Nairobi — Insecurity along the East African Coastline topped the agenda at a regional maritime summit held Nairobi barely two weeks after the Somali transitional government contracted a US-based company to fight piracy.

"The security question is relevant to Kenya, especially now that cruise ships scheduled to call at Mombasa port are being attacked along the Somali coast," Kenya Ports Authority managing director Brown Ondego told the Fifth Pan African Ports Conference (PAPC) and the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) Europe/Africa Regional Meeting.

The four-day meeting brought together about 300 senior port managers from across the globe.

The waters off the coast of Somalia are considered among the most dangerous in the world. Somalia has no proper government and has had no one to patrol its waters since 1991. More than 20 vessels have been seized since March in Somali waters.

Somalia recently signed a two-year $55 million deal with Top Cat Marine Security to stamp out piracy in its waters.

There has been a series of attacks by pirates off the Somali coast, with the latest incident taking place last week, when mv Sirchai Petroleum 11, which was said to be on its way to deliver fuel to fishing vessels was sprayed with bullets. It managed to speed off.

Mr Ondego said Kenya was enhancing security measures at the port. "We do not know who exactly is behind the incidents," he said.

He, however, said that measures had been put in place to ensure vessels and seafarers of protection while at sea within Kenyan territorial waters.

"Kenyan territorial waters and the port of Mombasa are safe for cruise and all other marine vessels," said Mr Ondego. "The Navy, port police and other security organs have instituted measures to ensure that ships plying the Kenyan coastline are closely monitored." He said that five cruise ships that were to call at the port of Mombasa between now and January had expressed concerns over insecurity along the East African coast.

"Cruise and other vessels are closely monitored by sophisticated radar systems capable of automatically identifying them from the time they enter Kenyan waters," Mr Ondego said.

In addition to the radar system, the Navy had designated vessels to patrol Kenyan waters till the maritime rescue co-ordination centre built by the KPA was ready for use.

KPA is in the final stages of implementing new security measures spelled out by global industry players, including the use of X-ray equipment to scan incoming and outgoing cargo, added Mr Ondego.

He said KPA will petition the UN to provide international armed patrols off the Somali coast to safeguard the main shipping route to the Red Sea and the Gulf.

The UN, through the International Maritime Organisation should take measures to prevent further pirate attacks on ships and to improve the security of shipping off the Somali coast.

According to a report released by the International Maritime Bureau a month ago, attacks off the Somali coast had risen from one in 2004 to 19 in 2005.

In one incident, the report says, a vessel was lured close to shore by pirates who set off distress flares. The report added that warnings are transmitted to ships sailing close to Somalia every day advising them to keep away from the country's coastline.

"Once inside Somali waters, ships targeted by pirates have little chance of recourse to the law, because there is no national law enforcement infrastructure in Somalia," said the report.

The report, however, says that the greatest number of attacks wolrdwide were off Indonesia, with 61 out of a total of 205 incidents. In the nine-month period of 2005, 141 ships were boarded, 15 fired upon and 11 were hijacked. Of the 259 crewmembers taken hostage, 12 are still missing. Globally, though, attacks fell 18 per cent in the first nine months of 2005 over the same period of 2004, said the report.

Other piracy hotspots are Bangladesh and Nigeria, both with 14 attacks each, India with 12 and Jamaica with seven.