Vincent Loonena appointed coast guard chief

President Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointed Brigadier Vincent Naisho Loonena as the Director-General of the Kenya Coast Guard Service in an acting capacity.

The special force will man the country’s maritime territories and it will be formally launched on November 19 by President Kenyatta at Liwatoni in Mombasa.

“Brigadier Loonena takes up the new job after an illustrious career of over 20 years within the Kenya Defence Forces-Navy. His last post was the managing director of Defence forces medical insurance, a position in which he has served for four months,” said a statement from the Ministry of Interior yesterday evening.

It is estimated that Kenya loses Sh10billion in revenue annually due to illegal and criminal activities at sea and the coastal guard is expected to keep Kenya’s seashores safe from aggression and illegal commercial activities.

The highly special service will be headquartered at Liwatoni in Mombasa but it will have a strong presence at the Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu ports.

The Coast Guard Act 2018 established the Kenya Coast Guard Service, which is responsible for enforcing maritime security and safety, pollution control and sanitation measures and prosecuting offenders.

The Coast Guard Service will comprise personnel drawn from the police, the army and intelligence services and civilian professionals seconded from the Public Service Commission.

“The service shall have powers to stop, enter and board search and inspect any structure, place, vessel or aircraft,” notes the law.

The Act was operationalized on October 22 this year when Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i gazetted the law.

The Kenya Coast Guard service Act also puts in place the coast guard service council, which is the apex governance body of the service.

Chaired by Interior CS, the council comprises of muilti-agency security teams and cabinet secretaries include CSs from Defence, environment and forestry and transport.

Other members are ; Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, inspector General of Police, Attorney General and repre4senarraives from the ministry of transport and that of fisheries among others.

The launch of the Coast guard service comes at a critical moment when Kenya is preparing to host the sustainable blue economy conference from November 22 to 26.

“The evolving maritime security challenges all over the world have seen criminals use the sea as corridors for committing transnational organized crimes such as terror attacks, piracy and drug and human trafficking among others,” added the statement.