Kenya: The Great Wall of Kenya

analysis

Good fences make good neighbours, they say. But does this aphorism really apply to international relations? As Kenya contemplates walling off its troublesome border with Somalia, we look at the history of separation barriers and how effective they really are. By SIMON ALLISON.

Kenya is going to build a wall. Not just any wall, but a separation barrier, to employ the euphemism coined by Israel to describe the towering, snaking monstrosity that now separates it from Palestine's West Bank. Kenya's version will be on sections of its notoriously porous border with Somalia, a physical rendering in bricks, mortar and barbed wire of that line on the map.

"Construction works will begin soon. We expect to have finished the project before the end of the year," said Lamu County governor Issa Timamy, as reported in the Daily Nation. As yet, more details on the project are not forthcoming, and Lamu County did not respond to requests for comment. All we know is that the wall will be erected along the sections of border near the coast, and that it's intended to keep out illegal immigrants from Somalia as well as dangerous Al-Shabaab militants.

"This is where immigrants have been arrested trying...

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Kenya: The Great Wall of Kenya