President Uhuru Kenyatta will be forced to go back to drawing board in Indian Ocean maritime dispute with Somalia, despite having Hague based International Court of Justice extending the hearing period for two months.
On Thursday, ICJ gave in and allowed Kenya to constitute a strong legal team for the Indian Ocean maritime dispute, even though Kenya had asked for 12 months.
The case was to commence on September 9th to 13th at the Hague contrary to Kenya's wishes. Somalia sued Kenya in 2014 at the court.
"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.
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 elsewhere in Addis Ababa, President Uhuru Kenyatta through Foreign Affairs ministry had asked the African Union to compel Somalia to drop the case and allow dialogue.
However, on Friday, AU rejected the request, arguing that it has no jurisdiction to compel Somalia to drop the case. The AU said it's only Somalia and Kenya can push for adjournment.
“AU is not in a position to intervene,” it says. “Only the parties can request for the adjournment or removal of the case from ICJ," read the statement.
“At this stage, the African Union is not in a position to request to intervene as the time allowed for that request to take place has elapsed. The request should have been submitted to the Registry before the closure of written proceedings, i.e. Dec 2018," added the statement.
Kenya will now have to face Somalia at the ICJ from November, a move that will further escalate differences between the two countries. Nairobi accuses Modadishu of auctioning oil deposits in the disputed area.
Last month, Kenya parliament threatened to have Kenya Defense Forces deployed in the disputed area, a move that sparked outrage in Somalia.