Kenya has withdrawn from the maritime case with Somalia barely three days to the oral hearing to resume claiming Covid-19 pandemic and the involvement of Somali judge Abdulqawi Yusuf in the case. Attorney General Kihara Kariuki has told the ICJ in an official letter dated March 11 that Kenya has pulled out of the case after its requests were turned down. “Kenya wishes to inform the court, through the Registrar, that it shall not be participating in the hearings in the case herein, should the same proceed from March 15, 2021, as presently scheduled,” the letter read in part. Kenya reiterates its lack of adequate preparations as a result of COVID-19 pandemic since it recruited a new legal team at the same time the pandemic struck. It also said that the pandemic had stripped it of financial resources to fund the case.
