Kenya To Withdraw the Maritime Border Case with Somalia

In a statement, Kenya withdrew the case which was to start on Monday after the ICC disregarded her concerns and instead went ahead to set the hearing dates.

Kenya and Somalia are in a row over the Maritime border in the Indian Ocean which is believed to be rich in oil.

Somalia accused Kenya of infringing its borders in the Indian Ocean and therefore wants the borders reviewed in a move that could rob off Kenya a huge part of its oceanic territory.

The hearing was to start on Monday with Somalia given Monday and Tuesday to make its oral submission to the International Criminal Courts (ICC).

Kenya on other hand was supposed to make its oral submission on Thursday and Friday while on 22nd March, Somalia was to make its final submission and Kenya on 24th March.

However, government sources have confirmed that Kenya has withdrawn the maritime border case from the ICC on the basis of unfair treatment.

Kenya says it had formed a team of lawyers from the UK and America in late 2019 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they have to be able to meet and crystallize Kenya’s response.

Further Kenya accuses Somalia of taking her to the ICC despite an existing memorandum between the countries to resolve the matter within the African union framework with Nairobi saying Mogadishu is hell-bent on making political capital out of the case.

The diplomatic tension has continued to increase between the two countries with Somalia accusing Kenya of interacting with their politics in the recent past.