Dahir Rayale Kahin (
Somali Daahir Riyaale Kaahin), born in 1952, is the 3rd president of the autonomous northwestern
Somaliland region of
Somalia.
[1][2] He became the third president of Somaliland on
May 5, 2002, after the death of
Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal. He won
elections on
April 14, 2003, representing the Ururka Dimuqraadiga Umada Bahawday (UDUB), or
United Democratic People's Party, and was sworn into office on
May 16, 2003.
Kahin was born in the town of Quljeed in the northwestern Awdal region of Somalia. He is a member of the Reer Dudub sub-clan of the Gadabursi Dir clan. Trained in Mogadishu, Kahin's previous posts included a diplomatic position at the Somali Embassy in Djibouti, intelligence in the government of former president Mohamed Siad Barre, a stint as governor of Awdal and as a businessman, and a term as vice president of Somaliland (1997-2002).
From 2004 to 2006, There were some reports that president Kahin is overpaid in salary with $412,698 US Dollars, possibly overtaking the salary of the president of the United States. Other reports put the figure up to $515,956.
In the last years of the Barre government, Kahin held the rank of Sergeant in the National Security Service, and served as the NSS station chief in Berbera. During this time, the NSS was identified by many sources (including the U.S. Department of State, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Africa Watch) as having been involved in torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians on a massive scale, particularly during the war in northern Somalia from May 1988 through to the end of 1989. Sergeant Kahin was charged with suppression of the Somali National Movement.[3]
