This archive report was first published on 14 September 2019.
Kenya and Somalia's already strained relations have taken a hit following a property dispute that has seen a Kenyan contractor accuse the Somali Embassy in Nairobi of detaining and torturing a process server.
The incident occurred on September 2, when Amos Mutambu, a process server, attempted to deliver court filings from an ongoing suit to the Somali Embassy in Nairobi. Mutambu claims that he was stopped from leaving the embassy and was detained for several hours.
According to court filings, Mutambu was only released after an acknowledgement stamped on the court documents was erased using whiteout, and the filing receipt issued by the court was torn into two pieces.
The dispute between the Kenyan contractor, Kingsley Construction Ltd, and the Somali Embassy has been ongoing since 2016, when Kingsley signed a contract with the embassy to renovate a property in Nairobi's Lower Kabete area. The embassy has refused to pay Kingsley $226,318 (Ksh23.4 million) for the renovation work.
The case has been ongoing in the Milimani High Court, with the Kenyan court issuing a temporary order barring the embassy or anyone acting on its behalf from undertaking further renovations or construction at the Lower Kabete property.
The Somali Ambassador to Nairobi, Mohamud Omar 'Tarsan', has denied the detention allegations, but acknowledged that the embassy had received a $200 million claim plus interest from the Kenyan contractor.
The dispute comes at a time when Kenya and Somalia are engaged in a heated maritime territorial battle over oil and gas exploration blocks. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hear the case for five days starting November 4, 2019.
