Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau [ Photo:the-star.co.ke]
Kenya is set to disregard the judgment of The International Court of Justice on the maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia, due today at 13:00 Greenwich Mean Time.
The two countries are both claiming 62,000 sq miles (160,000 sq km) in the Indian Ocean thought to be rich in oil and gas.
Kenya’s border currently runs horizontally into the Indian Ocean, and that is how Nairobi wants it to stay. But Somalia insists its southern boundary should run south-east as an extension of the land border.
A full bench of 15 judges led by US judge Joan Donoghue will hand down the verdict at the Peace Palace in The Hague
At stake are sovereignty, undersea riches and the future of relations between two countries in one of the world’s most troubled regions.
Kenya has already lashed the International Criminal Justice as biased and announced it does not recognize the court’s binding jurisdiction.
At the heart of the dispute is the direction that the joint maritime boundary should take from the point where the land frontiers meet on the coast.
Somalia insists the boundary should follow the orientation of its land border and thus head out in a line towards the southeast.
At the heart of the dispute is the direction that the joint maritime boundary should take from the point where the land frontiers meet on the coast.
Somalia says the boundary should head out in a line towards the southeast while Kenya says its boundary runs in a straight line east.
Foreign Affairs Ambassador Kamau Macharia says Kenya withdrew its recognition of the International court’s compulsory jurisdiction.
Kenya first established this maritime boundary along the parallel of latitude by presidential proclamation in 1979.
In 2009, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding, certified by the United Nations, to negotiate their boundaries.
In 2014, Somalia decided to settle the matter at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
In its application, Somalia said diplomatic negotiation had failed and it was now asking the court to “determine the precise geographical coordinates of the single maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean”.
But that is not all. Somalia also wants the ICJ to declare that “Kenya… has violated its international obligations to respect the sovereignty and sovereign rights and jurisdiction of Somalia, and is responsible under international law to make full reparation to Somalia”.