NAIROBI (SD) – Kenya has rejected the decision by ICJ to resolve the maritime dispute case with its neighbouring Somalia.

In a statement, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the ruling by the top UN court gave Somalia a large chunk of territory in a maritime border dispute.

Kenya said it is profoundly concerned by the impact of the decision and its implications for the Horn of Africa region, and international law generally.

“At the outset, Kenya wishes to indicate that it rejects in totality and does not recognize the findings in the decision,” Kenyatta said in a statement.

 On Tuesday, ICJ ruled largely in favour of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas.

In a lengthy judgment made at The Hague, the Court rejected Kenya’s boundary delimitation method and virtually all claims it presented at the UN court.

It ruled that the equidistant rule which Somalia had proposed was the legally acceptable method in settling the continental shelf boundaries contrary to Kenya’s parallel to the latitude option.