Somalia wants to take pirates back home from Kenya’s Shimo la Tewa Prison

MOMBASA: Officials of Somalia's transitional government have met Kenyan prison authorities in Mombasa for talks on the future of 92 convicted pirates held at Shimo la Tewa Prison.

The Somalis met the convicts but Kenya rejected their request to transfer the convicts to complete their sentences in a United Nations-funded prison in the autonomous Somaliland Republic. Kenyan prison authorities in Mombasa confirmed Monday that the meeting took place.

Somali media has reported that the Somali government is seeking repatriation of about 100 Somali nationals jailed in Kenya, after they were arrested over alleged hijacking of vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden years ago.

Kenyan authorities, have, repeatedly, rejected appeals to release the convicts to finish their sentences in Somalia due to suspicion that the weak Transitional Federal Government lacks the will and capacity to put them in jail once they leave Shimo la Tewa.

A UN report on Somalia in 2014 said that key officials of the Somalia government benefited financially from proceeds of sea piracy in the early and mid 2000s.

Monday, reports by Horseed Media online in Puntland said Somalia Ambassador to Kenya Gamal Mohamed Hassan accompanied by Federal Government officials and senior Kenya Prisons officials visited the facility where the Somali nationals convicted of piracy are being held to assess their situation.

The convicts, who were met by the officials last week, asked to be sent back home due to harsh conditions in the prison.

The envoy said that Somali officials have already discussed with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to facilitate the transfer of the pirates to Somalia.

"We have asked the Kenyan government to hand them over to us to finish their terms in their homeland...we hope that the process and deal can be reached in the coming two weeks,'' he said in an interview with the BBC Somali Service.

But Coast Regional Prisons Commander James Kodieny says there is no programme for a prisoner exchange between Kenya and Somalia.

''We have however, made submissions to the office of the Attorney General (AG) for review of the Prisons Act so that we can effect prisoner exchange with Somalia,'' he said Monday while confirming the visit by Somalia officials.

Mr Kodieny said the only arrangement existing between the two nations is the repatriation of pirates who have completed their jail terms.

Already 62 prisoners who have completed their jail terms have been repatriated to Somalia under the Piracy Prisoner Transfer Programme.

Monday, Mombasa-based maritime consultant Andrew Mwangura said Kenya should accept the request by Somalia as the continued incarceration of the convicts in the Kenyan jail facility is a security burden and expensive to taxpayers.