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Government and Policy

Uhuru Commissions Coast Guard to Combat Illegal Trade in Kenyan Waters

BY Soko Directory Team · November 20, 2018 08:11 am

Following the signing of the Kenya Coast Guard Service Act, 2018 into law, president Uhuru Kenyatta on November 19 officially commissioned the Kenya Coast Guard Service (KCGS), a multi-agency security service formed to combat illegal trade along the coast.

The commissioning of the service shows the country’s commitment to protecting its territorial waters, especially along the Indian Ocean.

Following the launch, the president directed the Fisheries Department and National Land Commission to make sure that Kenya’s gazetted fish landing sites are recovered and safeguarded by the first quarter of 2019.

The coast guard service is located in Liwatoni, Mombasa, and it will also have a strong presence in Kisumu, Lake Victoria region, Lamu, and Mombasa ports.

The KCGS is not part of the Kenya Navy and its jurisdiction will involve exercising powers over Kenya’s territorial waters – including all the natural water resources within the borders, waters within 12 nautical miles of the country’s shoreline, and the country’s exclusive economic zone, which is 200 Nautical miles, beyond the territorial sea – and any other area prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The mandated role is to safeguard the country’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone from exploitation or illegal invasion by fighting the smuggling contraband goods, human and drug trafficking, illegal and unregulated fishing, border disputes, piracy, illicit trade, degradation of the marine ecosystems, through discharge of oil or dumping of toxic waste, sand harvesting destruction of coral reefs to name a few.

Moreover, the KCGS will make sure that vessels and anyone using the sea have the necessary documentation for operating in the waters. As a result, it will contribute to improved security, managing migration, and preventing cross-border crime.

It will be managed by a council chaired by the Cabinet Secretary Interior and Coordination of National Government. The Cabinet Secretaries of Defense, Treasury, Transport, Agriculture and Environment, the Attorney General, the CDF, Inspector General Police, and the Director-General KCGS, also form part of the council serving as the apex of the body.

KCGS, according to the Act, features a technical committee headed by the PS Interior with other members including PS’s for Treasury, Fisheries, Environment, Defense, and Transport. The Solicitor General, CDF, IG, DG of the service, DG of the Kenya Maritime authority, the DG Kenya Ports Authority and the DG National Intelligence Service also sit in the Technical Committee.

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