Kenya imposes anti-pirate security measures

Reported here:

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in conjunction with the Kenya Navy and the Kenya Police have jointly put up stringent security measures to ensure that all ships, and in particular cruise ships plying the Kenyan coastline waters, are safe.

KPA Managing Director Brown Ondego said that the move was necessitated following the recent incident in which a tourist ship was attacked on its way to the Kenyan coast by Somali militiamen and had to divert to Seychelles.

"The KPA, the Kenya Navy, and the Kenya Police are highly concerned over the rising cases of insecurity along the Kenyan coast, and the coast of Somalia where piracy is fast taking root and so have decided to come up with security measures to ensure that all ships plying the Kenyan waters are safe and monitored," said Ondego.

Ondego, who was addressing a press conference at the KPA headquarters in Mombasa, at the same time assured tourists visiting the Kenyan coast of their safety against pirates. He said that among the security measures to be put in place include a radar station operated by the Kenyan Navy on the coastline capable of automatically identifying ships and will be in constant communication with port control stations.

He said that KPA has also assigned a high speed boat which can cruise at a speed of 30 knots and a range of 200 miles to the port police for patrolling the harbour waters and the coastline.