Plans are underway by the government to reopen the Kenya-Somalia border, Stakeholders and security officials have been lining up a series of meetings in a bid to strike a business deal with the neighbouring country for operations to resume at the Customs Border Control Point that was closed in 2012…
Mandera County Police Commander Johanna Tonui said the meetings have been going in Nairobi and Mandera, adding that security has been beefed up in the county bordering Somalia and Ethiopia.
“We have enough security from different agencies whose role is to defend our borders and take care of the interest of our country,” he said.
Businesses in Mandera town and Elwak used to rely on the port of Kismayu in Somalia before the border was closed. They did this due to the distance from Mandera to Mogadishu which is 600-kilometres as compared to 1,200-KM to Nairobi.
Tonui said Kenya shares the same boundary with the two countries and drought has affected all of them, forcing pastoralists to try and access pasture for their animals on whichever side is available.
But as the plans to reopen the border control point are going on, the ongoing drought has forced locals to rely on foodstuffs from Ethiopia and Mandera in a bid to put food on their tables.
Most of the residents have turned to the two neighbouring countries for basic commodities trading at affordable prices due to the ongoing drought and the high cost of living that has put vulnerable households at risk.
