Somali journalists protest the imprisonment of their colleague. Photo credit: Badri Media

From the six month old Federal Government of Somalia, a step-by-step primer on how to undermine your fledgling regime’s “please help us have a country” PR tour:

1. Hire rapists into your police force.
2. In the event that a citizen accuses your police force of rape, refuse to investigate the alleged crime, and throw her in prison for good measure.
3. Subject her to a two-day interrogation without assistance of counsel until she recants the accusation.
4. Chuck her husband in prison, too.
5. Track down any journalists who have interviewed the alleged rape victim, and imprison them.
6. Charge everyone with “insulting the government” and various other made up sounding crimes.
7. Rinse, repeat.

All in all, a process guaranteed to make donor countries look at your security forces and think “State capacity is the best. Let’s send these guys some more money!”