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

Along Kenya’s border with Somalia is a point where illegal immigration thrives.

At the Liboi Border Control in Lagdera, one should not be misled by the implied function of the Immigration office at this far-flung part of the country.

Within a time-span of 30 minutes, the Nation crew came face to face with an illegal immigration syndicate of a mind boggling scale this week.

Everybody, it appears, benefits from this business.

Kenya closed its border with Somalia in January, 2007.

Five kilometres away from the Immigration offices, we bumped into a rusty matatu with no number plates. It stood right in the middle of the road.

Although the vehicle looked like it had escaped a bomb attack and been abandoned months ago, a close examination told a different story. Inside there were clean benches. The occupants had vanished on seeing our vehicles.

Puncture

Two kilometres later, we encountered another car transporting Somali immigrants. This time, however, the security officers caught up before the group could escape. Their Kenyan accomplice gave up without a fight.

Surprisingly, the police, led by the Liboi officer commanding station, forced the driver of the station wagon with a Somali registration number to take his “cargo” back to Somalia.

The security team commandeered the Kenyan driver to offload his human cargo on the Somali side of the border. At the security blockade manned by Rapid Deployment Unit staff, the officers said they had cleared no such vehicle.

But 300 metres past the blockade, the car suddenly had a “puncture”. A few minutes of waiting and the Immigration officials gave up and instead detailed two Administration police officers to keep an eye on the group as the puncture was fixed.

The events that followed later all but confirmed that securing Kenya’s volatile borders and ending illegal immigration is like a wild goose chase.

Our arrival at Har-Har, where Beacon Two that marks Kenyan border with Somalia stands, raised the alarm among the Isbul-Islam militiamen guarding the Somalia side.

A battle scene unveiled in a matter of seconds: Kenyan security at the ready, some taking vantage positions under a lorry, in the thickets and on their bellies. The Islamists divided themselves up into two groups on either side of the road which runs through the two borders.

The commanding officer ordered us back into the vehicles and we were off before the action could begin.

Arrested

The Isbul-Islam are in charge of the Somalia side after they won a fierce fight against al Shabaab. The new militants are said to be less confrontational, unless you stray into their territory.

Back to the detained would-be immigrants. The immigration officer in charge of Liboi, Mr Bernard Mbinda, ordered the arrest of the four Somali nationals.

They calmly climbed into a police van headed for the Liboi police station as their Kenyan driver was left to “fix” his vehicle.

“This thing (illegal immigration) is complicated. Everybody benefits. The Somalis pay good money for their entry to be facilitated. Those who help also benefit. The police also get ‘something’,” said a resident who asked not be named for his own security.

A few metres ahead, we spotted another vehicle tucked away in the thicket, fifty metres from the road. The occupants were apparently buying time before resuming their journey.

Numerous donkey routes branch from the main road, making nonsense of the security checks towards the border.

“We try as much as we can to check the entry of illegal immigrants but we have not stamped it out. The border is long and it’s not possible to police it,” said Liboi district officer Elvis Korir.

He said it was difficult to effectively man the border without communication gadgets, but added that the radios installed recently would boost the capacity of the officers.

Efforts to stem the influx of Somalis are further complicated by the local community. They are highly secretive and rarely inform government officials on suspicious individuals.

“I would like to stress that our efforts cannot bear fruit without steadfast commitment of the governments of Kenya and Somalia,” Mr Okada said at Liboi.

Earlier on Tuesday, we had witnessed the handing over of a refurbished Liboi border control and provincial administration office blocks. The new look buildings, renovated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through the funding of the Japanese Embassy in Kenya, boast very high frequency and high frequency radios as well as trained border police and immigration officials.

The $1 million (Sh78 million) project being implemented by IOM involves strengthening of the capacity of immigration officers at Mandera and Liboi in migration management.

The project under the fourth Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development project, “Capacity Building to Enhance Migration Management, Security and Protection in South Central Somalia and Kenya”, is faced with huge challenges of securing Kenya’s porous borders with Somalia.

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.