South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar's Spokesperson Gatdet Dak has narrated how he was kidnapped and arrested in Kenya in 2016.
His account, which was shared with a United Nations commission of inquiry, states that high-level government officials had collaborated with the Sudanese Government to have him detained.
Dak was arrested at a Nairobi airport despite his efforts to identify himself to the flight attendant.
He recalled how he resisted boarding the plane to South Sudan, pleading for help from an attendant at the airport.
″I told her I’m press secretary for a rebel leader who’s fighting that government and these people are kidnapping me,” he recalled.
He was forced into an afternoon flight by National Security Officers from Kenya and was requested to comply, according to the narration.
He was informed by Kenyan authorities that he would be deported because of his statement supporting the dismissal of the Kenyan force commander for South Sudan’s U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Dak recapped how a police officer at the Nairobi airport killed all his hopes for help and release.
He further narrated how he was kept in solitary confinement for 10 months without access to a lawyer. He further mentioned how he survived on porridge and beans, leading to his massive weight loss.
The spokesperson recounted how he was accused of treason and given the death sentence penalty fifteen months after imprisonment.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in September 2018 which paved way for Dak’s release.
Though he's free, he claims there have been threats on his life from South Sudan Government loyalists adding that he wishes to take a break from politics and be united with his family in Sweden.
