The Kenyan government on Tuesday said it has requested the International Court of Justice to delay the public hearing of the Somali maritime dispute to allow for the recruitment of a new defence team, reported All Africa.
Somalia sued Kenya at the ICJ seeking to change the flow of the maritime boundary from the current eastwards direction from the land border at Kiunga, to a diagonal flow, threating Kenya’s sea stake.
Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki’s office said it had submitted a plea with the UN court based at The Hague in the Netherlands to allow time for the hiring of new lawyers. The office declined to comment on the status of the initial legal team.
“The oral hearing for the maritime dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) between Kenya and Somalia is scheduled to be heard from the 9th-13th September 2019 at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands. We, however, would like to inform that due to exceptional circumstances, occasioned by the need to recruit a new defense team, Kenya has sought to have the matter postponed,” the statement read.
The Kenya-Somalia land dispute case has been scheduled for hearing on September 9 to 13, after which the 15-bench court led by Somali judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf is expected to deliver a verdict by September 19. The court, however, may reschedule the public hearing if Kenya’s request is granted.
During the course of the case hearing, a total of seven and a half hours will be given to each country to argue their case. Somalia will go first on Monday and Thursday while Kenya will be given a chance on Wednesday and Friday.
Last month, Kenyan diplomats also wrote to the African Union, seeking the hand of the Peace and Security Council to convince Somalia for an out-of-court settlement. But Somalia’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Ahmed Isse Awad rejected the request and declined Somalia’s attendance of a meeting initially scheduled for August 22.
