Twenty petitioners on Friday moved to Milimani law courts seeking to restrain the government from taking any measures that could alter or interfere with the territorial waters of Kenya.
They also sought to bar Kenya from participating in the maritime delimitation case that was filed in the International Court of Justice.
The petitioners maintained that if Kenya is allowed to participate, it has the potential of permitting an unconstitutional alteration of its boundaries.
The case is set to appear for submissions in September 3 just two days after the ICJ's directive on the submissions.
“The petitioners are apprehensive that unless this application is certified urgent and determined expeditiously, the respondents will continue acting in contravention to the constitution by filing submissions and otherwise participating in the proceedings in the maritime delimitation in the Indian ocean (Somali vs Kenya) with the potential of permitting an unconstitutional alteration of Kenya’s boundaries, thereby rendering the petition herein nugatory,” read court papers.
The petitioners presented their case through their lawyer Kibe Mungai, arguing that Article 1(1), Article 5, and Article 255 of the constitution, Kenyan boundaries cannot be altered except with approval through a referendum.
The much-sought territory is a 100,000 square kilometer triangular patch created by projecting the Kenya-Somalia border eastward into the Indian Ocean.
The case was forwarded to the Chief Justice David Maraga so that he impanels a five-judge bench to hear and determine the case on grounds that it raises weighty and constitutional issues that had to be addressed by more than one judge.
This comes after the Arab Parliament sent a stern warning to the Kenyan government ordering it to stop interfering with matters to do with the sovereign state of Somalia.
It went also went ahead to accuse Kenya of trying to draw an unfounded map in a bid to win over the hotly contested territorial grounds.
“The Arab Parliament calls on Kenya to get its hands off Somali territorial waters, which are an integral part of the Arab waters, and rejects its false attempts to draw up a new, unfounded map while rejecting its threats to interfere in Somalia's internal affairs,” read a tweet by the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
