Re-open common border, govt urged
By NATION Correspondent - 29 Feb 2000
More than 10 councillors in Wajir Town yesterday asked the government to
re-open the Kenya-Somalia border that has been closed for the last six
months.
In a statement, the leaders, and Garissa Ford Kenya branch secretary Khalif
Abdi Farah, said the closure of the border was not curbing smuggling and had
in fact led to an increase in smuggling of cheap imports from Somalia.
Led by Mr Dagane Siyat, they alleged a massive conspiracy by the police and
Kenya Revenue Authority officials in the province to deny the government of
millions of shillings in tax on goods getting into the country through the
closed border.
They said revenue officials "had resorted to getting bribes from the owners
of lorries transporting goods".
Mr Khalif said it was time the government re-opened the border and taxed the
imports entering the country.
They disclosed that goods were transported from trading centres at the
Somalia border on donkeys to the nearest Kenyan town, from where they were
loaded on to lorries that took them to Nairobi and other major centres.
They gave some of the destinations of the smuggled goods as Elwak and
Mandera, Diff in Wajir and Liboi and Ammuma in Garissa District.
The leaders said the border closure has had myriad effects on residents of
North Eastern Province, who depended on supplies from Somalia.
They added that the goods currently being smuggled were of no benefit to the
residents as it was taken to other parts of the country.
The leaders disclosed that prices of foodstuffs and other essential
commodities had risen to thrice as much since the closure of the
Kenya-Somalia border. NEP's residents have been forced to bring their
commodities from Nairobi and Mombasa more than 1,200 kilometres away from
Mandera for ......
Contacted for comment, newly posted North Eastern Provincial Police Officer
Mr Sammy Kelema denied the leaders' allegations. He said that he had toured
all border posts in the province and issued stern orders against the
smuggling in of goods through the closed border.
"If it used to happen before, then its no longer happening now," he told the
Nation in Garissa town.
Efforts to get comments from KRA officials in Garissa town were fruitless.