LAPSSET corridor to unlock trade and security gains in Northeastern Kenya

John Otieno, the regional commissioner for Northeastern Kenya, stood in Garissa on a Tuesday afternoon having just toured the infrastructure projects reshaping his region. The most significant of these—the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor, known locally as Lapsset—represents something larger than asphalt and concrete. It is, in Otieno's view, the key that might unlock both the economic potential and the security stability that have eluded this corner of the country for years.

The corridor's centerpiece is the Nairobi-Garissa-Isiolo road. Eighty-five kilometers of it have already been upgraded from murram to tarmac, with completion expected to reach Isiolo within fifteen months. For a region where movement has long been constrained by poor infrastructure, this matters in immediate, practical ways. Travel times to remote areas have already begun to shrink. Connectivity between Garissa and outlying towns like Fafi, Hulugho, and Masalani has improved noticeably. Otieno sees this as the foundation for something broader: increased trade, investment flowing in, and people able to conduct business without the friction of bad roads.

But the security dimension is what Otieno emphasizes most. Northeastern has endured years of attacks by al Shabaab militants. Improvised explosive devices have been planted along routes, killing security officers and civilians alike. The losses have been real and recurring. Otieno argues that better roads will change this calculus fundamentally. Improved connectivity means security agencies can respond faster to threats. The visibility and accessibility that comes with upgraded infrastructure makes it harder for militants to operate with impunity. In his framing, the road is not merely economic infrastructure—it is a security tool.

The communities living along the corridor did not always see it this way. Abdi Sugal, who chairs the youth group in Modika, recalls the initial resistance. Residents feared the project would consume grazing land and disrupt the pastoralist way of life that has sustained them for generations. The opposition was real enough that it required sustained effort to shift. Public participation meetings and sensitization campaigns gradually changed minds. As Sugal describes it, the turning point came when people began to understand that the road would actually serve them—that connectivity and reduced travel time were not abstractions but tangible benefits to their daily lives. By the time Otieno arrived to tour the project, that resistance had largely transformed into support.

Otieno also highlighted a second initiative: the Garissa Directorate of Immigration Services office, formally opened by President William Ruto the previous year. The facility can process about 25,000 passport applications annually. More than 16,000 residents have already used it. The significance lies in decentralization. Previously, obtaining a passport meant traveling to Nairobi—a journey that was expensive, time-consuming, and inaccessible to many. Now applicants can receive passports in as little as five days without leaving their region. For Otieno, this exemplifies a broader principle: that historically marginalized regions deserve access to government services without the burden of traveling to the capital.

What emerges from Otieno's tour and remarks is a vision of Northeastern as a region in transition. The infrastructure is being built. The security apparatus is being strengthened. Government services are being brought closer to the people. The initial skepticism from communities has given way to recognition of tangible benefit. Whether these changes will be sufficient to transform the region's economic trajectory or to substantially reduce the threat of militant violence remains to be seen. But for now, the road is being paved, the offices are open, and the conversation has shifted from whether these projects should happen to how quickly they can be completed.