Kenya might be at risk after prosecuting Somali pirates

Eleven more are expected on Wednesday or Thursday after being captured by a Spanish ship. These will bring the number of pirates in Kenyan custody to 64. Those facing charges have since appealed against the sentence handed to them by a magistrate’s court in 2006.

The handing over of the suspects has attracted international attention, with major television stations from Europe and America converging on Mombasa to cover the trials.

And the court proceedings have also been characterised by extraordinary requests, where for instance during a hearing last week, a defence lawyer made an application to have the court visit the scene of crime in the high seas to establish the exact location the alleged piracy took place, which was denied.

The only law that is elaborate on maritime issues, and which can give Kenya enough room to deal with the problem is the Merchant Shipping Bill 2009, which was passed by Parliament in February, but is yet to be assented to by the President, Mr Kadima says.
In the case of the seven suspects who were released without charges, NATO commander Alexandre Fernandes was quoted by Reuters as saying that the forces did not have a detaining policy.

“The warship must follow its national law. They can only arrest if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands’ waters,” he said, sentiments that Mr Kadima echoes.

Says he: “The vessels for which pirates are accused of attacking were not seized in Kenya territorial waters, neither are the crew Kenyan nor the vessel and the cargo belong to Kenya.” He adds that the country does not have any interest in handling these cases. “In fact they are just overburdening our courts and judicial system which has a huge backlog of cases.”

Insurance premiums

Increased piracy in the Indian Ocean has resulted in insurance premiums shooting up and some shipping lines avoiding the Gulf of Aden for the longer and more expensive Cape of Good Hope route.

However, if the root cause of piracy is not addressed, it will be difficult to eradicate it, according to Mr Andrew Mwangura, East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme coordinator.

When Somalia plunged into a civil war in the early 1990s, trawlers from countries including South Korea and Japan took advantage of the lawlessness and plundered marine resources, while others dumped nuclear waste within Somali waters.

Young men ganged up to protect their resources, but graduated into pirates. The millions of dollars they get in ransom payments trickles down to the villages to take care of poverty-stricken people.

“Piracy comes to the fore only when ships belonging to powerful nations are hijacked,” says Mr Mwangura.

“What the world should know is that the men arrested for being suspects in piracy are not the pirates. Pirates are living comfortably out of Somalia and those men are just foot soldiers. So long as poverty, insecurity and lawlessness persist, we are not solving the problem,” he adds.

During a conference in Brussels last week, donors agreed to spend over $250 million (Sh20 billion) to support security systems in the country.

At the same time, French Ambassador Elisabeth Barbier said the UN was pursuing other options including establishing special piracy courts.