Effects of Somali Piracy on East Africa A Personal Account

By: Anonymous
            As we stated earlier, much of the piracy by Somali’s is caused by lack of decent economic and living standards for the majority of the population which is intern caused by the dumping of waste off the Somali Coast. What is more important though is how the Somali Pirate’s activities affect the nations surrounding it. One of the contributors to this blog has lived much of their life in East Africa and knows people who have been affected by it both directly and indirectly.

Directly, Somali Piracy has drastically reduced tourism on the East African coast to places like Mombasa, Lamu, Dar es Salaam and Malindi as many of the tourists believe that they can be caught up in it and be hijacked by the pirates. This affects countries like Kenya and Tanzania which proudly earn its largest portions of foreign exchange through tourism to their “under commercialized” white sandy beaches.

With the media portraying the Somali Pirates activities as sporadic and not in a concentrated area (i.e. the area of the coast of Somalia) it directly affects the number of westerners who want to come to the coast of East Africa for a vacation, especially when Spain or the Caribbean might be is closer.

Indirectly though, Somali Piracy has both negatives and positives. The money earned through ransoms paid to many of the pirates is said to be legitimized in countries like Kenya, Yemen and Tanzania. In other words, in order to make the money the pirates earn through ransoms is made legal in these countries through purchasing of assets, such as stocks, bonds or real estate in these countries due to their lax regulations and from here the money can be transferred to nearly any corner of the world.

By legitimizing their money in Yemen, Kenya or Tanzania, the pirates not only help themselves, but also these economies since they are increasing investment into these countries which many who benefit from it, like mutual funds, property developers, stock brokers and banks seem to not have a problem with. Unless this issue is tackled, it could get worse.


             Sources:


            Axe, David. "Why the Somali Pirates Are Winning." The Guardian, 9 Apr. 2009. Web. 01 Mar. 2011.