President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday managed to stop hearings at the International Court of Justice over Indian Ocean maritime dispute with Somalia.
The two countries have been squabbling with the Hague-based ICJ scheduling September 9th to 13th as exact dates for special hearing.
Uhuru, through Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, had requested the court to postpone the case for another 12 months to allow Kenya reconstitute her legal team.
“Due to exceptional circumstances, occasioned by the need to recruit a new defence team, Kenya has sought to have the matter postponed,” Attorney General Kihara Kariuki said in a statement.
Under Article 54 of the Rules of the Court, parties to a case may request the bench to alter the date fixed by the Court, “should occasion arise” to either delay the public oral sessions or stop those already going on until a later date.
But on Thursday, ICJ gave Kenya another two months to prepare for the case, dealing a major blow to Somalia which had opposed the application.
"The International Court of Justice has postponed Somalia and Kenya maritime hearing case for two months; not the 12 months delay Kenya has requested according to Somalia Ambassador to the European Union. The hearing will now take place early November," reports indicated.
Kenya had sacked six foreign lawyers in the case after they failed to have the case dismissed at the pretrial stage. Most of them were from the West.
They included Prof Payam Akhavan from the US, Prof Vaughan Lowe QC from the UK, Prof Alan Boyle (British), Prof Mathias Forteau (French), Mr Karim Khan (British) and Ms Amy Sanders (British).
Somalia had rejected Kenya's application to the African Union to have the case withdrawn from the Hague and subject it to local media teams.
Kenya had threatened to have Kenya Defense Forces troops deployed at the disputed area, accusing Somalia of auctioning several oil deposits that lie on the disputed area.