Page 75 - Vol 28 Issue 29 2019

politics oil

African coast has almost too much gas. that Somalia has the better of the soldiers in Somalia. Some Somalis – and
Mozambique and Tanzania are jostling to argument. Kenyan governance expert others – accuse Kenya of being in the
find markets for their vast gas reserves. Professor Amukowa Anangwe told Kenya’s country for its own interests, including
What made the Somali offshore geology Sunday Nation that Kenya would stand a commercial ones, rather than Somalia’s.
exciting, it said, was ‘the scent of oil’. better chance if it didn’t base its case on It invaded Somalia to take on al-Shabaab
If proven by drilling, the gas and Article 15 of the 1982 Convention of the in 2011 after members of the group killed
particularly oil reserves below the seabed Law of the Sea. tourists at a beach resort on the border
could address many of the country’s That article essentially defines the with Somalia.
needs – though of course that would be maritime boundaries between two Whatever its motives, its troops are
some years down the line. And in any adjacent coastal states as running out undoubtedly helping to keep al-Shabaab
case Somalia would only benefit if it perpendicularly from the point where at bay and have suffered heavy casualties
managed to avoid the pitfalls of almost their landward boundary meets the coast. in doing so. On home soil, Kenyan civilians
all its fellow resource-rich African states, That would seem to be the logical way to have also paid the price, in several
by ensuring that its apparently abundant draw the maritime boundary, suggesting retaliatory terrorist attacks by al-Shabaab.
petro resources become a blessing and that the exploration blocks Kenya This is a dispute that shouldn’t be allowed
not a curse. claims indeed encroach on what would to spin out of control.
This is a crossroads moment for Somalia. logically seem to be Somali waters. That
Already there are signs that things might may explain why Kenya seems keener
be going in the wrong direction. Somalia on settling the dispute bilaterally than
has fallen out with its southern neighbour through the ICJ. Peter Fabricius
Kenya, which claims that Somalia tried to Senior ISS researcher Timothy Walker
auction off oil and gas exploration blocks however notes that this dispute has
that lie in Kenyan territorial waters at a been caught up in a wider argument
London conference on 7 February. about the colonial-
Kenya recalled its ambassador and era boundary
expelled Somalia’s. Kenya’s foreign affairs between the two
cabinet secretary Monica Juma told countries. ‘And a inTERnATiOnAL TRAininG
journalists that Somalia was ‘deliberately verdict in favour of
misleading’ prospective investors by Somalia will result
offering to sell four offshore oil blocks in a substantial The KWS PowerTech Training Center (KRAFTWERKSSCHULE E.V.)
in an area of the sea that was subject to adjustment and provides training for all areas of power technology:
court proceedings to resolve an ownership loss of Kenya’s
dispute between the two countries. Economic Exclusion • Fossile-fired power plants
Zone which it • CCGT power plants
proclaimed in • Industrial power plants
1979.’
Somalia denied the • Nuclear power plants
allegations, saying that Walker regrets • Hydro power, Wind power
while the maps it presented that not all options • Bioenergy
delineating
for
at the conference included the boundary • Desalination
• Simulator training
territory that Kenya claims, in bilateral
the conference was just a negotiations were Operation personnel trained to German standards!
marketing exercise. It said exhausted before At our training center in Essen/Germany or worldwide.
its government wouldn’t take the dispute was
any unilateral action on the referred to the ICJ,
area pending a ruling from which he predicts
will give a ‘zero-
the International Court of sum’ binding
Justice (ICJ) to which Somalia ruling.
referred the dispute in 2014. Either way, this
It said Kenya had in fact tried is not a happy
to sell off exploration blocks dispute for either
in Somali waters. side. Like Burundi,
Kenya is a major KRAFTWERKSSCHULE E.V. – TRAining FoR THE FUTURE
contributor of Deilbachtal 199, 45257 Essen, Germany www.kraftwerksschule.de
Though the competing claims are still troops to AMISOM, Phone: +49 201 8489-0 info@kraftwerksschule.de
being wrangled over in the ICJ, it would Fax: +49 201 8489-102 Certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008
seem from local reporting on the dispute with some 3 600

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