EU admits challenges in sea piracy fight

The European Union has admitted that it is facing major challenges in fighting sea piracy off the coast of Somalia and prosecuting pirates.

EU Naval Forces Operation Commander Buster Howes said in Nairobi on Tuesday that pirates are adopting more complex means to launch attacks and that the bloc has insufficient regional partners to deal with problem.

“The act of Piracy is getting industrialised and although the level of success (of pirate attacks) is still very low, it will take time to counter their tactics,” he said.

Pirates, he said, are now using hostages as a shield in that by keeping them on their boats as long as possible, the military will not attack the boats for the sake o hostages’ lives.

Maj-Gen Howes said countries in the region have been reluctant to receive and try captured pirates on their respective soils. The bloc says this has in turn been frustrating Kenya’s efforts to bring suspects to justice. So far, Kenya is the only country in East Africa to agree to try suspected pirates in the country.

In March 2009, Kenya and the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the procedure of charging and trying the suspects of sea piracy arrested off the Eastern Africa coast.

Under the deal, the EU is charged with availing the suspects together with a package of supportive evidence to the Kenya government and give financial aid for the legal processes involved. However, this arrangement was dealt a big blow in November last year when the High Court ruled that the country has no jurisdiction to try suspects captured outside Kenya’s waters. It ordered for the immediate release of the suspects.

Until Justice Mohamed Ibrahim’s ruling, Kenya had already tried about 200 pirates, sentencing 77 of them.

The Attorney General has since appealed the decision. The bloc has been holding talks with other countries like Tanzania and South Africa but so far none has accepted to deal with pirates. As such, the Union will have to wait for ruling by the Court of Appeal to determine whether the country will still prosecute pirates.

According to Ms Cerl Marsh, the High Court based its judgment on the Penal Code and ignored the Merchant Shipping Act that came into effect in 2009. Under this law, she argues, Kenya can still prosecute suspects because it has an agreement with the EU.

There has been an increase in piracy attacks with 30 of them recorded in January this year, of which seven involved captured ships. EU Naval Forces were approved by the UN Security Council in 2008 and are mandated to guard aid cargo ships as well as man fishing operations in the Somali waters until December next year.