NAIROBI, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government has promised that it will work with the seven-member regional mediation body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to bring peace to war-torn Somalia.

    Speaking in eastern Kenya late on Saturday, Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said there's need to sort out the problem once and for all so as to secure the Somali coastal strip waters which have become dangerous.

    Musyoka's remarks came in the light of the ongoing piracy saga, in which Somali pirates last week hijacked a Ukrainian ship with 21 crew members and military consignment headed for Kenya.

    The pirates are demanding a whooping ransom of 20 million U.S. dollars to release the ship.

    "Kenya will only have peace if Somalia has peace", he noted in a statement received here on Sunday.

    The Islamists in Somalia have waged an Iraq-style insurgency against the transitional government in the country and its Ethiopian military allies since being driven from Mogadishu at the end of 2006.