Talks due on Somalia border suit

Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud speaks during the Kenya Airways Dreamliner B787 official reception at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi on April 5, 2014. Kenya is in The Hague for consultations on a suit filed by Somalia over boundaries in the Indian Ocean. FILE PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Somalia has sued Kenya for violating her maritime boundaries and is seeking the help of the court to determine the matter
  • If the Somali case against Kenya succeeds, the country could lose a huge chunk of its territorial waters in the ocean. Somalia has targeted five oil blocks currently under exploration

Kenya is in The Hague for consultations on a suit filed by Somalia over boundaries in the Indian Ocean.

The move came after talks between President Kenyatta and his Somali counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to discuss the crisis in New York three weeks ago failed to resolve the matter.

Attorney-General Githu Muigai is leading a team of legal experts to engage the president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Mr Peter Tomka, on preliminary administrative issues regarding the suit.

Somalia has sued Kenya for violating her maritime boundaries and is seeking the help of the court to determine the matter.

The hearing date of the case which is seen as a big threat to regional harmony, will be set by the ICJ presidency after administrative issues raised by Kenya are dispensed with.

If the Somali case against Kenya succeeds, the country could lose a huge chunk of its territorial waters in the ocean. Somalia has targeted five oil blocks currently under exploration.

LANDLOCKED
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned that a win by Somalia in the case could turn Kenya into a landlocked country.

“Yes we are in The Hague... We consider these issues serious,” Prof Muigai told the Nation from The Hague.

He, however, refused to discuss details of the case, only saying the matter was sensitive and critical.

Locally, the government has set up a task force to come up with ways of addressing the boundary row. The team met in Mombasa last weekend as the government planned a two-pronged approach — diplomatically and legally.

The case also threatens to alter the Tanzanian maritime border with Kenya.

MARITIME BOUNDARIES

The Island of Pemba would automatically find itself in Kenya if the ICJ rules in favour of Somalia in the suit, although Kenya and Tanzania have filed a memorandum with the UN, agreeing on their maritime boundaries.

On Tuesday, the Nation established that the government is now planning to challenge the ICJ jurisdiction in handling the matter.

“Kenya will be challenging the jurisdiction of the ICJ to entertain the claim by Somalia because the procedures of the law of the sea have not been exhausted,” said a top official conversant with the matter.

A Foreign Affairs official has been accused of working with a wealthy Middle East nation targeting the oil resources in the disputed areas to trigger the case.