Kenya to continue participating in maritime dispute, court rules
Kenya will continue participating in the Maritime Delimitation dispute case with Somalia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the High Court dismissed a suit filed by 19 Kenyans.
A three-judge bench dismissed the petition which sought to bar Kenya from participating in the case saying the issues raised in the petition are better resolved through diplomatic, legislative, policy and other executive interventions.
Justices Kanyi Kimondo, Robert Limo and Anthony Mrima also ruled that Kenya is bound by decisions of ICJ and that the Jurisdiction of the High Court as municipal court does not extend to the ICJ .
“Kenya has made an appearance in the proceedings and raised two preliminary objections that were dismissed in the judgment of February 2, 2017,” ruled the judges.
The petitioners had argued that if Kenya is allowed to participate in the dispute, it has the potential of permitting an unconstitutional alteration of Kenya’s boundaries.
Through lawyer Kibe Mungai, they argued that, Kenyan boundaries cannot be altered except with an approval through a referendum and it is therefore in the interest of justice that Kenya’s participation in the ICJ case be restrained.
“The consequences of the case at ICJ is that the stage has been set for the possibility of an effective amendment of Article 5 of the constitution through alteration of the territory comprising Kenya through an ICJ binding judgment which will bypass the requisite approval through a referendum as required by law,” they argued.
It was their case that Kenya participating in legal proceedings at the ICJ is delimiting Kenya’s territory in the Indian Ocean by determining the shared boundary between Kenya and Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
The territory in question is a 100,000 square kilometer (38,610 square mile) triangular patch created by projecting the Kenya-Somali border eastward into the Indian Ocean.
Kenya had protested the jurisdiction of the ICJ to determine Somalia’s case, on the February 2 2015 but the ICJ majority ruled that though Kenya had a valid MOU with Somalia to resolve the dispute through agreement, the case will be heard to conclusion and judgment rendered.
