Somalia expels Kenya’s ambassador over his country’s ‘overt and blatant interferences’

By The Star Staff Writer

MOGADISHU — The Somali government has expelled Kenya’s ambassador to the country after accusing Nairobi of “continuous interferences in the internal and political affairs of Somalia.”

The new diplomatic row, which is certain to worsen the two countries’ already simmering maritime dispute, could have negative repercussions for the thousands of Kenyan troops operating under the African Union peace mission in Somalia.

The “Federal Government of Somalia summons its Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya and instructs the Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to Somalia to depart to Kenya for consultations,” said Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in a statement issued late Sunday.

Kenya’s Ambassador Lucas Kyonze Tumbo, who arrived in the country in 2015, has on several occasions received protest letters about Nairobi’s interference in Somali affairs.

On Sunday, Somalia said Kenya had carried out “overt and blatant interferences in the internal and political affairs of the Federal Republic of Somalia which has the potential to be a hindrance to the stability, security and development of the entire region.”

Somalia also accused Kenya of setting Regional Administrator Ahmed Mohamed Islam — popularly known as Ahmed Madobe — against the national government “in order to pursue its political and economic interests in Somalia.”

As a result of the Kenyan government’s political interferences in the internal affairs of Somalia, Mr. Islam, the Somali statement said, reneged on an election deal he cut with the national government on Sept. 17, when President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” and leaders of regional administrations, including Banadir, agreed to name federal and regional-level electoral commissions to manage the upcoming election.

It’s an open secret in Somalia that Mr. Islam, a close ally of Nairobi, regularly seeks the Kenyan government’s input before taking key decisions. Kenyan troops played a decisive role in installing him as the chief administrator in the port city of Kismayo after driving out al Shabab militants.

The Somali government has repeatedly tried to engineer Mr. Islam’s ouster but it failed thanks to Nairobi’s military and financial support.

“Somalia believes that the Kenyan government actions are not in line with the internationally recognised diplomatic relations enjoyed by Sovereign States,” said the statement by Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Mr. Islam and another Administrator Said Abdullahi Dani, of the northeastern region, have been dragging their feet on appointing their regions’ electoral commissioners, a delay that came, as Mogadishu believes, after an intervention by Kenya and the United Arab Emirates to frustrate President Farmajo’s reelection bid.

Somalia’s parliamentary and presidential polls are due Dec. 27, 2020 and Feb. 8, 2021 respectively.

Since 2011, when Kenya invaded Somalia, the two neighbors were in an on-again, off-again relationship, as tensions erupted over several issues, including Kenya’s plan to build a border wall, dispute over maritime border, Somalia’s ban of Kenya’s stimulant leaf, denying Somali ministers access to Kenya and Somali refugees in Dadaab camps.

By openly tying Mr. Islam to Nairobi, the Somalia government seems determined to finally throw down the gauntlet to Kenya and to other countries, like the United Arab Emirates, that have been brazenly supporting Somali regional administrators and even urging them to defy the national government to undermine Somalia’s efforts to recover from nearly three-decades of wars and weak governments.

On Saturday, Mr. Islam, who has just arrived from Nairobi, blasted Mogadishu for interfering in the affairs of Gedo region and demanded that the national government allow him manage elections in three southern Somali regions bordering Kenya.

Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had not received any official communication from Somalia informing it about the expulsion of its ambassador to Somalia.

“The Government of Kenya expresses its deep regret over the unfortunate action,” said the Ministry’s statement on Monday.

However, Kenya has suspiciously focused on irrelevant issues in its statement, such as its respect for “self determination” and for the “sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of all countries, and in particular those in Africa.” Kenya’s use of “all countries” and “those in Africa”, while at the same time curiously avoiding to mention Somalia, raises legitimate questions about Nairobi’s actual position on the territorial integrity of Somalia, especially when Kenyan politicians and top military officers are known to visit southern Somalia, where Kenyan troops are based, without informing the Somali government in Mogadishu.

In 2019, Kenya expelled the Somali Ambassador to Nairobi over Mogadishu’s decision to open bids for offshore blocks located near the disputed maritime borders between the two countries. Although the neighbors resolved that rift, still Kenya has done little to address the Somali government’s complaint that Nairobi has become a hub for saboteurs and anti-peace elements who want to destabilize Somalia.

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.

Kenya has issued licenses to Total, Anadarko and Statoil to operate in the disputed area, which is more than 100,000 square kilometers. But the Somali government has succeeded in nudging these companies into withdrawing from the area. The Italian company, ENI, which was awarded with three blocks that lie within the Somali waters has, however, refused to follow suit.

Somalis believe that Kenya has taken advantage of their nation’s weakness to lay claim to their waters, whose ownership was not in dispute when Somalia had a strong, functioning government.

The ICJ is expected to issue its verdict next year.