Somalia urges ICJ to dismiss Kenya’s prayers for further delay of maritime case

Somalia urges ICJ to dismiss Kenya’s prayers for further delay of maritime case

Source: Hiiraan Online, Thursday February 11, 2021

MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia has written to the International Court of Justice seeking the dismissal of a request by Kenya to yet again postpone the maritime case whose hearing is set to commence next month.

Information Minister Osman Dube told journalists in Mogadishu Thursday the Federal Government had petitioned the UN court against entertaining Kenya’s request. This is the fourth time Kenya is asking a delay.
Noting that should the ICJ entertain the Kenyan request Somalia will suffer injustice, Dube said the proceedings should go on uninterrupted.  Kenya wrote to the ICJ January 28 seeking a further postponement of the case on three major grounds.

The first, sources privy to the letter said is the fact that Somalia is undergoing a transition. Nairobi argues that there is no substantive administration in Mogadishu owing to the lapse of President Mohamed Farmaajo’s term.

The Federal Government has however indicated there is no vacuum at that Farmaajo will be legitimately in office until a new president is elected.

Kenya has also claimed that one of the ‘crucial maps’ it intended to use in its defence had ‘mysteriously disappeared’. It was not immediately clear how this happened.

The ongoing COVID-19 is another excuse Kenya is fronting in its quest for a fourth delay of the case. The ICJ accepted Kenya’s last request early 2020 which cited the COVID-19 pandemic as ground for a delay.