ADVOKS GLOBAL · KENYA
Merchant Shipping Act
434. Return of offenders
Edition: 2023-12-11 · In force
434. Return of offenders
(1)The powers conferred on a Kenyan consular officer by subsection (2) are exercisable in the event of any complaint being made to him—(a)that any offence against property or persons has been committed at any place, ashore or afloat, outside Kenya by any master or seafarer who at the time when the offence was committed, or within three months before that time, was employed in a Kenyan ship; or(b)that any offence on the high seas has been committed by any master or seafarer belonging to any Kenyan ship.(2)The powers referred in subsection (1) are—(a)to inquire into the case upon oath; and(b)if the case so requires, to take any steps in his power for the purpose of placing the offender under the necessary restraint and sending him by a Kenyan ship as soon as practicable in safe custody to Kenya for proceedings to be taken against him.(3)The consular officer may, subject to subsections (4) and (5), order the master of any Kenyan ship bound for Kenya to receive and carry an offender and the witnesses to Kenya, and the officer shall endorse upon the agreement of the ship such particulars with respect to them as the Director-General requires.(4)A consular officer shall not exercise the power conferred by subsection (3) unless no more convenient means of transport is available or it is available only at disproportionate expense.(5)No master of a ship may be required under subsection (3) to receive more than one offender for every one hundred tons of his ship’s gross tonnage, or more than one witness for every fifty tons of his ship’s gross tonnage.(6)The master of any ship to whose charge an offender has been committed under subsection (3) shall, on his ship’s arrival in Kenya, give the offender into the custody of a police officer.(7)Where any master of a ship, when required under subsection (3) to receive and carry any offender or witness in his ship—(b)in the case of an offender, fails to deliver him as required by subsection (6),he commits an offence and shall be liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding thirty thousand shillings.(8)The expense of imprisoning any such offender and of carrying him and witnesses to Kenya otherwise than in the ship to which they respectively belong shall be paid out of money provided by the Treasury.(9)References in this section to carrying a person in a ship include affording him subsistence during the voyage.Detention of Ship and Distress on Ship