Kenyan foreign ministry has opened Liaison Office in Somaliland region barely four months after Somalia restored diplomatic relations with its neighbouring Kenya following months of stiff between the countries.
Relations between Somalia and Kenya had also been tense over the ownership of potential oil and gas deposits, some of which lie off the coast of Jubbaland, one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states.
In a statement, Kenya foreign ministry said the launching the mission came as a result of talks between the sides on collaboration a year ago.
Kenya dispatched a team of four officers to Somaliland’s capital city of Hargeisa to serve the office.
The officers are Benson Mwaliko as the Head, Liaison Office, Charles K Waichari as Second Counsellor, and Grace Musau and Ronald Nyakweba as Administrative Attachés.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya presents its compliments to the Liaison Office of Somaliland in Nairobi and has the honour to refer to our Note Verbale MFA/CONF/REL/130 Vol.1 (4) of August 16, 2021 (copy attached),” a letter by the ministry reads in part.
In December last year, Kenya and Somaliland reached a deal for direct Kenya Airways flights to Hargeisa in Somaliland from March 2021 after Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Muse Bihi of Somaliland met at State House in Nairobi.
Somaliland, a self-declared state in northern Somalia has been struggling to gain recognition from the international community.
The region announced its secession from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the fall of the central government led by the then Mohamed Siyad Barre.
Somaliland succeeded to hold democratic parliamentary and presidential elections.
