This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
Published on October 24, 2019, US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter has expressed support for President Kenyatta's push for an out-of-court settlement in Kenya's maritime border dispute with Somalia.
McCarter revealed that he had met with Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo in Mogadishu and urged him to drop the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to allow for negotiations between the two countries.
"I've been to Mogadishu to speak to the Somalia president. I told him to pull off the court case," McCarter said in an interview with Daily Nation.
The dispute centers on a 100,000km2 area in the Indian Ocean, reported to be rich in gas and oil deposits. Kenyatta had called for dialogue over the matter during the UN General Assembly in New York last month, but Farmajo insisted on proceeding with the court process.
The ICJ had initially set the hearing for November, but granted Kenya's request to postpone it. The new hearing date is set for June 2020.
