Kenya and Ethiopia are preparing a new round of joint border inspection as part of strengthening their trade-led diplomatic ties and ease tensions among communities on either side.

A joint border commission is expected to start inspection work by September, Kenyan Ministry of Internal Security confirmed.

The inspection team will recommend reconstruction of boundary pillars that have worn out and are potential conflict triggers in the highly volatile border points inhabited by heavily armed pastoralists.

The inspection follows a Kenya/Ethiopian Joint Technical Boundary Committee meeting held in Nairobi on June 4-5 that recommended the inspection of the Kenya-Ethiopia international boundary and reconstruction of boundary pillars be undertaken in four phases starting September.

Relevant agencies are currently involved in the sensitisation of local communities before actual inspection and maintenance exercise. The Kenya-Ethiopia international boundary was first demarcated in the late 1960s.

The two countries are re-engineering their relations that have been dormant since pre-independence days with a new mix of initiatives including joint infrastructure projects, elimination of trade barriers and building confidence among ethnic communities living along the shared border.

Trade between the two countries is negligible despite their close proximity.

This is set to change after the World Bank approved funding for a major electric power interconnection project that will allow the two to buy or sell electricity to each other.

Ethiopia is also among the key partners in the development of the Lamu Port project and associated infrastructure that will include a railway line, new roads and an oil pipeline.

Kenya is also upgrading the road linking Isiolo to the shared border town of Mandera meaning that Nairobi and Addis Ababa will be connected by a tarmacked road.

The new projects are setting the stage for the opening up of the two countries with market potential of over 120 million people.

The two countries are preparing to sign a new trade agreement that will knock off most of the non-tariff barriers preventing thriving of cross-border trade.

But security along the border will be a prerequisite for this trade to thrive; that is why the two countries are putting in place measures for long-term peaceful coexistence of communities.

The 27th Kenya-Ethiopia Joint Border Administrators/Commissioners meeting was held in Mombasa on April 30 and May 1.

“The peace committees have been instrumental in settling outstanding issues in the areas of conflicts on shared resources like water and pasture,” said Mutea Iringo, the acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Internal Security.

Other conflicts along the shared border that have been minimised include those involving border disputes, clashes, cattle rustling, fishing business in Lake Turkana, cross border trade and immigration issues.

Kenyan officials said one of the key results of the joint peace committees has been the formalisation of a livestock market through the newly constructed and refurbished Magado and Sololo livestock markets near Mandera that have enabled border communities to increase their engagement through trade.

The formalisation of the livestock market has reduced incidence of trade in stolen animals that fuelled the usually fatal cattle rustling. As a result, demand for illicit small arms used during cattle rustling and which eventually filter into urban areas to be used in violent robbery has reduced.

“Interaction through trade has also reduced tension between the communities,” said Martin Kimani, the head of Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism, a regional body on peace building under the Inter Governmental Authority on Development.