Duale Presents 4 Solutions to Kenya-Somalia Border Row

Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, Aden Duale, and Minority Party leader John Mbadi on Wednesday, unveiled a notice on behalf of the house concerning the Kenya-Somalia Maritime dispute.

The motion petitions the Kenyan Government to resolve the Maritime dispute and protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation, in accordance with Articles 5, 241(3), 255 of the Constitution.

The MP gave the following resolutions on behalf of the assembly concerning the longstanding feud.

As the first and most preferred option, it would engage the Federal Government of Somalia to resolve the boundary dispute for the benefit of both countries and the region through diplomacy and dispute resolution mechanisms available under African Union(AU) Intergovernmental Authority for Development(IGAD) and East Africa Community(EAC)

It will express to the United Nations, the Republic of Kenya's protest against assertation of jurisdiction over the International Court of Justice over the maritime boundary conflict Federal Republic of Somalia and the Republic of Kenya, noting Kenya's express reservation to jurisdiction made in 1965 and the provisions of Kenya's Maritime Zones Act to delimit the maritime boundary through agreement as envisaged by UNCLOS

Kenya will then explore other lawful and constitutional mechanisms for protecting the territory of the republic, including deploying the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to the subject boundary, to undertake the responsibility of protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic as contemplated under Article 241(3) of the Constitution.

The nation would continue to uphold and protect its boundaries unless the People of Kenya resolve, by way of Referendum, to alter the territory of Kenya as contemplated under the article 255(1)(b) of the constitution 

The border dispute between the two countries may hamper current efforts in the continuing construction of a border wall between the two countries, the fight against piracy, as well as against Al Shabaab.

The two countries have had several back and forths as a result of the brawl resulting in various ugly occurrences.

On May 12, 2019, the Kenyan Government suspended all direct flights from Somalia into the country citing security concerns.

Director of the KCAA, Captain Gilbert Kibe, affirmed to the BBC that visitors from Somali's capital Mogadishu or any other part of the war-torn country would no longer be able to fly directly to the Kenyan Capital.

Later on, the diplomatic row between the two countries took a nosedive after three top officials from the war-ravaged nation were denied entry at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Reports emerging from a popular Somalia Radio station, Dalsan FM, disclosed that Somalia’s deputy minister of Water and Energy, Osman Libah, as well as Senators Ilyas Ali Hassan and Zamzam Dahir, were stranded at JKIA.

Somali took the row a notch higher by discloseing that Somalia dignitaries and representatives would no longer attend meetings scheduled to be held in Nairobi.

On June 11, 2019, the Government of Kenya ordered the closure of its border with Somalia in Lamu indefinitely citing security operations aimed at flushing out Al Shabaab militants suspected to be operating in the area.

The determination of the case will be made in September 2019.

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