Kenya has recalled its ambassador to Somalia Lt. Gen. Lucas Tumbo after it emerged that oil and gas blocks in disputed territorial areas were auctioned to the United Kingdom. According to Foreign Affairs PS Macharia Kamau, Somalia ‘carelessly’ ignored internationally accepted norms of boundary disputes resolution as well as political and diplomatic disagreements. “The Federal Government of Somalia has sadly demonstrated that it has not yet attained and embraced political maturity and diplomatic stance of a normal, well-adjusted and properly functioning modern government,” he said. Speaking during a Press conference on Saturday, Amb. Kamau further termed the move by Somalia to auction oil and gas blocks in disputed territory as ‘tragic and regretful.’ The auction apparently took place in London on February 7, 2019. Amb. Kamau criticised the Somali Government for taking for granted the support of the Kenyan Government through political and humanitarian hardships. “Kenya has stood with Somalia without once flinching on its responsibility to its neighbour nor shirking in its international responsibility to the people of Somalia ,” he added. In a strongly worded statement, the Foreign Affairs CS said Kenya regrets the action as it has ‘severely undermined the existing cordial and brotherly relations’ between the two countries. He said the move has compromised half a century’s worth of dedication and cooperation between Kenya and Somalia. Two days ago, the Somali government said it would award exploration licenses to foreign oil companies despite calls from the opposition to wait until laws and regulations governing the oil sector were in place. Also Read: Somalia readies for oil exploration, still working on petroleum law “There is not a clear consensus about how the oil sector could be managed in Somalia,” Barnaby Pace, an investigator for the NGO Global Witness, which exposes corruption and environmental abuses, told VOA. “And once Somalia makes deals like the one it’s proposing, it may be locked in for many years and find it difficult to renegotiate or change them to best protect itself,” he added. For Citizen TV updates Join @citizentvke Telegram channel Video Of The Day: | SUCCESS AND AFTER | Tracking the progress made by students who topped KCSE in past years<doc-sep>13 SHARES Share Tweet NAIROBI, Kenya Feb17 – Somalia has denied auctioning Kenya’s potential maritime zones that are in dispute at the International Court of Justice, The country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday night that it is ready and willing to cooperate with Kenya in finding an amicable solution to the crisis that has caused a diplomatic tiff between the two countries. “Somalia is not now 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 statement said. Kenya has already recalled Ambassador Lucas Tumbo and sent away Somalia’s ambassador back home for consultations. The Somalia government however, said “it regrets Kenya’s decision to instruct her ambassador to depart Kenya without prior consultation.” Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau said the decision was taken after Somalia unilaterally auctioned off oil and gas blocks in contested maritime zones in the Indian Ocean. With the denial, Somalia has now said it is “committed to continuing to work hard in close cooperation with its brothers and sisters in Kenya to address pressing issues confronting both nations and the region.” On Saturday, Kenya termed the decision by Somalia to auction the disputed maritime blocks as “unparalleled affront” and vowed that the “illegal grab” will not go unanswered. “This outrageous and provocative auction deserves and will be met with a unanimous and resounding rejection by all Kenyans as well as all people of goodwill who believe in the maintenance of international law and order and the peaceful and legal resolution of disputes,” PS Kamau said in a statement. According to Nairobi, Somalia auctioned the contentious blocks to the “highest predatory” bidders from the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Norway after a map showing the area in question belonging to Somalia was shown at a London conference. Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading. Kamau said Nairobi protested by sending an official diplomatic protest letter (demarches) to the Ambassador of Somalia in Kenya with a copy sent to Ambassador Tumbo for onward forwarding to the Government of Somalia. “It is, therefore, most regretful that the Government of Kenya has now arrived at the conclusion that its protest and demands that Kenya sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected, have been ignored.” “The Government of Kenya cannot and will not standby as its demarches are ignored and its territorial integrity is infringed upon and its sovereign resources are carved out and shared out by an ungracious and unbrotherly neighbour acting to satisfy the greed of commercial interest resident in foreign land.” There was a sense of betrayal in the statement with Nairobi reminding Mogadishu how Kenya has stood by the troubled neighbour by sending its armed forces to support Somali’s army to fight Al Shabaab.<doc-sep>
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has summoned its ambassador to Somalia back home after the Mogadishu government’s decision to auction oil and gas exploration blocks at the center of a maritime territorial dispute in the Indian Ocean, the foreign ministry said. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is considering a claim on the two countries’ maritime boundaries brought by Somalia in 2014 after negotiations over the 100,000 square km stretch of sea floor broke down. Kenya said on Saturday it had summoned its ambassador, Lucas Tumbo, and asked his Somalia counterpart Mohammed Muhamud Nur to return to Mogadishu for consultation with his government. “The summons is a consequence of a most regretful and egregious decision by the government of Somalia to auction off oil and gas blocks in Kenya’s maritime territorial area,” the foreign ministry said. Somalia, which held the auction in London on Feb. 7 according to Kenya, denied the accusation. “There was no auction of oil blocks,” the government said in a statement. Officials in Mogadishu had confidence they could secure the territorial integrity of the country through the legal process in The Hague, they said in the statement, adding they expected the court to rule justly. Kenya said it had raised concerns with the Somali government a day before the auction after it noticed blocks in what it considers to be its maritime territory were included in the auction. “This unparalleled affront and illegal grab at the resources of Kenya will not go unanswered and is tantamount to an act of aggression against the people of Kenya and their resources,” it said in a statement, adding it was ready to defend its territorial integrity “at any cost”. The two states have been co-operating in the long fight against the al Qaeda-linked, al Shabaab militants in Somalia. Kenya said the row over maritime territory could jeopardize that.