NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 15- Kenya and Somaliland pledged to deepen bilateral relations Tuesday, with the opening of Consulates in Nairobi and Hargeisa by March 2021.
The agreement was reached during bilateral talks between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somaliland counterpart Muse Bihi Abdi who was in Nairobi for a three-day State visit that has fuelled Kenya’s animosity with Somalia.
On learning that Bihi was in Nairobi, Somalia which had already kicked out Kenya’s ambassador announced that it was severing ties.
But Kenyatta and Bihi pressed on with their bilateral meeting at State House, Nairobi where they spoke of having direct flights from Nairobi to Hargeisa.
Somalia, which does not recognise Somaliland as a country, recently announced that Kenyans traveling to Mogadishu will have to seek visa approvals before departure.
The statement added that Kenyan airlines would start direct flights between Nairobi and Hargeisa by that date.
“The two leaders acknowledged Kenya’s commitment to a peaceful, stable, strong and prosperous Somalia, in which the voices of all the people of Somalia have opportunity to express their sovereign will,” the statement said.
The announcement was likely to further anger the central government in Mogadishu, which considers Somaliland to be part of its territory.
Somalia said Monday it had sent a letter of complaint about Kenya to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an eight-country regional bloc, which would discuss the dispute in Djibouti on Sunday.
Kenyan foreign ministry spokesman Cyrus Oguna said Tuesday the government had set up a committee “to seek (a) solution to the diplomatic row.”
He added that his country had been “very kind and accommodating” to some 200,000 Somalis living in vast refugee camps in Kenya’s east.
Kenya is a major contributor of troops to AMISOM, an African Union military operation fighting Al-Qaeda-linked fighters waging a violent insurgency across Somalia as they seek to unseat the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
There is a long list of grievances between the two countries.
Somalia has long resented what it believes is Kenya’s support for Ahmed Madobe, the president of the Somali state of Jubaland.
In November, Somalia recalled its ambassador to Kenya, accusing Nairobi of “placing great political pressure” on Madobe, a former warlord who has raised disagreements with the central government’s roadmap toward Somalia’s elections.
Parliamentary elections are supposed to begin in a matter of weeks in the Horn of Africa nation, with a presidential vote not far behind in early 2021.
But the timetable is well behind schedule, hampered by political infighting between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed — better known by his nickname Farmajo — and the country’s regional leaders, most notably Madobe.
Kenya sees Jubaland as a bulwark against Al-Shabaab and Madobe as an ally in their fight against the militants. But Mogadishu refused to recognise his re-election last year, backing a loyalist in a parallel poll.
In March, Kenya said Somali troops crossed the border during clashes with troops loyal to Jubaland.
Kenya also recalled its ambassador from Mogadishu in February last year in a long-running dispute over a stretch of the Indian Ocean claimed by both nations and believed to hold valuable deposits of oil and gas.
The countries only agreed to “normalise” relations and start reissuing travel visas to each other’s citizens in November 2019.
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