A United Nations (UN) panel of experts accused Kenya of playing part in the prolonged stalemate in South Sudan.
According to a report carried by the Daily Nation on Tuesday, November 26, the UN accused Kenya of facilitating parties to perpetrate impunity in South Sudan. Kenya stood accused by the panel of not fully supporting the peace process in the country.
"Kenya, on its part, has not demonstrated sufficient political and diplomatic will to consistently support the peace process,” a statement seen by the publication read.
Kenya is criticised, along with Ethiopia, for failing to use leadership roles in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) to exert regional leverage on South Sudan's antagonists.
“The government, in particular, has benefited from the inconsistent approach of the region,” the panel notes in regard to South Sudan's Salva Kiir to administration.
“The bilateral meetings between the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, and [South Sudan President, Salva] Kiir, in Nairobi on July 1 and 2, 2019, have not led to the sustained presence and pressure necessary to fully implement the pre-transitional provisions of the agreement,” the panel stated in reference to a peace deal reached in 2018.
According to the report, Kenya did not respond to the UN's inquiry pertaining to violations of the UN asset freeze and travel ban of South Sudanese listed by the Security Council Sanctions
The UN stated that it had identified accounts in an unnamed Kenyan bank associated with Malik Reuben Riak Rengu, a former South Sudanese senior security official accused of overseeing the murder of civilians.
The bank had not responded to the panel's request for information on these accounts, the report states.
Kenyan authorities were called out for failing to request an exemption to the UN travel ban in the case of Gabriel Jok Riak, also listed by the Security Council Sanctions, an action that his deemed to have extended the conflict in South Sudan
Paul Malong Awan, another individual listed on the UN travel ban list, was allowed to fly from Nairobi to South Africa in July on a Kenya Airways flight.
The former chief of staff of the South Sudanese army flew back to Nairobi from South Africa later in July, also on a the national carrier.
His entry on the Security Council's sanctions list states that “Malong has been responsible for the SPLA and its allied forces’ perpetration of serious abuses, including attacks on civilians, forced displacement, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, and rape.”
The UN panel's report was compiled prior to the lapsing of the November 12 deadline for the formation of a unity government in South Sudan in accordance with a peace agreement reached in 2018.
However, the panel's report indicated that there were doubts as to whether the terms of the agreement would be met.
"More than a year after the signing of the revitalised agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan, the selective implementation of and inconsistent international support for the Agreement have led to a dangerous stalemate.
“The signatories have made no significant decisions regarding the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan,” the report added.
“A particular concern is that the government has demonstrated little interest in abiding by the letter or spirit of the agreement on security arrangements, the number of states and their boundaries, and financial accountability.
"These entrenched positions have eroded trust among the signatories, imperiled the survival of the agreement and posed an immediate threat to peace and security in South Sudan,” the panel report reads
