Official held over piracy saga
2008-10-02 14:00
Nairobi - Kenyan police on Wednesday questioned a maritime official who claimed that arms aboard a Ukrainian ship seized off Somalia were headed to Sudan and not Kenya.
Andrew Mwangura, who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, was held at a police station in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
"We have been looking for him since yesterday, but we have finally have him. He has been too vocal on the media, we want him to share with us what he knows of these pirates," a police official told AFP.
"We just want to question him on a few issues. It appears he knows more on the ship. We want him to tell us about this southern Sudan controversy about the arms," added another official.
Police said Mwangura was likely to be charged with making an alarming statement, a crime under the country's criminal procedure code.
"All I can tell you is that he is being investigated for issuing alarming statements. Those are the charges he is likely to face," said another official attached to the Criminal Investigations Department.
Earlier this week, Mwangura said Kenyan authorities had gagged him for speaking to the media on the piracy saga.
For several years, the Mombasa-based Mwangura has been a vocal advocate for seafarers rights, revealing the fate of hijacked vessels, the state of the hostages and ransoms, if any is paid.
US blockaded ship
Mwangura said 33 Soviet-type T-72 tanks as well as other military supplies aboard the Belize-flagged MV Faina, seized last week off the Somali coastline, had been headed to South Sudan and not Kenya.
Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet's spokesperson later repeated the allegations, which have been rejected by Kenya, Sudan and Ukraine.
The pirates have demanded $20m to release the ship, its cargo and 21 Ukrainians, Russians and Latvians in the crew - down from their initial demand of $35m.
Since the vessel was seized, the ship's captain had died of an illness, according to Russian media.
Currently the US warships and helicopters as well as other foreign vessels have blockaded the hijacked cargo ship, which is now docked at the Somali port village of Hobyo.
Piracy is rife and well organised in the region where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30% of the world's oil transits.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre set off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous bids to restore stability.