Kenya will this month destroy most of its anti-personnel landmines, National Security Minister Chris Murungaru said in a statement on Tuesday.
”The government of Kenya agrees with the Ottawa Treaty and will by 26 August, destroy 35 774 assorted anti-personel landmines worth over 30-million shillings ($400 000 dollars) and we shall retain only 3 000 mines for research purposes,” Murungaru said.
”Kenya has taken an important step in preventing the future deployment of these weapons,” he added.
The use of landmines in the world was banned under the Ottawa Treaty in June 1997 and Kenya ratified the treaty banning their use, stockpiling and transfer four years later.
”Kenya supports the importance of the Ottawa Treaty and considers landmines as a weapon which carries a level of humanitarian cost that far outweighs their limited military value,” Murungaru said.
In July, two Kenyan police officers were killed and six others seriously injured in landmine explosion in the northern Mandera district, bordering war-torn Somalia and southern Ethiopia. – Sapa-AFP