Governance, Clan Conflicts and Socio-Economic Development in Baidoa District Somalia

ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to carry out an investigation on governance and clan conflicts containment in Baidoa, Somalia. The objectives of the study were to determine the effectiveness of governance structures in Somalia, to determine the causes of ethnic conflicts in Somalia and to determine the significant relationship between governance and the clan conflicts in Somalia. The study employed descriptive correlation study design which involved both qualitative and quantitative approaches. With regards to this method, the researcher used structured questionnaires which were based on simple and understandable questions. Responses from the 104 sample size respondents out of a total of 140 respondents suggested that the governance in Baidoa was relatively poor than the standard expected. The researcher found out that though some strides have been made in improvement of the governance policies; still there are a couple of challenges which hampered the process of containing clan conflicts. Other than governance, under development poverty, uneven power and weak institution were some of the major causes of clan conflicts in Baidoa district. As a result the process of containing and preventing clan conflicts has remained to be elusive. It was also established that there was indeed a causal relationship between governance and clan conflicts containment which stood at 0.965 on the Pearson Correlation scale which was interpreted as a significant positive and very strong relationship. The researcher suggested that it had become imperative that there be significant improvement on the aspects by means of revising the job social, political and economic governance of Baidoa. This according to the researcher would help improve the process of preventing and containing the clan conflicts in Baidoa district.