Somalia Summons Kenyan Ambassador Over PS's 'Offensive' Tweet

In Summary
• Somalia hopes to keep close cooperation with Kenya.

• The maritime case between Kenya and Somali to be heard between September 9-13 at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Somalia's Foreign Affairs ministry on Sunday summoned Kenya's ambassador Lucas Tumbo over what it termed an offensive tweet by PS Macharia Kamau.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said it handed Tumbo a protest letter and said it considered the tweet "an affront to Somalia's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity as well as harmful to the relationship between Somalia and Kenya".

It went on to say, "Somalia stands for good-neighborliness, mutual respect and close cooperation with its neighbors, and expects the same from Kenya."

Kenya and Somalia are embroiled in maritime territory row.

The case will be heard by  the International Court of Justice  between September 9-13 at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Kenya wants the maritime border to run along parallel latitude southeast of Kiunga, while Somalia, is arguing for a diagonal line down the Kenyan Coast. This threatens to make Kenya a landlocked country, and risks losing 42 per cent of its territory.

Government documents show Somalia has since 1979 recognized and respected the boundary between the two countries along a parallel of latitude, as it is today.

This, however, changed in August 2014, when Somalia hurriedly filed a case at the ICJ. Kenya filed preliminary objection on the jurisdiction of the court in October 2015.

Kenyans officials say Somalia at no point did it report to the UN or Kenya of its dissatisfaction with the border, other than its objection to consideration of Kenya’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

The recent row was triggered by Somalia’s move to market oil blocks in the contested territory.