According to the Daily Nation, Somalia lodged a complaint against Kenya accusing the latter country of grabbing sea bed that is potentially rich in oil and gas deposits.“Mogadishu is seeking to claw back authority over its territorial waters, including an area of the Indian Ocean bordering Kenya’s territorial waters,” published newspaper.
The case was lodged in August 2014 after the two countries failed to come to an agreement over this issue.
Somalia was said to have requested the international court to determine the case based on international maritime laws and boundaries related to the Indian Ocean.
In 2015, Kenya claimed that Somalia’s claim over the land was invalid. This was after the two countries reached a memorandum of understanding in 2009.“The agreement had stated that the border would run east along the line of latitude although further negotiations were to be held through the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf,” published the Daily Nation on October 7, 2015.
This agreement also stated that maritime boundary adjustments would only occur after the commission had established the outer limits of shelf and that both sides would avoid courts as much as possible over the matter.
It was also reported that both sides had agreed to not take this case to court.Later, Kenya went ahead and awarded international companies permission to explore the contested region of 100 000 square kilometers.
This was despite an agreement not having been put in place.
Kenya and Somalia’s relations also changed when the former country enters Somalia to combat the al-Shabaab terrorist group after a wave of terrorism in Kenya that left many dead.Later, Kenya became part of the United Nation funded African Mission to Somalia peacekeepers troops working to stabilise the country from civil war.
Currently, Kenya is in the process of planning the closure of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps that host hundreds of thousands of Somali nationals.This is because it is believed the areas are a recruiting ground for al-Shabaab as well as present and economic and financial burden on Kenya.