ALL AFRICA
8 August 2019
Kenyan MPs have directed the Cabinet to send a protest letter to the UN after its judges at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) agreed to settle a maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia.
In a resolution tabled on Wednesday, National Assembly Leader of Majority Aden Duale argued that Somalia moved to ICJ without exhausting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms under international laws of the sea.
Kenya reckons that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which both countries are signatories, binds the two nations to settle their boundary disputes outside the court.
In the notice, both Mr Duale and his minority counterpart John Mbadi want the boundary dispute to be settled through diplomacy and dispute resolution mechanisms available under African Union, Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and East African Community (EAC).
Mr Duale and Mbadi want the IGAD and EAC to be the first point of call on such disputes and not the ICJ where Somalia has taken the matter.
