Illegal migration thriving at far-flung border with Somalia

• Aliens pay well for their entry and many people are said to benefit from this cash

Dilapidated

The fact that government officials, led by deputy director of Immigration Services, Edward Rintaugu, and deputy ambassador of Japan Seiji Okada, who had earlier praised the efforts jointly being undertaken to beef up border security, came face to face with the reality of unchecked influx of Somalis into Kenya, confirms the wide divide between what officials say and what actually happens on the ground.

“Under this project, border points in Mandera and Liboi have been refurbished and awareness to combat trafficking of human beings in Somalia and Kenya will be raised,” IOM’s regional resource management officer, Mr Feridoon Barraghi, said during the hand over ceremony of the Liboi Border Control.

Dilapidated colonial-era houses with collapsing walls and leaking roofs are strewn all over the government compound beside the newly refurbished immigration and provincial administration office blocks at Liboi. These are the houses that those expected to fight a thriving smuggling businesses live in.

Mr Rintaugu said a new government policy, which is expected to have been effected by the end of November, requires that all border control posts be at the actual border.

“We are talking of checking illegal entrants, but can this be effectively done if we are 16 kilometres away from the border?” he posed.

The distance between the Liboi and Mandera border posts is a whopping 682 kilometres, making it difficult to police.

Although new border control points are to be set up, none will be established on the volatile Somalia border.

In Coast Province, Ngomeni, Kilifi and Vanga will host immigration offices, whereas Muhuru Bay, Mbita Point and Sand River in Maasai Mara, will be opened soon in the Western region, according to Mr Rintaugu. Kibish and Tudenyang points along the Kenya-Ethiopia border are also being considered but are yet to be approved.

Since the ouster of Somali President, Siad Barre in 1991, there has been no effective control of the flow of immigrants in and out of Somalia. This has posed a threat to Kenya’s security.

Kenya is host to close to 300,000 Somali refugees in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps.

Although IOM moved some 13,000 Somalis from the Dadaab to Kakuma, the agency says the numbers at Dadaab have remained unchanged or has increased due to a daily influx of Somalis.

The Ministry of Immigration plans to create new border offices and move the existing ones to the actual border to enhance the country safety from illegal immigrants who smuggle weapons into the country.

But, as demonstrated by the bloody resistance by Toposa tribesmen and Sudanese People’s Liberation Army over the relocation of Nadapal Border Control, efforts to secure the Somalia stretch of the border will be a tall order.