Kenya is now seeking a postponement of the maritime dispute with Somalia which is before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The Attorney General’s office said in a statement on Tuesday the request for postponement was due to exceptional circumstances, occasioned by the need to recruit a new defense 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.
According to the statement, the rules of the court allow for postponement of the hearing of the case to afford the parties an opportunity to be represented.
The request comes even as a case was filed against the conduct of the court’s president.
The suit was filed by David Matsanga, the Chairperson of the Pan African Forum, who wants the presiding judge in the case, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, to recuse himself.
In his application, Matsanga wants the judge cited for subjudice for allegedly commenting about the Kenya-Somalia case outside court and conflict of interest because he is a Somali national.
Matsanga is apprehensive of a ‘risk of an unbalanced and a biased outcome’ in the case.
READ: Matsanga now wants ICJ President out of Kenya-Somalia case
“We have interest in the Kenya/Somali case as regional natives of the East and the Horn of Africa,” he said.
“As a Somali national, his heart falls near Somali,” Matsanga added.
“As a Pan African Forum, we view these statements as roadside shows that makes the President of the ICJ not fit to preside over the matter between Kenya and Somalia,” he said.
Somalia filed the boundary delimitation dispute on August 28, 2014, staking a claim on an estimated 62,000 square miles oil-rich triangle in the Indian Ocean.
Mogadishu’s case is premised on Article 15 of the Convention of the Law of Sea adopted in 1982, Kenya saying the disputed area was in fact under its jurisdiction before the convention was enacted.
Somalia country wants the sea boarder extended along the land boarder; a plea which if granted could limit Kenya’s access to high seas on its Indian Ocean shore technically rendering the country landlocked.
