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Kenya asks International Court of Justice to dismiss Somalia’s maritime boundary claim

Karim Khan (QC) who successfully represented Deputy President William Ruto and former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura at the International Criminal Court challenged ICJ’s jurisdiction to hear the boundary dispute case maintaining that Somalia was actively involved in drafting the MOU and had even asserted its consent to its agreements by way of signing it.

“The MOU was initiated by Somalia and drafted and reviewed. Prior to its signature the MOU was approved by the President of Somalia, by the Prime Minister of Somalia and by Somalia’s Council of Ministers. The subsequent conduct of the parties was entirely consistent with the validity of the MOU,” Khan argued.

In efforts to convince the ICJ to throw out the case, Amb Makena said it was too early for the court to intervene in the boundary row.

Kenya and Somalia she explained had not even begun proper negotiations.

“It cannot be said that the parties have exhausted negotiations when they haven’t even started proper discussions,” she argued.

Similar submissions by Prof Alan Boyle and Prof Vaughan Lowe (QC) also urged the ICJ to throw out the case on basis that it was out of its jurisdiction and that there was a binding MOU and agreement detailing how the maritime boundary dispute would be resolved in cognizance that the two countries were direct neighbours and that peace was a critical aspect in resolving the dispute.

Somalia was on Tuesday scheduled to make its first round of oral submissions following Kenya’s submissions on Monday.

Somalia moved to the ICJ in August 2014 to contest about 100,000 square kilometres that moves diagonally to the South near Kiunga into the sea surpassing the current boundary that separates the Indian Ocean between Kenya and Somalia.

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