Imports from Kenya to Somalia fall in September

Kenya’s earnings from exports to Somalia slipped to a five-year low in September 2019 amid erratic production and long-standing maritime territorial dispute, provisional trade statistics show.

The value of exports to Kenya’s eastern neighbour comprising largely miraa (khat), dipped 93.5 percent to 64 million USD in September compared with over USD 120 million a year earlier, according to latest provisional data collated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) .

That was the lowest monthly income from the sale of goods to Somalia since June 2014.

Mogadishu has over the years been the main market for miraa traders, fetching billions of shillings annually.

Erratic production of the stimulant due to longer-than-usual drought spells experienced between 2017 through April this year, and an unresolved diplomatic tiff between the two countries has slowed down exports, traders said.

Earnings from consignments to Somalia in the first nine months of the year, for instance, amounted to 800 Million USD, the lowest in the same period since 2009.

Kenya and Somalia are embroiled in a long-standing row over the ownership of a triangle in the Indian Ocean measuring about 100,000 square kilometres believed to be rich in oil and gas resources.

The dispute is currently before The Hague-based International Court of Justice after Somalia took Kenya there in August 2014.