Kenya should prepare well for Somalia case

Kenya’s maritime border row with Somalia will be resolved by the International Court of Justice since Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmajo, rejected President Kenyatta’s appeals for an out-of-court settlement.

Though President Farmajo now appears the hardliner and a threat to the spirit of good neighbourliness, evidence abounds that it is Kenya that squandered the numerous opportunities for dialogue, forcing Mogadishu to seek ICJ’s intervention in advancing its claim for about 150,000 square kilometres of maritime waters in the Indian Ocean.

Somalia dragged Kenya to ICJ in 2014 after dialogue failed. The dispute would soon take a new twist with reports that Mogadishu had set for auction the oil and gas blocks in the disputed territory before the court could rule on the matter.

According to multiple interviews and Statutes filed at the ICJ, officials from the Kenya International Boundaries Office (Kibo), stalled the bilateral talks in 2014.

Apparently, Kenya’s negotiators erroneously believed that the case was inconsequential and that Somalia was a failed state that couldn’t handle the issue.

Furthermore, in typical Kenyan style, the officials seemed unperturbed that their actions risked soiling Kenya’s territorial integrity. But they went ahead to benefit at the personal level. For instance, during the negotiations between March and July 2014, they are reported to have spent more than Sh3 billion on trips and allowances but with little to show for the numerical advantage.

The lethargic Kibo is also known to have failed to resolve the dispute over Migingo Island in Lake Victoria pitting Kenya against Uganda, which is festering. That, too, could end up at the ICJ.

Maritime law experts say Kenya should not have allowed Somalia to move to the ICJ. Now, the Horn of Africa state is using Kenya’s own Statues — among them the Territorial Waters Act 1972, the Maritime Zones Act 1989, and the Interpretation and General Provisions Act — to lay claim to a critical chunk of our territory.

For President Farmajo, the dispute could not have come at a more appropriate moment. Keen to win a second term in 2021, it could just be the bargaining chip that the doctor ordered. And that the ICJ president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, is a Somali national heightens President Farmajo’s hopes for a favourable outcome.

Kenya seems to have shot itself in the foot. The only option open to the country now is to assemble a formidable legal team ahead of the courtroom battle that begins on November 4 or hope that Somalia changes its mind and opts for talks or drops the case.