Kenya: From ‘Sea-Blind’ to ‘Sea-Vision’

This chapter begins by examining Kenya’s maritime context and tracing its evolution from a ‘sea-blind’ country to one in which the maritime domain is becoming increasingly important. This is followed by an overview of how Kenya organises its maritime sector and what problems occur within these spaces, including challenges of piracy, the sustainable exploitation of marine resources, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, as well as drug smuggling and limited Maritime Domain Awareness structures. The existing legal, policy and institutional frameworks for tackling these problems are explored as well as how institutional politics and bureaucratic complexity have hindered effective maritime governance. Finally, the chapter considers how international maritime capacity building projects have been implemented and what lessons can be learned from these experiences. The chapter concludes by identifying some best practices for maritime capacity building more generally.