By Yassin Juma
NAIROBI
Kenya this week will begin construction of a stone wall on part of its border with neighboring Somalia to prevent possible attacks by the Al-Shabaab militant group.
"The decision to construct the wall comes after consultation with the local Mandera government following calls by residents to improve security along the border," Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery told The Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
"We begin this week," he said.
The 200km wall will be built at the Mandera border point to separate it from the Somali town of Bula Hawo.
Bula Hawo is less than 1km away from Mandera, which has been the most hard-hit by attacks blamed on Al-Shabaab, whose training camps are reportedly less than 70km from Mandera.
The county government has put the number of those killed in the last month at 90.
"Insecurity in Mandera is a result of the uncontrolled entry of people from Bula Hawo," Nkaissery insisted. "The wall will regulate the flow from Bula Hawo."
In the past, control of Bula Hawo has changed hands between clan militias, Sufi militants and Al-Shabaab fighters.
Ali Roba, Mandera County governor, supports the wall plan.
"The central government has to take this matter seriously before we are overrun by militant groups from neighboring Somalia," he told AA.
"Construction of the wall is a good starting point to improve security in Mandera," insisted Roba, who has survived three assassination attempts blamed on Al-Shabaab.
But not everyone in Mandera believes the wall will provide a solution to recurrent attacks by Al-Shabaab.
"I don't find this wall idea as a lasting solution to insecurity in Mandera," Abdiaziz Laffey, a Mandera resident, told AA.
"The wall is only 200km, while our border with Somalia is about 2,000km," he noted.
"Our government should ask itself why Ethiopia, which is also close to Bula Hawo, has not been targeted," Laffey insisted.
Al-Shabaab has threatened to maintain its attacks until Kenya withdraws its troops from Somalia.
In recent years, the militant group has claimed several deadly attacks staged inside Kenya.
Mandera has been particularly hard-hit by insecurity since Somalia's civil war erupted in 1991. At one point, the strategic town was overrun by clan militias from the troubled Horn of Africa country.
