By Abdimalik Hajir - Reporter
1 December 2025 - The wedding of Mohamed Noordin, son of Kenya’s Director General of the National Intelligence Service Noordin Haji, was never merely a family celebration – it provided the perfect stage on which to display raw political power and far-reaching regional influence.
In the ordinarily quiet town of Masalani, Garissa County, the Haji family on Saturday finally held a grand wedding that President William Ruto was invited as the guest of honour, alongside a who’s-who of East African heavyweights.
There was Somali Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe, Ethiopian Somali Region President Mustafe Cagjar, the Somali federal government representative, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, Ethiopia’s intelligence chief, and its military intelligence boss.
Kenyan governors from Wajir, Lamu, Garissa, Marsabit, Mombasa, and Isiolo turned up, as did senior CEOs from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Hundreds of luxury vehicles, private planes, and the presidential helicopter descended on the newly opened Masalani airstrip under extraordinarily heavy security.
Special Operations officers, National Youth Service personnel sealed off streets, and restricted access to the DG’s residence.
This was not subtle. The sheer concentration of presidents, governors, intelligence chiefs, and business magnates from three countries in a formerly restive corner of northeastern Kenya underlines the Haji family’s extraordinary reach.
As Dadaab MP Farah Maalim openly declared at the event, no wedding in living memory has commanded such cross-border respect.
Politically, the occasion doubled as a launchpad.
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Speaker after speaker – led by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale – showered praise on President Ruto’s development record in the region (removal of vetting requirements, last-mile electricity, tarmac roads, technical colleges) and effectively endorsed his 2027 re-election bid while pledging the northeastern and Muslim vote.
President Ruto himself publicly defended Senator Abdul Haji – Noordin Haji’s younger brother and freshly declared gubernatorial candidate for Garissa – against critics who question his fluency in Somali, jokingly dismissing the complaint and praising his focus and integrity.
To many, this wedding offered a chance to the Haji family to position itself as the dominant political force not just in Garissa but across the wider northeastern and Somali-speaking political ecosystem.
In short, the Haji family killed two birds with one stone. The Masalani wedding offered blessings to the newly-weds and it was also a coronation of influence.
This is a vivid illustration of how deeply intertwined Kenya’s security, political, and business elites have become, with the Haji family now firmly at the centre of that web.
Mr Abdimalik Hajir is an experienced journalist and a communications consultant.
The opinion expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dawan Africa.
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