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2.9 billion shillings has been injected into the economy following the adoption of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

Chairman of the taskforce overseeing implementation of the court annexed mediation process, Justice William Musyoka says this is because of arbitration and mediation.

Speaking while presiding over the mediation roll out in Nakuru, Justice William Musyoka said methods such as arbitration and mediation are cheaper, quicker and less messy alternatives to litigation.

Justice Musyoka said that determinations made through a mediation process were more acceptable to all parties as compared to judgments delivered by judicial officers noting that the time for settling a dispute has reduced from 50 months in Commercial and Tax Division and 43 months in Family Division respectively to an average of 66 days.

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Justice Musyoka, who is also the Presiding Judge at the High Court in Kakamega added that the Judiciary has also given parties in disputes a chance to mend their broken relationships through mediation saying a total of 2.9 billion shillings has already been released into the economy by cases that have been resolved through mediation.

Court Annexed Mediation has already been rolled out in the counties of Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu, Nyeri, Machakos, Garissa, Embu, Kakamega and Kisii.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 endorsed Alternative forms of dispute resolution.

The Sh24, 632,192 has been recovered from Afren (EAX)/Octant Energy which responded to a demand notice that was also sent to other seven companies in 2018.

The ministry is demanding the Sh754 million to Camac Energy, Simba Energy, A-Z petroleum limited, Adamantine Energy Kenya limited, Imara Energy, Rift Energy and Zarara oil and Gas.

Petroleum ministry has recovered only Sh24.6 million or 3.3percent of Sh754 million that eight oil exploration companies owes it in surface and training levy.

The Sh24, 632,192 has been recovered from Afren (EAX)/Octant Energy which responded to a demand notice that was also sent to other seven companies in 2018.

The demand notes were dispatched three years after Auditor General Edward Ouko queried the failure by the firms to pay the levies from 2015.The ministry is demanding the Sh754 million to Camac Energy, Simba Energy, A-Z petroleum limited, Adamantine Energy Kenya limited, Imara Energy, Rift Energy and Zarara oil and Gas.

Two companies, Adamantine Kenya limited which has been exploring on block 11B and Imara Energy which was operating in block L2 have had their licenses revoked.

Energy principal secretary Joseph Njoroge and his Petroleum counterpart Andrew Kamau told Parliament that efforts have been made to engage the companies through telephone conversations and site visits before resorting to issue demand notes for payment.

“Oil and gas exploration is very expensive risk venture. Being a high risk venture explains the reasons why the ministry explores other avenues before resorting to contract termination,” Mr Njoroge told the Public Accounts Committee.

Mr Njoroge and Mr Kamau had been directed by the committee to explain why eight petroleum companies have failed to pay Sh754 million in the last three years.

On Tuesday, Mr Njoroge failed to explain why the companies had not paid surface and training fees as per their production sharing contracts since the financial year 2015/16. He said the ministry wrote demand letters to the firms, most of them international, to pay the outstanding amounts.

He sought more time to produce letters for three firms after he attached a list of five companies that the ministry wrote to on January 5, 2018, demanding payment of outstanding fees.

The companies are Lion Petroleum Corporation, A to Z Petroleum Products, Imara Energy, Rift Energy Kenya Limited and E and P Petroleum Limited.

On Friday, Mr Njoroge told MPs that the chances of companies pumping a lot of capital and getting a dry well is a common phenomenon which has had some companies relinquishing the blocks back to the government.

Mr Njoroge said some exploration companies have left the country after striking dry wells reducing the total number from 16 in 2014 to 11 currently.

He said despite the companies getting dry wells after sinking in billions of shillings, the companies acquire data such as gravity, magnetic, seismic and well data that is at the custody of the National Oil Corporation.

“There is a company that struck a dry well after spending $125 million (Sh12.5 billion) last year. However, despite this, the government gets data on exploration,” Mr Kamau said.

He said the ministry has been relying on information from the exploration firm who are required to pay the levies through the banks.

“In the future, we should ensure they provide a letter of credit (LC) but for now it is an open account. If they default to pay the levies we will cash in the LC,” Mr Kamau told the committee chaired by Opiyo Wandayi.

Kenya has recalled its ambassador from Mogadishu and asked Somalia’s ambassador to leave after accusing the Somali government of auctioning exploration blocks within disputed waters.

The two nations have been debating the location of their joint maritime boundary since 2009, when Somalia initiated an arbitration proceeding with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The Kenyan-claimed boundary line runs due east from the seaward terminus of the Somali land border, along a parallel at about 1.7 degrees S, and it dates back to 1979. Somalia seeks an alternate boundary line drawn equidistant from each nation’s shores. In 2014, after the two sides failed to reach an agreement in arbitration, Somalia filed a suit with the International Court of Justice. Kenya disputed the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the case, but the court disagreed and the case is proceeding.

“Somalia has since 1979 recognized and respected the maritime boundary between the two countries along a parallel of latitude. However, in 2014, shortly before filing its case with the Court, Somalia claimed a maritime boundary along an equidistance line, ignoring the 35-year practice of recognizing and respecting the maritime boundary along a parallel of latitude,” said the Kenyan government in a statement.

On Saturday, Kenyan foreign affairs secretary Macharia Kamau accused Somalia of making “a most regretful and egregious decision . . . to auction off oil and gas blocks in Kenya’s maritime territorial area.” Kamau alleged that Somalia had held an “outrageous and provocative auction” in London on February 7, and characterized it as a “act of agression against the people of Kenya and their resources.”

Somalia’s government immediately denied holding an offshore auction affecting Kenyan-claimed areas. “Somalia is not now offering nor does it have any plans to offer any blocks in the disputed maritime area until the parties’ maritime boundary is decided by the ICJ,” Somalia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Somalia added that it wished to “reassure the government of Kenya that it stands by its commitment not to undertake any unilateral activities in the disputed area until such time as the ICJ renders its judgement.”

The dispute with Somalia would directly affect three E&P blocks that Kenya leased to Eni in 2012, and the boundary has bearing on potentially significant offshore oil and gas resources. In 2014, shortly before Somalia filed suit at the ICJ, Pancontinental and BG Group announced a significant find southeast of the contested area. “It is the only offshore oil column ever reported seaward of the eastern coastal margin of the African continent, from South Africa to the northwest tip of Somalia,” said Pancontinental CEO Barry Rushworth in announcing the find. “We believe that this is a play-opening discovery in Kenya’s Lamu Basin.”

Separately, the diplomatic dispute may also complicate the Kenyan-backed joint peackeeping effort in Somalia, which relise heavily upon troops contributed by other African countries. Kenya has supplied about 3,500 soldiers for the long-running operation against Somalia’s al-Shabaab militant group.