Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

CHAPTER
11
Osogo
1 Introduction
PROSECUTING PIRACY
IN THE HORN
OF AFRICA:
THE CASE OF KENYA
233
Ambani*
The usual state of insecurity in the Horn of Africa has now navigated into
the waters – the Indian Ocean. According to the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) 1 pirates successfully attacked 27 sea vessels off the
East African coast and attempted 33 others in 2007. 2 A year later, in 2008,
the atrocities escalated to 111 attacks in the same region. 3 In 2009, 47
vessels and nearly 300 crew members were captured in the same black
spot, that is, the Gulf of Aden.
Pirates have seemingly enhanced their art occasioning profound risks
and losses. ‘By most accounts, the Somali pirates have been, by and large,
very successful at their infamous venture’. 4 Middleton has conducted a
reliable study of the situation of piracy at the coast of Somalia. 5 According
to this analysis, pirates are regularly demanding and receiving milliondollar
ransom payments and are becoming more aggressive and assertive.
It is, indeed, estimated that shipping companies have already suffered
* LL.B(Nairobi); LL.M(Pretoria); Lecturer, Catholic University of Eastern Africa,
Kenya. The author is indebted to Annet Mbogoh for her support during the research
and Robert Gitonga for his insights which enriched the study immensely.
1 Initially known as the Intergovernmental Marine Consultative Organization (IMCO),
IMO was established to provide ‘for cooperation among Governments in areas …
affecting shipping in international trade’. The organization was set up by the
Convention on the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization of 6 March
1948.
2
See Report of the International Expert Group on Piracy off the Somali coast,
Workshop commissioned by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to
Somali 10 – 21 November 2008, p 13.
3
See RK Panjab ‘The pirates of Somalia: Opportunistic predators or environmental
prey?’ (2010) William and Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review 378.
4 Panjab (n 3 above) 378.
5
See ‘Piracy in Somalia: Threatening global trade, feeding local wars’, Chatham House,
Briefing paper. October 2008.