On Sunday, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta dispatched his Cabinet Secretary for Interior to Mogadishu for talks with the Federal Government of Somalia.
CS Matiang’i arrives in Mogadishu at a time when the two countries have almost gone to war. The growing tension between the two Horn of Africa neighbors threatens stability in the region.
Matiang’i heads a delegation full of security chiefs to meet their Somali counterparts.
The decision to send his top, most trusted lieutenant to Somali, signals a thawing of the relations between the two neighboring countries.
Matiang’i’s tour of Somalia comes in a week when Somali National Army (SNA) battled forces loyal to fugitive Jubaland Minister, Abdirashid Janan, who is in hiding in Kenya’s Mandera Town.
Following the fight, Kenya and Somalia accused and counter-accused each other of breaching territorial integrity.
The issue forced the United States to apply pressure on the two states to resolve the dispute fast before insecurity dominates the region.
According to Matiang’i, his trip to Mogadishu is an “attempt to resolve persistent issues cropping up along the Kenya-Somalia border.”