NAIROBI (AP) — Donors will spend $9.3 million to help Kenya and Seychelles prosecute suspected Somali pirates and improve those countries' criminal justice systems, a UN official said.

Although a coalition of international navies spends millions of dollars each year to patrol the pirate-infested passageway along Somalia's coast, the UN drug agency's Alan Cole said the money will help cash-strapped countries like Kenya follow through on seeking justice for suspected pirates.

Earlier this year Kenya said it would stop accepting new piracy suspects captured by naval forces patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden where Somali pirates have been hijacking vessels.

Kenya holds the second-largest number of piracy suspects awaiting trial and had said the cases are putting a strain on its already overstretched, poorly equipped and corrupt criminal justice system. Upon receiving assurances from the European Union in May, Kenya said it would resume taking on new piracy cases.

Cole, who heads the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's counter-piracy program in East Africa, said the funding covers the costs of bringing witnesses from around the world for piracy trials.

It also goes to better equip police and prosecutors, and to upgrade courts and prisons in Kenya and Seychelles, Cole said. The agency is managing the funds that will cover the next 18 months of work. It has been running its counter-piracy programme since May 2009.

Cole said this is the first anti-piracy program the agency is involved in.

"We are all in — if you'll excuse the pun — uncharted waters. The experience so far has been very positive," said Cole.