Mohamed Yusuf Haji is an ethnic Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 politician based in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

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Political career

Haji was born to an Ogaden

Ogaden (clan)

The Ogaden is a Somali clan, and one of the largest Darod subclans.-Overview:Members of the Ogaden clan primarily live in the central Ogaden plateau of Ethiopia , the North Eastern Province of Kenya, and the Jubaland region of Southern Somalia...

 Darod

Darod

The Darod is a Somali clan. The father of this clan is named Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti, but is more commonly known as Darod. In the Somali language, the word Daarood means "an enclosed compound," a conflation of the two words daar and ood .The Darod population in Somalia lives principally...

 family, the same Somali clan as the former Defense Minister of Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

, Mohamed Abdi Gandhi.

Haji is a member of the Kenya African National Union

Kenya African National Union

The Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU is a political party which ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years after its independence from British colonial rule in 1963, until its electoral loss at the end of 2002...

 (KANU) political party, and was elected to represent the Ijara Constituency

Ijara Constituency

Ijara Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is the sole constituency in Ijara District. The constituency was established for the 1988 elections. The constituency has seven wards, all electing councillors for the Ijara County Council....

 in the National Assembly of Kenya

National Assembly of Kenya

The unicameral National Assembly of Kenya is the country's legislative body.The current National Assembly has a total of 224 members. 210 members are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple majority system...

 at the 2007 parliamentary elections

Kenyan parliamentary election, 2007

Parliamentary elections in Kenya were held as part of the Kenyan general election on December 27, 2007; presidential elections were held on the same date....

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He also served as an Assistant Minister in the Office of the President from 1998-2001 and as the Minister of State (Cabinet Affairs) Office of the President in the year 2002. On 8th January 2008, Haji was appointed the Minister of State for Defence after the 27th December 2007 general elections.

In October 2011, in a coordinated support operation with the Somali army

Military of Somalia

The Military of Somalia was, up until 1991, made up of the army, navy, air force, and air defense command. The outbreak of the Somali Civil War during that year led to the de facto dissolution of the national armed forces. However, efforts to re-establish a regular armed force by a re-constituted...

, Haji spearheaded an incursion of Kenyan army troops into neighboring Somalia to pursue Islamist militants from the Al-Shabaab group that had allegedly kidnapped several foreign workers in Kenya.