The proposed barrier is the latest in a string of measures Kenya has announced to stem attacks by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab insurgents in the wake of a university massacre in the northeastern town of Garissa.
Members of a government youth training scheme started digging a ditch this week in Kiunga, Kenya’s coastal Lamu District, which officials said would stretch for some 700 kilometres (435 miles).
“The fence will consist of various obstacles including a ditch and a patrol road,” Immigration Services director Gordon Kihalangwa said, according to The Star newspaper.
The government has given no details of the construction, cost or how long it will take to complete the fence, which would separate Kenya’s northeastern ethnic Somali region from Somalia itself.
However, Kenyan Vice-President William Ruto said Saturday that “the way America changed after 9/11 is the way Kenya will change after Garissa”.
The Shabaab group has warned of a “long, gruesome war” unless Kenya withdraws its troops from Somalia, where they have been fighting the Islamists since 2011.
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