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A section of Kenyan Somalia MPs now want the territorial deal between the Somaliland region and Ethiopia dropped warning that it is setting up the countries to war whose effects will spill over to Kenya and other countries in the Horn of Africa.

The legislators under the North-Eastern Parliamentary Group said Ethiopia contravened international laws governing the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Somalia when it signed a 50-year partnership agreement with the breakaway Somaliland region.

“From the outset, we unequivocally state that the Ethiopian Government’s action to enter into an agreement and effectively establish direct international relations with a region of Somalia is in breach of the territorial integrity and abuse of the political independence of the State of Somalia,” the Group’s patron Farah Maalim said during a press briefing flanked by Adan Keynan (Eldas), Farah Yakub (Fafi) and Abdikadir Hussein (Lagdera).  

The MPs were opposing a recently signed pact between the Somaliland region of Somalia and the Federal Government of Ethiopia wherein Somaliland agreed to lease a 20km stretch of Seaport access to Ethiopian Naval forces for 50 Years in exchange for international recognition.

Accepted norm

When this happens to Somalia, Maalim said, it can happen to Kenya and all other countries in the region.

“I don’t want this stupid behaviour to become an accepted norm in this region. I want my territorial integrity and sovereignty as a Kenyan and anybody who will do something that will compromise that in future where you have this lacklustre, very reckless adventurism should be stopped,” the Dadaab MP said. “If we do not stop it now. We find it bizarre that a country like Ethiopia would act with that level of unconsciousness.”

Quoting Article 1 (4) of the United Nations Charter provides that all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state Maalim revealed that Ethiopia and Somalia have in the past gone to war three times and this move may spark a fourth war.