Since the overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre government in 1991 and the subsequent civil war the Federal Republic of Somalia (FRS) has been and remains a failed state.
As a seasoned failed state the FRS has lacked administrative, policing and military capacity to exercise effective sovereignty over its land and sea terrorists leading to large swathes of its land in the hands of Al Shabaab and other territories not to mention pirates over its 3000 km long coastline. On a human level over three million Somalis have officially and unofficially ran away from Somalia and the vast majority have founded new homes in Kenya.
Paradoxically, in August, 2014 this failed state was fit and conscious enough to file a case before the International Court of Justice at the Hague concerning a dispute in relation to “the establishment of the single maritime boundary between Somalia and Kenya in the Indian Ocean delimiting the territorial sea, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf, including the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles”.
The gist of the Somalia vs. Kenya maritime dispute is that Somalia wants the maritime border to run diagonally as an extension of the land boundary while Kenya wants it to run parallel to the latitude, eastwards, South of Kyunga. Whatever the technical merits of these arguments might be, three things are worth noting for this commentary. First, Kenya’s proposal for the boundary to run parallel to the latitude eastwards accords with the delimitation of maritime boundaries on the Indian Ocean coastline in relation to Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.
Source: kenyan Capital FM
Read more at CapitalFM:: Somalia vs Kenya Maritime Dispute: Need for Kenya to pressurize Somalia to drop its claim https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/?p=7790
