{Angered by the dismissal of its three-star general from a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, Kenya has now told off UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, triggering a diplomatic row.}<\/p>\n
Kenya announced that it will not work with the global body\u2019s peacekeeping department. It also accused the UN secretariat of \u201cdisrespect\u201d and \u201cbureaucratic arrogance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenya said the dismissal of Lieutenant-General Johnson Magoa Kimani Ondieki by Mr Ban was an \u201cinsult to us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that some people were not happy with an African commander at the helm of the force. It boils down to that,\u201d said Dr Monica Juma, the Principal Secretary in the Foreign Affairs ministry, in an exclusive interview with the Nation.<\/p>\n
She said Kenya will also not send its soldiers to the proposed regional protection force for South Sudan, recently formed by the UN Security Council to join the roughly 12,000 UN peacekeepers serving there with a special mandate of protecting civilians.<\/p>\n
She said Kenya had not received the UN report that recommended the dismissal of Lt-Gen Ondieki.<\/p>\n
It all started on July 11, when South Sudanese troops allied to President Salva Kiir went on the rampage after winning a battle against his former Vice-President-turned rebel leader, Dr Riek Machar.<\/p>\n
They stormed Terrain Hotel in the capital Juba, which is popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan\u2019s three-year civil war. The soldiers are said to have raped foreign women, singling out Americans.<\/p>\n
Dr Juma said before and after the raid, South Sudan had been hit by a wave of attacks on civilians \u2014 including at the Presidential palace \u2014 but the UN has not investigated the cases.<\/p>\n
{{‘Higher premium’}}<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was so special with the Terrain Hotel attack? Why is the premium put on Terrain Hotel higher than anywhere else?\u201d Dr Juma asked.<\/p>\n
Diplomatic sources said the United States had put pressure on the UN to act after its civilians were hurt during the attack, which is described as not one of the worst in Sudan.<\/p>\n
By the time of the Terrain Hotel attack, Lt-Gen Ondieki was only three months into the job as the force commander of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. The Kenyan troops were stationed at the volatile Wau Town on the western bank of the Jur River, described as one of the most difficult territories in Sudan and yet the most stable.<\/p>\n
During the attack, Lt-Gen Ondieki, who had not been inducted into the mission, is said to have asked an incident commander \u201cto react\u201d, as is the norm within the UN peacekeeping structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we know is that the contingent commander refused to carry out the command and he was reprimanded by Lt-Gen Ondieki,\u201d said Dr Juma. \u201cThis was also communicated to New York but, surprisingly, this is not mentioned in the UN report.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, it is our commander who is being sacrificed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A UN team was picked to investigate the incident and the Kenyan commander was never called to defend himself against the allegations, said Dr Juma.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey only visited Juba and flew back to New York,\u201d says Dr Juma. \u201cLt-Gen Ondieki was then summoned in October 2016 and told that he was culpable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is when he was asked to write a report.\u201d<\/p>\n
{{Regarding inquiry}}<\/p>\n
In September, Deputy President William Ruto and senior government officials and diplomats, who were in New York attending the UN General Assembly meeting, were kept in the dark regarding the inquiry, she added.<\/p>\n
The surprise came two weeks ago, when they called Kenya\u2019s deputy head of mission Koki Muli and told her they had a serious report that recommended the removal of Lt-Gen Ondieki.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot just casually tell me that,\u201d Dr Juma quotes Ms Muli as saying. \u201cWhere is the report?\u201d Ms Muli is said to have asked.<\/p>\n
By this time, according to Dr Juma, Ms Muli was told it was not finished and she protested the manner in which the matter was being handled. She then called Nairobi, and that is when the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Dr Amina Mohammed, demanded a copy of the report. She was given \u201ca generic executive summary\u201d.<\/p>\n
So, far, Kenya has only received this executive summary and not the final report.<\/p>\n
It is this handling of the matter that annoyed President Uhuru Kenyatta since the executive summary does not recommend Lt-Gen Ondieki\u2019s removal but summarises the weaknesses within the UN mission\u2019s structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President has a right to be angry, I can tell you he was mad at the treatment of his soldiers. Why do they single out Lt-Gen Ondieki if it is the structure that is wrong? If they have attributed failure to all the levels, why was our soldier made the sacrificial lamb,\u201d said Dr Juma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Angered by the dismissal of its three-star general from a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, Kenya has now told off UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, triggering a diplomatic row.} Kenya announced that it will not work with the global body\u2019s peacekeeping department. It also accused the UN secretariat of \u201cdisrespect\u201d and \u201cbureaucratic arrogance.\u201d Kenya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30207"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30207"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}