Somalia Ambassador to Kenya Mohamud Ahmed Nur alias Tarzan has ended his tour of duty after five years of tumultuous diplomatic relations.
Ambassador Nur presented his credentials to President Uhuru Kenyatta on December 5, 2018 alongside 17 other envoys, two years after his predecessor, Gamal Mohamed, left to join the government in Mogadishu.
Prior, Kenya and Somalia had only restored their diplomatic relations in July 2015 after decades of civil war in the country.
So, coming to Nairobi at the time, the former Mogadishu mayor had a huge responsibility ahead to cultivate and deepen diplomatic relations with Nairobi.
However, his tour of duty was riddled with tense diplomatic relations between the two capitals, which saw him being expelled by Kenya and recalled by Somalia. Diplomatic ties were even severed during the period.
Problems started less than three months after he started his tour of duty, when he was expelled by Nairobi in February 2019.
Ambassador Nur’s expulsion was an escalation of the maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia over the auction of oil blocks in the contested Indian Ocean waters by Mogadishu.
In a case that was finally ruled in favour of Somalia, the two states were each claiming some 100,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean, believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits as well as fisheries.
In October 2021, the International Court of Justice divided the disputed area in favour of Somalia, dividing it roughly by half.
Then presidents Mohamed Farmajo and Kenyatta differed on the ruling, with the former welcoming the ruling and asked Kenya to respect it, while the latter rejected the judgment in its totality, saying Kenya does not recognise its findings.
In May 2019, Kenya suspended direct flights from Mogadishu to Nairobi for security reasons, and planes would instead land in Wajir for security checks. Somalia, however, said the decision was politically motivated.
Kenya had only in December 2018 launched direct flights to Mogadishu from Nairobi after signing an agreement in March 2017.
Nairobi also warmed towards Somaliland, the breakaway region of Somalia seeking international recognition as a republic, with then Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau meeting Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Yasin Hagi Mohamed in June of that year.
They discussed “issues of mutual interest between the two countries and ways of strengthening the cooperation”.
In March 2020, Somalia suspended miraa imports from Kenya citing Covid-19 restrictions. The ban led to a loss of more than 50 tonnes of Kenyan khat valued at more than Sh20 million a day.
Again on November 29, 2020, Somalia summoned its envoy to Kenya “for consultations”, accusing Nairobi of interfering with its elections by pressuring Jubbaland state to reject an electoral deal that allowed formal indirect polls to proceed as scheduled, accusations Nairobi denied.
Somalia’s Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Mohamed Ali Nur announced they were recalling Ambassador Nur and ordered Kenya’s envoy to Mogadishu Lucas Tumbo out of the country.
Two weeks later, Mogadishu suspended all diplomatic ties with Nairobi, claiming interference in its domestic affairs. It recalled all its diplomats from Nairobi and gave their counterparts in Mogadishu seven days to leave. This was after Somaliland’s leader Muse Bihi visited Nairobi and held talks with President Kenyatta in December 2020.
Announcing the severance of the ties on state-run SNTV, Somalia Minister of Information Osman Dubbe accused Kenya of constant violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In January 2021, Somalia said it had lost confidence in Kenyan troops serving in an African Union peacekeeping force.
“The KDF cannot both support stability and be an instigator of insecurity in Somalia,” a statement by the Foreign Affairs ministry said, indicating further deterioration of the already severed relations.
In June 2021, then Somalia Foreign Minister Abdirizak Mohamed invited Kenya to reopen its embassy in Mogadishu, a move it would reciprocate in a push to resume full diplomatic ties. Diplomatic relations resumed the following month.
It was, however, not the end of the troubles as Ambassador Nur would in June 2022 walk out of a meeting hosted by President Kenyatta in Nairobi over the presence of Somaliland’s representative and the raising of the breakaway region’s flag. He followed this with an official protest letter.
The event brought together foreign diplomats based in Nairobi and Kenyan diplomats abroad who are in Kenya for their 18th annual conference in what was widely seen as bidding him goodbye ahead of the August 9 General Election.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs ministry says it regrets “the inadvertent and inappropriate presence” of Somaliland’s flag at President Kenyatta’s annual diplomatic address in Nairobi.
In a Note Verbale responding to Ambassador Nur’s formal protest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it affirms its recognition of the sovereignty of “one Federal Somalia Government and the integrity of the Federal Somali state”.
As he bid Ambassador Nur farewell on November 15, President William Ruto said Kenya and Somalia have for decades worked together in the pursuit of peace and development for the two nations and the region, sharing deep cultural bonds with strong business links, but did not acknowledge the envoy’s role in that.
