Senate Speaker Amason Kingi was forced to delete a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday after making a diplomatic blunder that would have led to a standoff between Kenya and Somalia.
In the deleted statement posted on his X account, Kingi shared details of his meeting with a representative from Somaliland, whom he referred to as the ambassador to Kenya.
By so doing, he recognised Somaliland as an independent state forcing the Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing'oei to clear the air over Kenya's stand on the independence of the country.
According to Sing'oei, Somaliland was a region in Somalia with a liaison office in Nairobi, which he maintained was not an embassy.
"It is Kenya's established and unchanging foreign policy, consistent with the African Union, that only the Federal Republic of Somalia is the recognised State entity.
"Somaliland, a region within the Federal Republic of Somalia, has a liaison office for commercial purposes in Nairobi. This office is not an embassy," he stated.
On the other hand, the PS also took time to remind the leaders of the August House that they could not dictate Kenya's foreign policy. However, he acknowledged that Parliament plays an oversight role in the process.
Somalia is yet to comment on the matter. However, Kingi deleting the statement may ease any potential tiff with the East African Community (EAC) country.
Notably, Kenya has previously been involved in a diplomatic tiff with Somalia over its stand on Somaliland.
In June 2020, the government was forced to express regret after Somalia's ambassador to Kenya walked out of a meeting convened at State House by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
At the meeting for foreign envoys, representatives from Somaliland had been invited as participants - a move that made Somalia hold that Kenya was recognising Somaliland as a sovereign state. A flag of Somaliland had also been hoisted at the event.
Several diplomatic gaffes have been witnessed in President Ruto's government, with the head of state himself tweeting that Kenya would no longer recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the portion of Western Sahara ruled by the Polisario Front exiled in neighbouring Algeria.
His statement was issued hours after Sahrawi President Brahim Ghali attended his inauguration at Kasarani on September 13, 2022. He instead voiced his support for Morocco which is battling to retain SADR under its control.
Kenya thus became the only African nation to then voice support for Morocco publicly and also joined the US and Israel in doing so.
The country has also taken different stances in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supporting both countries at different junctures. Moreover, it was among the few African countries to support Israel in its war with Palestinian militants, Hamas.
