The Great Wall of Kenya

It is now official. Kenya is going to put up a wall on the border with Somalia. When I first heard the security cabinet secretary announcing this, I thought it was just an idea that he was considering. I later heard that even the building materials had been procured and were already en-route to the proposed site. Apparently, terrorists have become too daring. They cross into Kenya’s Mandera town and attack people. They then cross back through the supposedly ‘porous’ (but actually non-existent) border into their own town of Bulahawa, a mere 3 kilometres away.

According to the Government, the terrorists’ honeymoon is now over. They can find another country to trample any way they want; thanks to the proposed 200 kilometre wall. It is, hopefully, the last we will have of terrorism. It is however not the first time a country has walled itself in. Probably the most famous wall in the world was built for more or less the same reasons that we are building ours. The Great Wall of China was originally put up to protect China against raiders from Europe and Asia. The earliest recorded section was built around 220 to 206 B.C. by the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang.

Most of us can relate to a popular black and white TV model that has been a common feature in most Kenyan households until the recent digital switch-off. It was named after the Great Wall of China. Now you know.

Another famous wall that many of us can recall within living memory is the Berlin Wall. The wall was meant to protect the building of a socialist state on the eastern side. The wall ended up achieving the unintended purpose of preventing defectors from fleeing to the west.

Many other walls have been put up in various countries for different purposes. The 3,268 Kilometre Indo-Bangladesh Barrier and the 8 Kilometre Centa Border fence between Spain and Morocco were put up to stop illegal migration. There are other countries who, like Kenya, have decided to put up “Anti-Terror” walls. These include the 3 Kilometre Egypt-Gaza Barrier between Egypt and Palestine; and the 703 Kilometre Israeli-West Bank Barrier between Israel and Palestine. An unlikely use of a wall is to be seen in the 700 Kilometre Iran-Palestine Barrier that is meant to prevent drug smuggling.

From the little knowledge I have as a layman, I can observe that walls (apart from those in houses), rarely achieve their intended purpose. Countries that put up walls to shut others out often discover the hard way that they have barricaded themselves in.

Like I always say, I am just a layman, but one with eyes. I can see that terrorism has evolved. Warfare is also different from what it used to be in medieval times. Hand to hand combat using primitive weapons has now been restricted to the history books. Call me stupid but, I don’t see how you can wall in a terrorist who has enough explosives to blow a whole City into smithereens. I also don’t see how you can build a 200 Kilometre wall (whose height is still a National Security secret), and hope that the terrorists will not “think” of just going round it. At times like this, am not proud to be Kenyan. I can just see the senior most security bosses unable to hold back the mirth after coming up with the wall “idea” and imagining how the terrorist will be “terrified” when they realise there is nowhere to run because there is a GK wall in front of them.

In my layman’s mind, I know that if you want to fight an enemy, you have to think like him. If I was a terrorist and came up to a wall, I would know I have 3 options. First, I can just go round it. Secondly, I could simply climb over it. Thirdly, if I was in a hurry and had some explosives left over from my last terror attack, I could just blow myself through the wall. If I used the third option, the government would benefit in that it would now have two walls instead of just one; or it could have a big heap of rocks to build the next wall on the agenda.

If Kenya sees walls as an option against terrorism and other conflicts, then she will have to put up very many walls. We can have walls between areas occupied by cattle rustling communities. We could also have them between conflicting counties. If Tanzania continues with their disagreements with us, why not put up a wall between us? Why, also, not fence in Migingo Island? While we are at it, we should not forget to put up a roof as well. Pardon the Layman; he is not in a particularly good mood today.

P.S. Call me old fashioned, but I think it is in very bad taste to post pictures of corpses of terror victims on social media. Spare a thought for family members who did not already know that their loved ones had been killed.

This article was conceived before the Garissa attack and is not in any way intended to make fun out of the unforgivable act.