Kenya Suffers Major Setback in Dispute with Somalia

Kenya experienced a major disappointment in its maritime border dispute with Somalia when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) set the date of the hearing three months earlier than what the country had requested.

Daily Nation reported on Thursday, October 17, that the hearing had been scheduled for June 8, 2020, contrary to the request made by Kenya to have it on September 2020.

Attorney General Paul Kariuki Kihara had argued that a September date would give him enough time to set up a legal team.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somalia counterpart Mohammed Farmajoo. The ICJ postponed the two countries' maritime border dispute case to June 8, 2020. Photo: File

ICJ, after objections from the Somali government, decided that June 2020 was the final date insisting that the case had been delayed for long.

"The court has duly considered the views and the arguments of the parties regarding Kenya's request. It has decided to postpone the oral proceedings to the week beginning on Monday, June 8, 2020. This postponement is granted on the understanding that both parties will be represented in the hearings and that no further postponement will be granted," a statement from ICJ read.

According to a letter published on the ICJ website, the court pointed out that prior to the postponement, the hearing had been set to November 4, 2019. 

The November date had also been postponed from September 9, 2019. 

On October 17, 2019, a group of twenty activists went to court seeking to have Kenya blocked from participating in the case, arguing that it would cause tension between the two countries.

"It would not be a case of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs persuading people to talk nicely to the president of Somalia (Mohammed Farmajoo) and his prime minister (Hassan Khaire), but a fundamental blow to Kenya's sovereignty," Lawyer Kibe Mungai narrated on KTN News on Thursday, October 17.

The activists argued that this confrontation would give way to an unconstitutional alteration of Kenya's boundaries.

High Court Judges Kanyi Kimondo, Robert Limo and Anthony Mrima will rule on November 7, on whether the country will be allowed to participate in the case.

Somalia moved to ICJ in 2014, accusing Kenya of grabbing part of its maritime territory (100,000 square kilometres oil-rich triangle in the Indian Ocean).

Somali President Mohamed Farmajo when he met Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta at Statehouse on September 25, 2019. Photo: File

 

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