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Scandal over Kenya's border fence that cost $35m for just 10km

By Mutala Yakubu
Scandal over Kenya's border fence that cost $35m for just 10km
Scandal over Kenya's border fence that cost $35m for just 10km
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Kenyan MPs have asked how a 10km wire fence built along the country's border with Somalia cost $35 million.



The government had originally promised to build a complex wall to run about 700km (435 miles) along the border.

But the "wall", which was meant to stop al-Shabab militants from crossing into Kenya, has ended up being a wire fence that is only 10km long.

Kenya's parliament has now suspended construction, and is demanding an investigation into the project.


What was the original plan?

When the plan was first announced in 2014, the government said it would build a 708km wall made up of a series of concrete barriers, fences, ditches, and observation posts overlooked by CCTV stations.

Under this plan, the wall was meant to stretch from the Indian Ocean all the way to the border region of Mandera, where Kenya and Somalia meet Ethiopia.

The idea, ministers said, was to tackle illegal trafficking and immigration - and most pressingly, to keep al-Shabab militants in Somalia from crossing over into Kenyan territory.

Kenya had suffered a series of devastating attacks at the hands of al-Shabab - including a massacre in a quarry in Mandera in December 2014, in which 36 non-Muslims were killed.


Source: BBC