Border disputes with neighbours have exposed Kenya to aggression

President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somalia President Abdullahi Farmajo when they met on Wednesday morning in Nairobi to discuss the source of the maritime dispute. [Courtesy]

Two events in 1975 and 2007/8 made Kenya appear vulnerable and ripe for pushing around. With Kenya appearing divided over the 1975 death of JM Kariuki, Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada produced booklets in February 1976 with maps reorganising regional geography. Ugandan land, he said, stretched northward beyond Juba and Torit in South Sudan and eastwards to Naivasha, Kenya. Amin also encouraged secessionism in Kenya and promised to go to war if Kenya blocked access to the sea.