversy also surrounded the Kenyan Police's response to the

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

that rocked the country following a disputed presidential election, especially regarding a "shoot to kill" order that was alleged to have come out of Ali's office. According to a

report A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage In ...

investigating the post-election violence, gunshot wounds most likely from police guns were the biggest single cause of death among the fatalities. On 15 December 2010, Ali was named in a summons by the prosecutor of the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

(ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in relation to his putative role in the events that followed the 2007 elections. The ICC prosecution alleged that Ali authorised the use of excessive force and facilitated attacks against supporters of the opposition

Orange Democratic Movement The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people's movement which was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in Augu ...

during the period's post-election violence.Kenya's post election violence: ICC Prosecutor presents cases against six individuals for crimes against humanity
On 23 January 2012 the ICC pre-trial Chamber II led by Judge

Ekaterina Trendafilova Ekaterina Trendafilova ( Bulgarian: Екатерина Трендафилова; born 20 June 1953) is a Bulgarian lawyer and judge with international and domestic experience. She is currently serving as the first President of the Kosovo Specialist ...

ruled that there was not enough evidence against Mr Ali to sustain the charges.

The Alston Report

In 2009, Major General Ali was in the news again when a report by UN special reporter

Philip Alston Philip Geoffrey Alston is an Australian international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Globa ...

into extra-judicial killings recommended that he was a stumbling block to police reform and should resign. Alston reported that there was abundant evidence linking Ali to a central role in devising and overseeing the policy of extra-judicially executing large numbers of suspected criminals. According to the report, Ali refused to acknowledge that any unlawful killings were taking place, and prevented all transparency. This was despite at least one observer describing him in the ''Nairobi Chronicle'' as "without doubt, the most effective police chief Kenya has seen in a long time". While never shying away from making use of all of the available means open to him as head of Kenya's Police, during his time as commissioner, Ali, among other things, re-equipped the police with new patrol trucks and vehicles, secured modern policing equipment for his charges, revitalised the police over the long term by increasing the recruitment of officers, and improved the sharing of information between the police and the public.

Postal Corporation

On 8 September 2009, Ali was transferred from his position as police commissioner to chief executive of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Mohammed Hussein 1956 births Living people Ethnic Somali people Kenyan people of Somali descent Personnel of the Kenya Army People from Uasin Gishu County