When the government announced plans to build a wall along the border with Somalia, many received the news with mixed reactions.
A cocktail of relief and excitement was evident on many faces because Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terror group, had killed and maimed many lives on Kenyan soil.
The plan came after the Garissa University terror attack on April 2, 2015 that claimed 148 lives, majority of them students.
The plan was to build a two-feet tall wall over a 400-kilometre stretch. It was to have designated immigration and custom entry points fitted with CCTV cameras.
The wall was also to have two parallel concrete fences of heavy mesh and razor wires running in between them.
A three meter deep trench on the Kenyan side was to run along the fence, and next to it a road to be used by security personnel during patrol.
FAMILY
Today, the project has since changed from a complicated wall construction to a mere wire fencing with Sh3.4 billion already gobbled up, according to a recent parliamentary report.
Less than 30 kilometres of fencing has been done since 2015 when the National Youth Service personnel (NYS) was deployed to carry out the project.
The NYS staff abandoned the works citing lack of payment by the government and immediately the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) was engaged.
Since 2015, both Kenyan and Somali nationals along the border have resisted the idea.
They claim the project is a ploy by the Kenyan government to separate communities under the guise of fighting terrorism.
“This wall is going to come with a lot of problems including dividing us when we have coexisted peacefully for years,” Mr Ahmed Adan Issack told Sunday Nation.
His sentiments echo the views of many locals in Mandera County and parts of Somalia living across the border.
DEMANDS
Somali nationals residing between Mandera and Somalia’s Bulahawa town opposed the project and gave a raft of demands to be fulfilled by the Kenyan government before the project could take off.
They demanded to be compensated for their houses that lie on the no-man’s land. At least 64 houses had been marked for demolition.
