Kenya: Somalis to leave next week

Kenya says it is providing planes to fly home members of Somalia's government in exile, who have been in Kenya for nearly three years.

Kenya’s ambassador to Somalia said the final payments had been made to Somali MPs and they would be repatriated on Tuesday after a party.

If the Somalis do leave, it will be the first time their government has been based inside the country since 1991.

“Everything that begins has to end,” said Mohammed Abdi Afey.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected last October by the transitional parliament based in Kenya after two years of talks aimed at ending 14 years of warfare and anarchy.

The government is split between Mogadishu warlords who want to keep Mogadishu as the capital and President Yusuf Ahmed, who want to base it in the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar.