April this year has been set for the reopinng of the Kenya-Somalia border which was closed off as a result of repeated attacks by the Somali militant group al-Shabaab, APA learnt on Friday.
The militants had launched cross-border raids on targets inside Kenya in retaliation for Kenyan troop contingents in the international peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The most fatal was the 2013 attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi which claimed 67 lives and another on Garissa university which led to the death of at least 140 people.
Since then Kenya had unilaterally shut the border with Somalia as a precautionary measure following al-Shabaab’s threats of more attacks.
President William Ruto announced the reopening of the border in April. A similar announcement made in 2023 never came to pass as the insurgents carried out further threats.
Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had presided over the building of a part of a perimeter fence along the Kenya-Somalia border which was supposed to stretch 680km long in 2015.
The project which was apparently abandoned, lasted three years during which $35 million was spent building only 10km of the barrier.
According to the Kenyan leader after a prolonged period of assessments, two crossings straddling the country’s border with Somalia will be opened but placed under heavy troop presence in a bid to maintain security.
President Ruto opening the Kenya-Somalia border would boost formal trade between the two neighbours, a collaboration which he said s yet to reach its potential.
He was touring the northeastern border town of Mandera which has a huge concentration of Somalis who were cut off from their relatives across the border in Somalia by the 15-year closure.
He said Kenya would continue to prop up security in the area to stem the tide of contraband trade including weapons and tackle the threat from al-Shabab ”criminals and terrorists.”
AP.