Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Family Connections Under Scrutiny
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s ties to her family suggest deeper complexities than just her rumored marriage to her brother. Allegations have emerged that she has leveraged her political influence to channel substantial funds, reportedly millions, to a clinic in Minneapolis operated by her sister, who is married to a Somali official.
Her sister, Sahara Noor, noted on LinkedIn that she was the CEO of People’s Center Clinics & Services from July 2014 until April 2018, coinciding with Omar’s tenure in the Minnesota House of Representatives, which began in January 2017.
The People’s Center, located in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis—often referred to as “Little Mogadishu” due to its significant Somali immigrant population—serves many individuals who may have language barriers.
In 2017, the Minnesota Legislature approved a budget that allocated $2.2 million to the clinic, a nonprofit institution. The center has secured HHS grants since 2002, amounting to $33 million.
Although the People’s Center has a legal pharmacy agreement, the affiliated DegDegs CarePoint Pharmacy, which joined the HHS’s 340B drug pricing program in 2015, lost its license by 2017 and is now listed as permanently closed on Google Maps.
Omar publicly celebrated this $2.2 million funding for renovations alongside other Democratic leaders, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Those renovations featured new facilities like a walk-in clinic, fitness center, and a prayer room, all aimed at serving the local community, which includes speakers of Somali, Oromo, and Amharic.
During her time in Congress, Omar secured an additional $1 million for further renovations at the clinic. In April 2022, she stated that neither she nor immediate family had any financial stake in the project.
Interestingly enough, just after media inquiries into her marriages, her sister resigned as CEO and relocated to Africa to manage her own healthcare consultancy, Grit Partners, which has received USAID funding for various projects.
Noor’s husband, Mohamed Keinan, had previously held various roles in Minnesota’s local government before moving back to Africa, where he served as a chief of staff for a former Somali Prime Minister.
In 2020, Sahara Noor co-founded a telemedicine service named Hello! Kafi, aimed at connecting Somali-speaking health professionals to help individuals in Somalia access critical health services. However, the organization’s website has seemingly vanished, and it’s unclear where these services are actually provided.
There’s speculation that Omar’s sister could have used a U.S.-government-funded call center from the People’s Center for her telemedicine venture. Some of the most troubling assertions come from investigative journalist David Steinberg’s discovery of website code that contradicts Omar’s claims about her contact with her ex-husband, Ahmed Nour Saeed Elmi, whom she may have married to facilitate her immigration to the U.S.
While purportedly married to Elmi, Omar lived with another husband, Ahmed Abdisaran Hirsi, with whom she had three children in a religious ceremony. In a sworn statement during her divorce, she claimed to have had no contact with Elmi for six years, but this aligns poorly with findings suggesting that Elmi was involved with Grit Partners.
The irony here is almost palpable: if Omar has no connections to find her estranged husband, why would she assist her sister with her company’s online presence?
This entire situation raises questions, especially with evidence hinting that Elmi might be her brother, potentially linking all three individuals as siblings. The contradictions in Omar’s statement and the implications surrounding her family dynamics continue to unfold.
