Dahir Riyale Kahin (Daahir Rayaale Kaahin)

Who is he?

Dahir Riyale Kahin was President of Somaliland from 2002 to 2010. He was Vice President from 1997 to 2002 (Wikipedia, Dahir Riyale Kahin).

Somaliland declared its independence in 1991. Israel recognised it on 26 December 2025; most states and the African Union regard it as part of Somalia. See Somaliland, 1991 to 2026.

Early life and career

He was born on 12 March 1952 in Quljeed, in the Awdal region. His family is Gadabuursi (Dir) (Wikipedia). He went to school at Amoud and trained in Mogadishu (same source). He served at the Somali embassy in Djibouti, and in the 1980s was an officer of the National Security Service, including in Berbera (same source). In the early 1990s he was Governor of Awdal.

President, 2002 to 2010

When President Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal died on 3 May 2002, Riyale was sworn in as President (Wikipedia).

On 14 April 2003 Somaliland held its first multiparty presidential vote. The electoral commission's count gave him 205,595 votes and Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo 205,515, a difference of 80 votes (Wikipedia, 2003 Somaliland presidential election). The opposition disputed the count. The constitutional court confirmed the result in May 2003, and Silanyo accepted it (same source). The International Crisis Group studied this period in Somaliland: Democratisation and its Discontents (2003).

He was the first President of Somaliland who was not from the Isaaq, the largest group in the area (same Wikipedia source). In 2007 he led a delegation to the Commonwealth meeting in Kampala. In 2008 he created new regions and districts by decree, which drew criticism (Wikipedia).

The 2010 handover

The next presidential vote was held on 26 June 2010 (Al Jazeera, 26 June 2010). Silanyo won, and Riyale handed over power (Wikipedia, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud).

In short

President of Somaliland from 2002 to 2010. He handed office to Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo after the 2010 election.