NAIROBI (Halbeeg News) – Kenya Cabinet has been directed to write a protesting letter over Somalia-Kenya maritime border dispute to the United Nations (UN) ahead of the case hearing in September.
In a motion tabled by Kenya parliament majority leader Adan Barre Duale and his minority counterpart John Mbadi, the parliament of East Africa nation said Somalia moved to ICJ without exhausting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms under international laws of the sea.
“The House resolves that the Government of the Republic of Kenya express to the United Nations of Kenya’s protest against the assertion of jurisdiction by the ICJ over the maritime boundary conflict between Somalia and Kenya,” said Mr. Duale in the resolution.
The lawmakers argue that African Union, Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and East African Community (EAC) to be the first point of call on such disputes and not the ICJ where Somalia has taken the matter.
“The House resolves as a first and most preferred option, engages the Federal Government of Somalia to resolve the boundary dispute for the benefit of both countries and the region, through diplomacy and dispute resolution mechanisms available under African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and East African Community (EAC),” reads the Motion in part.
The motion tabled on Wednesday which seeks approval calls on Kenyan to dispatch the military to the disputed maritime border with Somalia.
The hearing of the maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia will start on September 9 at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands.
Kenya and Somalia had a long protracted dispute over a maritime boundary.
In 2014 Somalia sued Kenya at the International Court of Justice.
Late 2017, Somalia won its first bid to resolve a case over a maritime dispute before the ICJ.
Judges at the ICJ dismissed claims fronted by Kenya’s lawyers that there exists an alternative method of resolving the matter.
Somalia wants the court to demarcate the maritime boundary, and to determine the exact geographical coordinates as an extension of its southern borders.
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