Officials seek rights to extend offshore border as piracy surges

Kenya has petitioned for a speedy conclusion on submissions recently made to the United Nations by countries seeking to extend their offshore territories, saying its economy is threatened by piracy incidents along its coastline.

Kenya’s concerns stem from an upsurge in piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia and around the Gulf of Aden that have seen dozens of vessels seized, hundreds of crew held captive, and huge amounts of money paid out in ransom fees.

Kenyan officials now claim the menace has extended to within Kenyan waters, but that the country has been unable to act decisively because it is legally barred from interfering in the yet to be claimed offshore territories.

“The country has continued to suffer the scourge of piracy on its coastal areas. This has had serious economic consequences for Kenya, as well as for the economies of the other countries of the region,” it said in a petition to the UN Commission on the Limit of Continental Shelf (UNCLOS) during its ongoing 19th session. The meeting is expected to conclude on Friday.

“The Commission should find ways to hasten the scrutiny of the submissions,” Kenya said, “We need international action to find a durable solution to the problem.”

Beating deadline
Only two months ago, Kenya made submissions alongside Somalia and Tanzania to the UNCLOS seeking to lay claim to additional territories off their respective coastlines.

Kenya for its part laid claim to additional 103,320 square kilometres of sea bed off its coastline — beating an April 13th deadline set by UNCLOS.

Failure to beat the deadline would have left all exploration and exploitation rights for the territory in the hands of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

Failure to secure rights to offshore territories would also mean that firms eyeing investments in these zones would have to go through convoluted and expensive processes to secure permission from the ISA.

Despite beating the deadline, Kenya encountered new frustrations as it emerged that the process of clearing the applications would take longer than earlier anticipated.

Kenya has expressed a desire to manage piracy, but is hampered in its efforts to do so until the UN grants the country a green light to access more distance as per its submission.

Apart from the traditionally tedious process of laying claim to more seabed, Kenya’s frustrations have been compounded by the fact that Tanzania has applied to the United Nations for more time to make a formal claim for its share of the Indian Ocean- dealing a major blow to Kenya’s hopes for a speedy extension of its offshore territory.

Tanzania delay
Tanzania wants two more years to prepare the documents it needs to lodge a formal application for extension of its rights over undersea resources, signalling that it may take as long before Kenya gets the rights to extend its own territory beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Tanzania is further expected to delay demarcation of new sea boundaries with the extension of its demand for extra seabed to the West of the Somali basin that has been claimed by both Kenya and Somalia.

According to provisions of UNCLOS, Kenya, by virtue of sharing a common border with Tanzania, will have to await Tanzania’s final submission to get the UN’s verdict on its application.