The Kenyan government said on Friday it will convene a meeting involving security agencies from various countries sharing borders and waters with Kenya early next year to address deteriorating security along the country's borders.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga asked Registration of Persons Minister to give priority to long marginalized areas in the Rift Valley and Northern Kenya in provision of national identity cards and related documents.
Addressing a delegation of leaders, community elders and professionals from Turkana community in northwest Kenya, the PM said insecurity which was once concentrated along Kenya's Northern borders has spread all round the country and needs to be addressed.
He said insecurity has become an issue along Kenya-Tanzania border as well as the country's borders with Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia.
The PM was responding to the complaints of the Turkana delegation who said they are besieged by raiders from Pokot, Somalia and Ethiopia and the Provincial Administration has not helped much.
He said insecurity had spread to the islands in Lake Victoria where fishermen are having a rough time because of frequent raids from Uganda.
The PM said the spread of insecurity to Kenya's southern boundaries is a new phenomenon that was initially confined to the North of the country.
He said he would call for a meeting next year involving security agencies from Ethiopia, southern Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania to discuss security along the countries' common borders.
The Turkana leaders also lamented that they are traveling over 50 kilometres to get to registration centres for identity cards and that the provincial administration in the area is discriminating against residents because they voted for ODM, the PM's party.
The PM instructed the Immigration Minister to get to the bottom of the registration problem and report to him early next year.
The PM said most of the issues regarding access to administration headquarters or registration centres would be resolved once the boundaries Commission begins work which will divide the country and share out administrative units professionally.
Odinga asked the telecommunication firms to upgrade their networks in remote parts of the country especially Northern Kenya to enable residents be in touch with the rest of the world. The Turkana leaders had complained that they are cut off by the mobile phone companies.
The PM said he is taking up seriously and personally work on the Northern Corridor road, saying the road will open up Northern Kenya and firms will rush there for business.
He said the World Bank has agreed to restart the process of funding the road's construction and the Minister of Finance will follow up with the Bank early next year so that work could begin on the road. |
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