Tanks off ship and ready for rail journey

Kenyan military officers inspect some tanks after they were offloaded from the mv Faina, which had been hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Somalia. Photos/GIDEON MAUNDU

What you need to know:

  • Secrecy of deal between Kenya and Ukraine raises eyebrows

All the 33 Soviet-made tanks aboard MV Faina have been offloaded, and will soon be moved to Kahawa barracks in Nairobi, even as details emerged about the secrecy of the arms deal between the Kenyan Government and Ukraine.

On Monday, there was tight security at the port around Berth No 5 where the ship is docked, as loading onto rail wagons continued. By the time of going to press, only 10 tanks were yet to be loaded onto the wagons.

Other military equipment that was on the ship are five anti-aircraft guns and an assortment of military equipment in crates, which were loaded on a truck.

The tanks have to be properly secured on the wagons using strong wire cables. It is expected that the loading of the tanks onto the wagons will take at least an extra day.

“It is not easy to load these tanks on the wagons. The process of fixing them is not easy,” said an official involved in the offloading.

The work started on Saturday after a two-day delay. The vessel arrived on Thursday last week.

“The exercise has been hampered by low tide but we are now happy that we have started offloading and hope to take out all the tanks and other equipment tonight,” said Colonel George Kabugi, the deputy commander, Armoured Brigade of the Kenya Army, who is in charge of the operation.

According to sources, the Ukrainian delegation that was in Mombasa to hand over the equipment to the government was accommodated at four separate hotels.

“We were initially booked in one hotel but on arrival, we were taken to a separate hotel to limit contact with the military officials. It was clear that they were trying to hide something,” said a Ukrainian journalist who was a member of the delegation.

Mystery surrounds the ownership of the tanks.

While the tanks are said to belong to the government of Southern Sudan, which is under a UN arms embargo, Kenyan Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said they belong to Kenyan military.