Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo was born in 1962 in Mogadishu to a family originally from Gedo in south-western Somalia.

In 1985, he was appointed as First Secretary at the Somali embassy in Washington DC.

In 1989, he left to earn his bachelor's degree in history from the University of Buffalo in New York. During this time, Farmajo applied for political asylum in the United States after the government collapsed in 1991.

He continued his studies at the University at Buffalo and obtained a master's degree in political sciences and international relations.

After becoming an American citizen, he went on to hold several jobs in New York State, including the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, the Erie County Division of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the New York State Department of Transportation.

President Ahmed appointed Farmajo as prime minister in October 2010 to succeed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who resigned from his post following a dispute.

Farmajo resigned from this post in June 2011 under pressure from the international community as part of the Kampala Accord between President Ahmed and the Speaker of Parliament Aadan, during which the mandate of the transitional institutions was extended to August 20, 2012.

In 2011, Farmajo founded a new political party, the Somali Justice and Equality Party, also known as Tayo. Farmajo is currently secretary general for Tayo, which is chaired by Dr. Mariam Qasim, his former minister of women's affairs. Tayo is the first Somali political party headed by a woman.

Farmajo speaks Somali and English and holds dual Somali and US citizenship.