Kenyan representatives said Monday in a preliminary hearing that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] has no part in their dispute with Somalia over borders. The dispute, Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean) [case materials], centers around the boundary between the two countries and under which sovereignty oil deposits in the Indian Ocean fall. Githu Muigai, the lawyer for Kenya, said during objections at the beginning of the preliminary hearing that the ICJ does not have proper jurisdiction over the dispute as there are other methods through which the boundary could be determined [transcript, PDF].

Somalia v. Kenya [official application] was filed with the ICJ in 2014, after negotiations between the two countries concerning the boundary fell through. Somalia filed their complaint [press release, PDF], putting this question to the ICJ: “to determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean, including the continental shelf beyond 200 [nautical miles].”