Tanzania and Kenya are in the process of reviewing laws related to piracy so that pirates can be prosecuted whenever they are caught in the East African territory.

Speaking recently in Dar es Salaam, the minister for Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Mr Bernard Membe, said current laws do not allow pirates caught to be prosecuted in the two countries.

He said last month 13 pirates that were arrested in Tanzanian waters were set free because there were no legal grounds to take them to a court of law.

"The biggest challenge we are facing in dealing with piracy in the East African coast is lack of proper laws that allow us to prosecute them in our own countries rather than keeping them without doing anything to them,"said Mr Membe.

He said whenever caught and set free they continue committing the same crime which is very dangerous to trade and relations with the rest of the world.

Last year, ship owners paid Somali pirates over Sh45 billion ($60 million) in ransom money, a report from a regional anti-piracy watchdog revealed.

The Seafarers' Assistance Programme report indicated that 47 vessels and nearly 300 crew members were held at ransom by the pirates.

Programme co-ordinator Andrew Mwangura said despite existing international efforts to counter piracy, 12 vessels and their crew, including a yachting couple, have so far fallen captive this year as piracy continued to threaten commercial activities in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Mr Membe called on the international community to participate in making strict laws that will stop piracy which threatens peace and security in the region.

"We appreciate the international community's efforts, but we call on them to participate in formulating laws that will ensure they are dealt with once and for all,"said Mr Membe.

Hijackings off the East African coast have been a cause of growing international concern. They forced a number of international navies to patrol the pirates-infested Gulf of Aden. Most of the attacks are blamed on pirates based in the largely lawless Somalia

Recently, a tanker with a Greek flag, VLCC Maran Centaurus, and her 28 crew members that had been held captive off the Somalia coast, was only released after its owners reportedly paid out a ransom of over $7 million. This is reportedly the largest ransom ever paid out to pirates.

Piracy, believed to be perpetrated by Somali nationals from their war-torn country, has caused untold suffering and loss to thousands of crew members and owners of vessels, some of who have been forced to pay colossal sums as ransom money to secure the release of their ships.