Fresh details have emerged linking lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi to the saga of Kenya and Somalia maritime border row which if not handled well could harm diplomatic relations between the two nations. Intelligence reports link the flamboyant lawyer, a number of Kenyans of Somali origin among them politicians in the senate, parliament and leading businessmen of spying on Kenya for the unstable Mogadishu government.
The top lawyer known by his admirers as Grand Mullah is believed to be interested in one way or another in the controversial case pitting the two countries. During the international war against pirates who had taken control of the Indian Ocean, Nairobi-based link was said to be among the beneficiaries. When the war on piracy ended, the Nairobi beneficiaries had to think outside the box hence the Kenya-Somali 100,000 square kilometres Indian Ocean water dispute. The two countries have been involved in court battle since 2014 over where each country border in Indian Ocean starts and ends. Somalia moved to the International Court Of Justice after piracy had declined in 2013. The question is, were those involved in the lucrative pirates criminal activities out to manipulate and control the mineral rich disputed waters as a new source of wealth.
Immediately Mohamed Siad Barre’s dictatorship regime collapsed in 1991, Somalia plunged into civil war. Foreign fishing fleets started dealing inside Somalia’s exclusive economic zone, sometimes illegally. Somalis took to the seas to fight them off. Between the 1990s and 2010, it forced some ships operators to hire armed commandos to provide security.
Ahmednassir AbdullahiFor protection, shipping companies struck deals with warlords as piracy in the western Indian Ocean got more organised, sophisticated, and lethal. In early 2000s, United Nations in a resolution authorised states and regional organisations to enter Somalia territorial waters to combact piracy. The Security Council resolution S-RES-183B has continued to be renewed to date after having subdued piracy. Briefs indicate, the decision by Somali to go to ICJ was surprisingly masterminded on Kenyan soil by those with vested interests.
When the maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia took centrestage, Kenya’s Attorney General Kihara Kariuki moved fast to cripple proceedings after discovery of bench partisan, lobbying and bribery in favour of Somalia. Kariuki wrote to ICJ confirming Nairobi’s earlier decision not to take part in oral submissions, protesting the scheduling. Somalia had sued Kenya at the ICJ, The Hague, Netherlands seeking to redraw their maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean from the current easterly parallel line of latitude to a diagonal border based on the line of equi-distance. Kariuki had been briefed by state security agencies that Norwegian-Somali cartels were eyeing rich offshore Kenyan gas fields. They were funding the maritime suit. The cartels were also behind the proposal for extension of Mohammed Farmaajo in power by Somalia lower house for two years.
The move was to be rejected by the opposition. With Farmajo in power for two years, the cartels that are friendly to his regime knew well, the ICJ ruling will be made when in power and help how to navigate the process to control the mineral rich blocks. That Farmajo has keenly been following ICJ proceedings was manifested when immediately the ruling was made he told Kenya to respect international rule of law.
Kariuki KiharaICJ handed Mogadishu control of most of a potential oil and gas rich blocs of the Indian Ocean. The move to acquire stated upon discovery, the biggest offshore gas reserves lie on the Kenyan side of the East African coast. It was decided, the international boundary be pushed to Somali side. In a leaked conversation by undercover Kenya state securities, a Norwegian woman is heard telling one of the lawyers involved, the cartel is “ready to buy any politically connected individual who will betray Kenya for profit and ensure the gas-rich waters end up on the Somalia side”.
CCTV footage obtained by Kenyan intelligence units also shows Ahmednasir preparing dinner for the Norwegians at his home in the upmarket Karen suburb of Nairobi. Days later, the outspoken lawyer would post pictures on Twitter boasting about his cooking prowess. The matter was later to be raised by Kenya government to local Norwegian embassy. The Norwegian embassy in Kenya moved fast according to documentations seen by Weekly Citizen. In a hard-hitting statement, it warned the Norwegians conducting explorations in the East African coast were part of a “notorious global cartel that exploits corrupt systems in some third world countries, so as to exploit and actually steal natural resources and minerals”.
Uhuru Kenyatta quickly moved to reject the ruling in totality whereas Farmajo sarcastically told Kenya to accept the verdict and move on. Farmaajo unapologetically continued to opine that Kenya should instead see the decision as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the two countries. Highly placed sources familiar with the operations of the cartels say that their major assignment is to target resources in war-torn African nations. For the case of Kenya and Somalia, their eyes are steadily trained on the massive offshore natural gas resources that are inside Kenya’s territorial waters. In what is billed as an elaborate game plan to conquer Kenya’s territorial waters, the cartels with a strong global network are said to have infiltrated the ICJ and bribed the judges in favour of skewed ruling against Kenya.
Mohamed Abdullahi FarmajoWeekly Citizen has established that the cartel accessed the court verdict in advance and that explains the heavy presence of Norwegian engineers who were already camping in Somalia ahead of the ruling date. The engineers were strategically positioned by the cartels to begin exploitation immediately after the court ruling. What raises eyebrows is how an unstable government like that of Somalia successfully filed the case at the ICJ. It is an undoubted fact that despite the influence of the cartels, top legal minds must have been roped into the deal.
It is drastically becoming clearer that the ruling will not directly help Somalia people in general but a small handful whose paymasters reside in Europe and the Middle East. The ICJ ruling has paved the way for the daring cartels who are now angling to siphon off resources. The approval of Somalia’s request for a new ocean border means that Kenya is bound to lose access to the open ocean. The new border from Somalia will cut across the Kenya-Tanzania ocean border, effectively meaning Kenya will not be able to do anything beyond the 200 nautical mile point without provoking international sanction or war with Somalia.
It is also important to note that 60pc of Kenya’s blue economy is ocean based. For starters, the dispute between Somalia and Kenya stems from a disagreement over which direction their border extends into the Indian Ocean. While Somalia believes the boundary should run in the same direction as the southeasterly path of its land border, Kenya argues the border should take roughly a 45-degree turn at the shoreline and run in a latitudinal line.
Donald TrumpThat was bound to give Kenya access to a larger share of the maritime area. Trouble started in 2014 when Somalia asked the ICJ to rule on the case after out of court negotiations between the two countries aimed at settling the dispute broke down. Red flag was first seen in February 2017, when the court ruled it had the right to adjudicate on the case. Judges rejected Kenya’s claim that a 2009 agreement between the neighbours amounted to a commitment to settle the matter out of court, stripping the ICJ of jurisdiction.
In June 2019, the ICJ said public hearings would take place between September 9 and September 14 that year, before pushing the start date to November 4 after granting a request by Kenya that said it needed time to recruit a new legal team. The Kenyan side appealed the November dates, saying it needed up to a year. The ICJ then moved the hearings to June 2020, but Kenya then requested another postponement, this time citing Covid-19 pandemic. The UN delayed the hearing till March 2021.
In January, Kenya wrote to the ICJ, requesting the hearing be delayed for a fourth time, claiming a map with crucial information that was set to be presented as evidence in the case had disappeared. Somalia protested against such a move prompting the ICJ to announce March 15 as the hearing date. But Kenya in counter protest boycotted the hearing citing perceived bias and unwillingness of the ICJ to accommodate requests for the delaying the hearings as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Hague moved ahead hearing Somalia’s case while using written evidence provided by Kenya instead.
While this was happening, a week before the final verdict, Kenya dropped the bombshell by withdrawing her participation from the case, as well as her recognition of the court’s compulsory jurisdiction. It is important to note that the US under the Donald Trump administration also withdrew from the ICJ. The move was triggered by a ruling that compelled the US to ensure its sanctions do not hit humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety for Iran. What has surprised analysts is decision by ICJ judges to order Kenya surrender geographical surveys it has done on the controversial zones as Somalia does not have.
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