Hijacked arms: The mystery deepens

Mystery deepened on Monday over the real ownership of the tanks and other arms hijacked by three boatloads of Somali pirates.

The Government insisted the battle tanks — 33 T-72s — rocket propelled grenades and 23 anti-aircraft guns plus ammunition, were destined for Kenya’s military. But a US Navy spokesman stated categorically that the arms were heading to an unknown buyer in Sudan.

The spokesman, named as Lt Nathan Christensen, of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “We are aware that the actual cargo was destined for Sudan not Kenya.”

However, Kenya’s defence spokesman Bogita Ongeri dismissed the claim, saying, “It is the property of the Government of Kenya and we have documentation to that effect.”

And on Monday night the Government released two documents, a bill of lading and a letter from the Ukranian exporter.

The bill of lading shows the consignee as the Ministry of Defence and the owner is Waterlux AG.

The cargo is shown as 33 T-72 tanks weighing 1.353 million kilogrammes, and another lot of 73 packed cargo containing T-72 tanks spare parts weighing 11,900 kilogrammes.

The letter from the State Self-Supporting Foreign Trade and Investment Firm Ukrinmash is signed by a director D. A. Peregudov informing the Kenyan government that the ship was seized on September 25, 2008.

And in a further puzzling twist, a piracy expert in Mombasa was gagged by the Coast PC.

Mr Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, said on Monday that he was called by Coast PC Ernest Munyi and ordered not to give any information on the vessel to the media.

The pirates on Saturday claimed they had damning evidence to show that Kenya was not the end user of the military hardware aboard the hijacked ship and was, therefore, in breach of a United Nations arms embargo.

The Kenya Government spokesman, Dr Alfred Mutua on his website, however insisted that the pirates were terrorists bent on diverting attention.

“There have been alarming propaganda by the pirates to the media that the weapons are not for the Kenyan military. This is a tactic by the terrorists to try and fend off reprisals against them.

"The Kenyan government will not engage in answering back to terrorists who have hijacked important military equipment paid for by the Kenyan tax payer for use by the Kenyan military,” Dr Mutua said.

Military sources, privy to the Kenyan defence policy and priority, however, insisted that the country has not sent any military personnel to Ukraine or Russia to be trained on operating the tanks or the ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns.