STATE DEPARTMENT FOR CORRECTIONAL SERVICES CO-OPTED INTO NATIONAL MARITIME SECURITY COMMITTEE

By Nicholas Kigondu 

The State Department for Correctional Services has been co-opted into the National Maritime Security Committee.

The decision was made during the National Maritime Security Committee meeting chaired by Maritime and Shipping Affairs Principal Secretary Geoffrey Kaituko on Tuesday.

While acknowledging the important role played by the State Department for Correctional Services in the criminal justice system, PS Kaituko said the committee seeks to help address gaps and steer future security policy development in the country’s maritime domain.
 
The committee, which draws its membership from the country’s maritime and security agencies, is instrumental in the enhancement of security surveillance in Kenya’s blue spaces as well as national maritime governance and decision making. 
 
Kenya was recently picked by the European Union as the second country within the region after Seychelles to accept and prosecute suspects of maritime crimes in a development that will see the two countries try and prosecute any suspected pirate, illegal fishers, human and drug trafficking suspects arrested by European Union naval force.