County wants road tarmacked to realise Lapsset project

Garissa county is now calling on the national government and its  partners to tarmack the 180km Modika-Liboi road.

Garissa county Secretary Mohamud Mursal says the tarmacking of the road will support the operations of the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) corridor ahead of the reopening of the Somali border.

Mursal said the move will also improve security, mobility and  urbanization of the region.

Lapsset also known as Lamu corridor is a regional project aimed at linking Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan with their neighbors in East Africa.

The County Secretary was speaking on Thursday when he received a delegation from Lapsset, Kenya Ports Authority and the National Lands Commission.

The Lapsset team was led by the Director General Stephen Ikua and Chairperson Ali Mbogo.

Modika-Liboi road is mostly used by security vehicles and UNHCR vehicles going to Dadaab town and refugee camps.

The road has witnessed a series of attacks from suspected al-shabaab militants who have planted Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

In April this year, five  police officers from the Border Patrol Unit were killed in two separate incidents at Hagarbur area along the Garissa-Dadaab road when an IED blew up their vehicles. The officers were headed to Garissa from Dadaab.

In both incidents the perpetrators seemed to target police cars.

The attacks at some point forced the police and UNHCR vehicles to avoid the route and instead use the longer Modogashe-Garissa road, which is tarmacked.

Meanwhile, Mursal has stated the county's commitment to work with the Lapsset authority and the the NLC to reserve land for the project.

The county will also help resolve land compensation wrangles which have paralyzed works on 23 km stretch of land along the Corridor.

The County Secretary also said Governor Nathif Jama will lobby the national government to reinstate withdrawn KDF officers guarding Lapsset corridor.

Apparently an extra Sh300 million has been spent to hire police officers to guard the project.

In January this year, Northeastern regional commissioner John Otieno said the government will not allow al shabaab insurgents to interfere with the construction of the Lapsset project.

His statement came after a series of attacks by the militants that left at least 15 people dead and valuables destroyed.