Kenya is set to open a Consulate in Hargeisa, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somaliland counterpart Muse Bihi Abdi have agreed amid frosty ties with Somalia. Kenya will open the consulate by the end of March 2021 while Somaliland will upgrade the status of its liaison office in Kenya to that of a consulate. The announcement was made in a joint communique issued by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Somaliland’s President Muse Bihi Abdi at the end of the latter’s visit to Kenya. The two leaders also agreed that Kenya Airways and other Kenyan airlines would fly directly from Kenya’s capital Nairobi to Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa before the end of March.

“Senior officials on a pre-determined list and travelling to Kenya on Somaliland travel documents to apply for e-visa and receive visas on arrival by end of March 2021,” read the joint communique.

The deal appears to have angered Somalia, which has announced the severance of diplomatic ties with Kenya. Somaliland seceded from Somalia in 1991, but its attempts so far to gain international recognition as an independent state has been unsuccessful with Somalia insisting that it is still part of its territory. Somalia has recalled all its diplomats in Kenya and has given Kenyan diplomats seven days to leave. Kenyan government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said that a committee had been set up to resolve differences with Somalia, as the two countries had a long-standing relationship that needed to be protected.