Somalia to present its rebuttal against Kenya at ICJ today

MOGADISHU, Somalia- Somalia’s legal representatives at International Court of Justice (ICJ) will present their oral pleading on Tuesday, in regard to the maritime dispute case filed by Somalia’s Federal government, Garowe online reports.

Yesterday Kenyan lawyers led by Attorney General Githu Muigai have accused war-torn Somalia of ignoring a previous MoU agreement between Kenya and Transitional Federal government in 2009, to resolve maritime boundary row.

Kenya’s legal representatives told the ICJ judges they had a valid agreement with Somalia on settling the boundary dispute and objected the court hearing of Somalia’s case, arguing that the MoU was approved by the then TFG President, Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers of Somalia.

“Somalia cannot repudiate its obligations and then portray itself as a victim of Kenya. The MoU sets out the agreed procedure of settling this dispute, It must be followed,” Muigai said during the hearing.

On the other hand Somalia’s legal representatives are expected to argue that the MoU is null on the grounds that the MoU is not legally binding and the signatory party was transitional government not mandated to execute such imperious venture and lacked the merit to executive the agreement on behalf of Somalia.

Somalia’s Federal Foreign Ministry has issued a press statement regarding the ongoing case in ICJ on Monday, stating that the Somali Government will request the Court to dismiss the preliminary objections filed by the Kenyan Government as unfounded and lacking merit.

“The Somali Government does not believe that the purported Memorandum of Understanding dated 7th April 2009, between the Somali Government and the Kenyan Government, to establish an agreed method of dispute settlement, let alone an exclusive method. Therefore, the Somali Government does not see any obstacles to the Court’s jurisdiction. The Somali Government strongly believes in the strength of its legal case and looks forward to a fair and just decision from the Court,” read the statement.

Somalia Federal government has affirmed to its citizen earlier the efforts it’s pushing in the maritime case, saying it will never cede its sovereign rights over its territorial waters.  

The ongoing maritime case rose Public anger amid announcement of some signatories of the controversial Kenya-Somalia maritime MoU, to run in the upcoming presidential election on October 30.

GAROWEONLINE