MPs will this morning question Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma on the diplomatic row between Kenya and Somalia.
According to the Star, National Assembly’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Katoo Metito said they want to know the circumstances that led to summoning of Kenya’s ambassador to Somalia.
On Saturday, PS Macharia Kamau issued a statement that was interpreted to mean that Kenya had recalled its ambassador to Mogadishu and expelled Somalia’s envoy to Nairobi. Kamau said Somalia had auctioned oil and gas blocks in maritime areas claimed by both countries. The auction is said to have happened in London on February 7. Somalia denied the claim.
Macharia later said the Kenyan ambassador had only been summoned while his Somalia counterpart had been sent to Mogadishu for consultation. “The action was taken so we can resolve this matter with credible and correct information from both sides,” Kamau tweeted.
On Sunday, Somalia said it was not offering oil and gas blocs in the disputed waters for auction. “Somalia is not offering, nor does it have any plans to offer any blocks in the disputed maritime area until the parties’ maritime boundary is decided by the ICJ,” the country’s embassy said.
Sources said it took the intervention of Juma and State House for Somalia to cool down and downplay the spat. More diplomatic interventions were expected yesterday with Juma expected in Mogadishu after she returns from the Munich Security Conference.