Photo[:Africanews.com]
President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to continue protecting Kenya’s territorial integrity in the wake of a ruling by the International Court of Justice in regards to the maritime boundary dispute with Somalia.
President Kenyatta was speaking on Wednesday during the commemoration of Kenya’s 58th Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kirinyaga County where he pointed Kenya’s position on the boundary issue.
On 12th October, the United Nations backed ICJ ruled that there is no agreed maritime boundary that exists between Kenya and Somalia, even though it handed Somalia most of sea zone claimed by Kenya.
Kenya got only a small slice of a potentially oil and gas-rich chunk of the Indian Ocean in a majority ruling by the court.
President Kenyatta had termed the ruling erroneous adding that Kenya is committed to a diplomatic process to resolve the impasse.
“Since the dawn of our Republic, on many occasions, we have experienced territorial aggression to the sanctity of our borders, some have been driven from within and others from without, but the message of our founding fathers to theses aggressors was simple, not an inch less not an inch more and this is the message that must reverberate across the collective quarters that are bent on annexing any part of the territory known as the Republic of Kenya,” said Kenyatta.
This visible transformation of our security organs has been done in honour of their sacred national duty of defending our sovereignty, maintaining our territorial integrity, securing our borders, and preserving our cherished freedoms and our way of life. As an affirmation of this, today, Kenya’s police to population ratio is at its highest level in our history, and is higher than the U.N. prescribed standard,” President Kenyatta stated.
The Head of State further stated that the transformation of security sector in the country including the military has been among his administration’s key agenda.