link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/14/kenya-rejects-un-court-judgment-giving-somalia-control-of-resource-rich-waters
Recently the UN made a ruling in their higher court that the disputed waters in the Indian Ocean should belong to Somalia. These waters are located off the shores of both Kenya and Somalia, and they lean more heavily on the Somalian ‘borders’, however the territory has been disputed for years and is a heavy point of contention between the countries. With the ruling that the waters now belong to Somalia, the Kenyan president has announced that he is overruling this declaration in favor of keeping the waters for Kenya, further pushing the dispute. Not only are the waters important to trade between the two countries, being a way for them to transport goods across the ocean with less resistance, but it is also thought to be a gold-mine for precious resources such as oils. Although the ruling should be taken as law, there is no real way for the UN to inforce this ruling, and the Kenyan president argues that the UN has no real jurisdiction to control who the water belongs to and who will receive the materials found in it. However, the Kenyan president says he is open to continue to negotiate on the land, although how peaceful these negotiations will be is up in air.
In point of fairness, I do believe that Somalia technically is correct in thinking that the water belongs to them, for their own use and exploitation without meddling from either the UN or Kenya. An extension of the border between Kenya and Somalia would put most of said water in Somalia’s territory, although Kenya would still recieve a small amount of water. However, this is a hazy line to enforce, as there is no clear way to outline borders in water. Furthermore, I think that enforcing these borders between the two may just increase tensions rather than resolve the issue. It has already become clear between the two countries that borders don’t quite matter to them- as Kenya was in a dispute just a while ago involving the fact that they refused to remove their troops from Somalia under guidance of the AU (African Union).
Without incentive, Kenya has no real reason to give up the waters. The UN seems to have taken the approach of ‘do the right thing, give the land to Somalia’, but because Kenya receives nothing out of this deal and knows that the UN has no way to threaten them into it, nothing will happen unless the UN finds a way to ‘scratch Kenya’s back’ (given that the UN will certainly not threaten Kenya).