Global Court grants Somalia 4 months to respond to Kenya’s argument in maritime case

Somalia will have until June 18 to respond to the counter-memorial filed by Kenya last December on the matter relating to the maritime dispute between the two countries, the Hague based International Court of Justice has ruled.

In a statement Monday, the global Court accepted Somalia’s request for another four months to ‘respond to certain new legal issues raised in the Counter-Memorial’.

The Court has also granted Kenya a six months’ time extension to file its second round of pleadings setting December 18 as the deadline for Kenya to submit its rejoinder to the Court.

The Court had in its ruling in February threw out Kenya’s objections to the case on grounds of lack of jurisdiction and admissibility. The judges ruled in Somalia’s favour affirming its jurisdiction over the case and also found the case was admissible.

Both Kenya and Somalia are contesting a 100,000 kilometre square triangle off the Kenya coast. Somalia has argued the eastward line relied upon by Kenya to argue its case before the court was irregularly drawn denying it sea resources and ownership of the triangle.

Somalia wants the border between the two countries to extend diagonally into the sea.

Kenya banked on a Memorandum of Understanding deposited at the UN in 2009 which affirmed the eastward line but Somalia has since disowned the MoU. The Court however held in its February 7, 2017 ruling the document was validly entered into but noted it did not preclude other options of legal redress by Somalia.