Wednesday March 17, 2021
NAIROBI (HOL) -Somalia and Kenya dispatched their security ministers to Qatar Tuesday where both met the country’s top leaders separately as the maritime case at the Hague rolled on.
Somalia’s security minister Hassan Jimale met with the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Tamim al-Thani as his Kenyan counterpart Fred Matiang’i held talks with the Gulf nation’s Emir Khalid Abdulaziz al-Thani.
The two ministers tweeted on March 17 about their meetings praising their respective bilateral relations with the Qatari government.
“It was my honor to deliver H. E President Uhuru Kenyatta's special message to His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, touching on ways of supporting and developing bilateral relations,” the Kenyan Minister said.
On his part, Jimale spoke of security cooperations with Qatar. “We discussed security co-operation between Somalia and Qatar.”
Qatar maintains strong bilateral ties between the two countries. Notable however is that President Mohamed Farmaajo has had close relations with Qatar which is believed to have been instrumental in his election in 2016. Qatar is financing the multimillion road project in Somalia linking the capital Mogadishu and the Lower Shabelle region.
The meetings however coincide with the resumption of the maritime case in the Hague which entered the second day yesterday. Kenya skipped the proceedings protesting what it termed as ‘bias’ by the International Court of Justice.
Sources in Nairobi said Kenya is planning to file a complaint on the case at the UN Security Council where is currently sits as a non-permanent member.