The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU – The Kenyan government dramatically escalated its maritime row with Somalia demanding an apology and withdrawal of Somali maps showing offshore blocks offered in a recent licensing round in London.
Somalia on Sunday denied Nairobi’s accusation that it had encroached on its maritime territory or sold offshore blocks located in the disputed maritime area.
“As things stand, we are still awaiting a response that meets the minimum threshold of our requests,” said Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Monica Juma in a press conference in Nairobi on Thursday.
Monica said Kenya expected a “comprehensive response” to what she called an “attack on Kenya’s sovereignty.”
Somalis and analysts, however, raised serious questions about the validity of Kenya’s argument and her real intention because Nairobi has not produced any hard evidence to prove that Somalia sold Kenyan offshore blocks. Both Somalia and Spectrum Geo Ltd., which carried out the seismic survey, said no Kenyan offshore blocks were put up for auction during the licensing round in London on Feb. 7.
“The aim of Kenya’s phony anger is to bully Somali officials into withdrawing the ongoing case at the International Court of Justice,” said Hassan Mudane, a lecturer on African politics at City University of Mogadishu.
Somalia and Kenya have been locked in a maritime dispute since 2009, with Somalia saying its maritime boundary with Kenya lies perpendicular to the coast and Kenya claiming the line of latitude protrudes from its boundary with Somalia.
In 2014, Somalia took its case to the International Court of Justice, requesting the U.N.’s principal judicial organ “determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean, including the continental shelf beyond 200 [nautical miles]”.
Somalia also asked the court to “determine the precise geographical co-ordinates of the single maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean.”
Kenya suffered a major setback in 2017 after the ICJ agreed to hear the Somali case, rejecting Nairobi’s preliminary objections to its authority to rule on the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries. Fearing that it could lose the case, Kenya has been pushing for direct negotiations, which Somalia resisted, especially after numerous talks that preceded Mogadishu’s decision to sue Kenya yielded no results.
Many Somalis suspect that Kenya’s diplomatic escalation is just a stratagem aimed at shanghaiing Somalia into an out-of-court settlement. Somalis believe that Kenya has taken advantage of their nation’s weakness to lay claim to their waters, whose ownership were not in dispute when Somalia had a strong, functioning government.
The current misunderstanding puts both nations in an awkward position and is likely to have far-reaching consequences if it’s allowed to drag on. Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees live in Kenya, which also has thousands of troops serving under the African Union mission in the Horn of Africa nation.
Juma didn’t say the measures her country would take if Somalia’s response fails to meet Nairobi’s three main demands: Withdrawal of the maps presented during the bid round in London, appropriate apologies and a comprehensive response from Somalia.
“I don’t want to speculate on that,” he told reporters.
Kenya said Somalia’s decision to offer offshore blocks in the recent bid round “is a threat to the friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries and is likely to jeopardize peace and security of the two countries as well as the region.”
Somalis angered by Kenya’s strong language asked their government to stand up to Nairobi.
“We must not allow Kenya to talk to us in an arrogant and condescending manner. Somalia is a sovereign, proud nation and it will not accept humiliation from anyone,” said Abdirahman Ahmed, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Somali Security Institute, or SSI. “Kenya’s statements are full of lies about Somalia. Somalia offered its own offshore blocks, not Kenya’s.”
Although Kenya has been occupying a Somali region since the 19th century, Juma accused Somalia of having “expansionist ideological belief.”
Many Somalis believe that Kenya wants the spat to escalate further to squeeze some sort of concession from Somalia’s weak government.
“The world must stop Kenya before it’s too late,” Ahmed said. “Kenya wants to instigate a crisis where there’s no crisis to take the Somali government down a notch.
“Kenya will be responsible for any conflicts that results from its uncalled-for escalation,” Ahmed of the SSI said. “If Kenya thinks it can seize a Somali territory by overreacting, it’s mistaken. Somalis and the world must not allow that to happen.”
The Kenyan Cabinet discussed the maritime dispute on Thursday because, Juma said, it is “ of utmost national interest as it touches on sanctity of boundaries and sovereignty of our country.”
At stake, she said, is 26 percent or 51,105 square kilometers of Kenya’s exclusive economic zone and 85 percent or 95,320 square kilometers of the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles.
“Kenya will never cede an inch of her territory,” Juma said.
On Feb. 16, the permanent secretary of Kenya’s Foreign Ministry, Macharia Kamau, issued a strongly-worded statement, accusing Somalia of an “act of aggression,” and “unparalled affront and illegal grab at the resources of Kenya.”
Kenya had already expelled Somalia’s Ambassador to Nairobi and recalled its envoy to Somalia for “urgent consultations.”
On Sunday, the Somali government — in a clear attempt to contain the tension — assured Nairobi that it had no plans to offer offshore blocks in contested waters, saying it “stands by its commitment not to undertake any unilateral activities in the disputed area”until the International Court of Justice renders its judgment.
Juma said Somalia was “deliberately misleading Kenya” when it said it didn’t sell Kenyan offshore blocks in London.
But the Somali government denied Kenya’s accusation on Sunday, saying that the “map in question depicts Somalia’s claimed maritime zones and are entirely consistent with Somalia’s long-standing position, including its claim in the maritime delimitation case with Kenya currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).”
The two countries’ diametrically different positions on the maritime issue underscore how little they trust one another and particularly how Kenya is reluctant to find amicable resolutions to the tiff.
“Somalia shouldn’t take the bait. Kenya is trying to drag the country into a futile diplomatic confrontation that could end up in negotiations, which may not be of any interest or help to its case at the ICJ,” said Idd Bedel Mohamed, a former Ambassador at Somalia’s Mission to the United Nations in New York. “Let Somalia put the irrefutable evidence it has in front of the Kenyan government to prove the veracity of its earlier letter, and that it didn’t conduct a seismic survey nor did it offer any offshore blocks in the disputed maritime zone.”
Mohamed urged the world, especially the U.N., the U.S. and the U.K. “to urgently defuse the tension by candidly telling Kenya to stop its bullying and irrational demands.”
In her remarks, Juma appeared to be conflating two separate issues: Somalia’s prerogative to launch a bid round in London and the location of the offshore blocks offered at the conference.
While Somalia didn’t directly address the bid round, it, however, insisted that the offshore blocks whose seismic data were presented during the oil and gas conference were not in the contested waters.
Unlike Somalia, which says it is committed to waiting for the ICJ’s verdict, Kenya appears to openly stake a claim to the same disputed maritime area – especially block 230, block 231, block 232 and block 233 — saying they are “within Kenya’s maritime zones.“
It’s too early to predict how Kenya’s new escalation will affect Somalia’s inchoate bid round, but it could scare away already jittery investors.
Many Somalis have warned of dire environmental consequences and possible exploitation of the natural resources in their already unstable Horn of Africa nation if the bid is allowed to succeed. Somalia has no petroleum law or functioning institutions that can protect its interests.
“What Kenya is doing is wrong. It’s kind of ‘I am more powerful than you,’” said Amal Abdirahman, a U.K.-based human rights activist. “Kenya should keep off our waters and wait for the result of the ICJ. We will not negotiate with Kenya about what’s ours.”
Despite her harsh tone, Juma, Kenya’s foreign minister, still left the door open for future bilateral talks to resolve the dispute.
“Kenya has always chosen the path of peace, tolerance and accommodation with our neighbours,” said Juma in her statement. “We remain committed to peaceful resolution of the dispute and our doors are open for engagement with the Federal Republic of Somalia.”