Mudavadi calls for justice in Kenya-Somalia maritime row

ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi wants the international community to take ‘seriously’ the maritime border tiff between Kenya and Somalia terming it a ‘grave’ matter.

“The international community should not take this matter lightly nor should the commercial interests funded by giant oil companies lead to a miscarriage of justice,” Mr Mudavadi said.

He added: “This territory belongs to Kenya, when viewed on the international scale of definitions of marine borders. Besides, to abort justice and give this territory away to Somalia will only open up the region to further instability,” he said.

Mr Mudavadi spoke in Washington DC during talks with US government officials including Mr David Gilmour, the Director of the Office of East African Affairs in the Office of State and Mr Marc Norman, Director of Counterterrorism Bureau in the Office of State.

Mr Mudavadi and Mr Norman underscored the need for collective global focus on finding solutions to the mushrooming of fragile states and failed states in Africa to curb global terrorism.

“Failed states and fragile states are increasingly proving to be the perfect breeding grounds for terrorism,” Mudavadi said, adding that failed and fragile states could no longer be looked at as isolated or local challenges.

He noted that Al-Shabaab had been a thorn in the East African flesh and hailed the cooperation Kenya enjoys from the USA in countering the menace.

He called for address of the challenges of democracy, poverty, youth unemployment and desperation as they made youth easily desperate and vulnerable to recruitment into terror groups and other militia formations.

Mr Mudavadi said failed states were a factor of bad governance, corruption, and miscarriage of democracy.

“Many African states were staggering towards collapse, due to abuse of electoral processes and disrespect for voters. There was also the challenge of the personalized state,” Mr Mudavadi said.

“The global experience over the past few years has shown that terrorists who have been radicalized and bred in some remote place far away will eventually catch up with us and hit us where we thought we were most safe. Accordingly, we must all get concerned about state failure in every corner of the globe.”

Mr Norman acknowledged the role of poverty, undemocratic practices and state instability in the creation of terror movements.

He was happy with the gains realized globally in fighting terrorism.

Most of the terror movements in the world today, he said, were “a reflection of the post physical caliphate that ISIS had set up in Mesopotamia.”

“We are witnessing the fallout after the dismantling of the centre. ISIS affiliates are fighting for survival, but they will be subdued in the end,” Mr Norman said.

The two leaders also reviewed the marine border tiff between Kenya and Somalia, which is now before the International Court of Justice. Mudavadi said that this was a grave matter. “The international community should not take this matter lightly. Nor should the commercial interests funded by giant oil companies lead to a miscarriage of justice. This territory belongs to Kenya, when viewed on the international scale of definitions of marine borders. Besides, to abort justice and give this territory away to Somalia will only open up the region to further instability,” he said.