Salaad Gabeyre Kediye
Salaad Gabeyre Kediye, also known as Salah Gaveire Kedie, was a Somali senior military official and a KGB spy who was executed by the Siad Barre regime.
Biography
Kediye was born in Harardhere, Somalia, at the time an Italian colony. A career army man, he received military training at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, an elite Soviet institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies. He later rose to the rank of General in the Somali National Army.Salad Gabayre was also the son in-law of President Aden Abdulle Osman and played a key role in the early years of the Army, working alongside General Daud Abdulle Hirsi in selecting and training the future batch of many famous and decorated members of the Armed forces who still serve the country decades later.
On October 15, 1969, while paying a visit to the northern town of Las Anod, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards. His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on October 21, 1969, in which the SNA seized power without encountering armed opposition — essentially a bloodless takeover. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.
Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was claimed to be led by Gen. Kediye and Chief of Police Jama Korshel. Kediye officially held the title of "Father of the Revolution," and Barre shortly afterwards became the head of the SRC. The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic, arrested members of the former civilian government, banned political parties, dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution. He was appointed Minister of Defence from April 1970 to July 1970.
A power struggle eventually ensued at the SRC's leadership. In 1971, Kediye and then Vice President Mohamed Ainanshe Guled were charged with attempting to assassinate President Barre. Both men were shortly afterwards found guilty of treason, and along with Colonel Abdulkadir Dheel, were publicly executed the following year.