State gets Sh80m security equipment

By Athman Amran

The Government has officially taken over security equipment worth more than Sh80 million donated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) two years ago.

The equipment includes a facility to detect any kind of irregular immigration or transnational crime like human trafficking and terror related activities.

The equipment funded by Denmark through IOM to secure Kenyan borders and other entry points includes a Mobile Border Processing Unit (MBPU), the first of its kind in the East African region.

More equipment worth about Sh4.8 million was also handed over yesterday to Director of the Department of Immigration Services Albert Musasia by IOM representative Mr Aleksandar Galev at the Immigration and Registration of Persons Ministry headquarters in Nairobi.

To witness the event was Danish Embassy representative Ms Bettiner Gollander.

The MBPU, which has been handed over to the Department of Immigration Services, comprises a mobile processing unit and two patrol vehicles designed to operate along the porous Kenya-Somalia border and at sites with no immigration infrastructure of officer presence.

Immigration Director Albert Musasia (right) and an officer Bashir Beyna after receiving security equipment at the Immigration and Registration of Persons Ministry headquarters, Nairobi, Wednesday. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

The MBPU can also be used as a mobile office for operating along main migratory routes and can help detect, identify and intercept any kind of irregular immigration or transnational crime.

This would particularly include human trafficking and smuggling of persons across borders as well as counter-terrorism activities.

Communication centres

Among other projects the Government has taken over include communication centres and equipment for the Forgery Detection Unit at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Moi International Airport in Mombasa among others.

The communication centres have been established at the Immigration headquarters in Nairobi, the regional Immigration office in Mombasa, at the border with Somalia at Kiunga and the border with Tanzania at Lunga Lunga.

A Personal Identification and Registration System (Pirs), an electronic border management information system, which allows easy entry-exit passenger processing, was also installed at Malindi Airport and at the Lamu port.

The IOM has been working with the Kenya Immigration department for the past two years to establish an effective migration department and Wednesday marked the end of the capacity building for the migration management project.