MOMBASA (Xinhua) -- The naval warship docked at the Kenya’s port of Mombasa on Wednesday after more than seven years of waiting after the Kenya Navy nation ordered it.

Kenyan officials said they expect the 55-million-U.S.-dollar ship to play a crucial role in the fight against rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia and terrorism in the country.

The Oceanographic vessel, christened MV Jasiri weighing 140 tons, 85 meters long and 13 meters wide from Spain was received by Kenya’s top military officials.

The naval vessel is fitted with long range cannons, missile launchers, machine guns and sophisticated radar and communications systems.

The ship is said to be one of the best naval assets in the region.

The Horn of Africa nation’s coastline is considered one of the world’s most dangerous stretches of water because of piracy.

Demanding millions of dollars in ransom for captured ships and their crews, Somali pirates are intensifying operations not just off their own coastline, but further afield in the Red Sea—particularly during the monsoon season in the wider Indian Ocean.

The East African nation has been on a state of high alert since her soldiers made cross border incursion into Somalia on Oct. 16, 2011 to fight the terror group Al-Shabaab.

Highly-placed sources told Xinhua that a team of Kenyan military and State Law office officials were involved in the negotiating with the contractor Astilleros Gondan over payment.

The procurement of the MV Jasiri, the largest of all the fleets, was expected play a major role in boosting the country surveillance on threats posed by suspected Somalia pirates and Al- Shabaab terror groups before its contract was stopped.

The delivery of the ship comes as the Kenya troops under the Africa Union Peacekeeping Forces (AMISOM) plans a major onslaught in the Kismayu town, a hub of Al-Shabaab terror groups responsible of hijacking of foreigners and grenade attacks in Kenya soil.

The Kenya Defense Force (KDF) military have undergo training specialized training on operation of drones that used in conducting aerial attacks that have managed to contain piracy which used to be rampant in the Horn of Africa region.

Tankers carrying Middle East oil through the Suez Canal must pass first through the Gulf of Aden.

According to maritime officials, about 4 percent of the world’s daily oil supply is shipped through the gulf.

The attacks are being carried out by increasingly well- coordinated Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons and rocket- propelled grenades, maritime officials said.

The Horn of Africa nation has been without a functioning government since 1991, and remains one of the world’s most violent and lawless countries.
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