Kenya enhanced its war against transnational organized crime in its terrestrial borders by presenting a one of its kind training facilities to boost enforcement capacity of maritime security.
Namely, shipping and Maritime affairs Principal secretary Nancy Karigithu said that the launch of the “Visit, Board, Search and Seizure Simulator” (VBS3) commonly known as “Ship in a Box”, shows the government’s commitment to improve capacity for enforcement of maritime security so as to effectively counter transnational crimes.
The ‘Ship in a Box’ is a structure on land that simulates a ship to facilitate training of maritime law enforcement officers on how to board, search a ship and carry out seizures.
This training aid will not only benefit our officers but also the Academy in being able to deliver such specialized courses in the region. This equipment gets to deliver the real experience in a ship, said Karigithu.
Kenya has been dealing with crimes and threats and wants to tighten its skills and knowledge on how to counter the vice. “In order to realize the lofty ideals of developing a sustainable maritime sector, there is an urgent need for highly skilled and qualified maritime law enforcement personnel,” said Karigithu during the official launch of the facility at the Bandari College.
The facility, made of standard shipping containers assembled to take the design of the bridge of a merchant vessel will provide near real life experience for our Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies to train on boarding procedures while conducting inspections aboard merchant ships. 4000 personnel are to be trained between now and 2022