Somalia rules out meeting between Farmajo and Uhuru, soon

MOGADISHU, Somalia - It will take some time before President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somalia counterpart Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo meet, a top official in Mogadishu has said, just a few days after the two countries announced the normalization of their diplomatic relationship.

Through the help of Qatar, Somalia announced the restoration of ties with Kenya after severing ranks with the East Africa nation four months ago, over what it termed as "persistent interference of our internal politics". Kenya has often denied these allegations.

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad of Qatar was instrumental in this milestone, having dispatched his envoy Mutlaq Alqahtani to Mogadishu and Nairobi. Mutlaq Alqahtani met both Farmajo and Uhuru separately before the announcement was made.

But Osman Abukar Dubbe, Somalia's information minister, said Kenya and Somalia will strive to restore diplomatic relationship but ruled out immediate plans for a meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, whose tenure expired on Feb 8.

Further, the minister, who is a close associate of Farmajo, insisted that the two will not have an obligation of discussing the Indian Ocean maritime dispute, adding that the case will be heard and determined by the International Court of Justice [ICJ].

"Both Somalia and Kenya are striving to restore their diplomatic relations so that we ease the tension and build the confidence of the two nations, there is no immediate summit between President Farmajo and Pres Uhuru, regarding the maritime case, that would be determined by the ICJ," the minister said.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Gulaid had also ruled out the possibility of Somalia and Kenya settling the matter out of court, adding that Mogadishu is keenly waiting for a "fair" judgment from ICJ, which heard submissions from both parties in March.

According to Gulaid, the maritime border case had nothing to do with the normalization of ties between Nairobi and Mogadishu, adding that the matter is a "separate issue". A number of pundits linked the normalization of ties with the possible withdrawal of the case from The Hague.

"The maritime dispute will be finalized by the ICJ following oral hearing was completed on March 15-18 this year. We are awaiting fair judgment. Diplomatic relations between the two countries is a separate issue," he said.

Outgoing Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo met President Uhuru Kenyatta last in December 2019 where the two countries agreed to normalize relationships besides expanding their bilateral ties. During the meeting, Farmajo had ruled arbitration of the matter out of court.

Kenya and Somalia are battling over oil deposits along the coastline of the Indian Ocean, with the former accusing the latter of "auctioning our territory contrary to the law". Since 2019, the two leaders have never met, but Kenya has made an effort to dispatch diplomats to Mogadishu for reconciliation.

GAROWE ONLINE