The International Court of Justice will, next week, once again review Kenya’s request for a 12-month delay of the public hearing in its maritime boundary case with Somalia.
On Thursday, Kenya’s Office of the Attorney-General asked the Court, based at The Hague, Netherlands, to grant a year’s postponement in what officials argue would be sufficient time to prepare.
The move came after the ICJ had initially granted a two-month delay for the public hearings earlier scheduled for September 9 but moved to November 4.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Macharia Kamau told The EastAfrican the time granted by the Court was not enough for Nairobi to prepare.
“It is the same request for the 12-month postponement that was being revisited, at the invitation of the Acting President of the case, because we only got 55 days last time which is simply unworkable for Kenya,” he said from The Hague where he accompanied Solicitor-General Ken Ogeto and other state counsel. The decision on the new request should come “very soon,” he said.
Somalia has opposed Kenya’s request from the start, and Wednesday’s meeting which was some sort of a conference of parties to the case was supposed to broker an amicable solution.
