Kenya moves to ease tensions with Sudan

Kenya launched a major diplomatic offensive to repair relations with Sudan on Wednesday after President Omar al-Bashir expelled her ambassador to Khartoum.

President Kibaki is said to have dispatched a personal envoy to Khartoum to discuss the diplomatic rift triggered by Monday’s High Court ruling ordering the police to arrest the Sudanese leader and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he sets foot in the country.

The government, at the same time, requested Sudan’s envoy to Kenya Kamal Ismael Saeed not to leave the country. He had been recalled to Khartoum following the diplomatic rift occasioned by Justice Nicholas Ombija’s ruling.

Khartoum ordered Kenya’s ambassador to Sudan, Mr Robert Mutua Ngesu, to leave the country within 72 hours as relations between the two countries rapidly deteriorated.

Mr Saeed told the Nation on Wednesday he had been asked not to leave the country until he holds consultations with Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula upon his return from Bujumbura, Burundi where he accompanied President Kibaki to a meeting of the East African Community.

“I talked to the Foreign Affairs Minister and we agreed that I should not leave until we discuss the matter when he comes back from Bujumbura. I believe he will return on Saturday,” the envoy said.

President Al-Bashir is wanted at the ICC for crimes against humanity and genocide.

The Foreign ministry in Khartoum was quoted by Sudanese media on Tuesday suggesting that the orders were personally made by President Al-Bashir.

Mr Saeed confirmed that President Kibaki had requested to send a personal envoy to Khartoum to iron out the differences, saying the tension between the two countries was easing.

“I am aware the Kenyan president has asked to send a special envoy to Khartoum to discuss the matter. The special envoy is going tomorrow. The turbulence in the relations between Kenya and Sudan is subsiding,” he said.

The Sudanese Foreign ministry spokesperson Al-Obaid Marawih was also quoted by the Sudan Tribune saying the decision to expel Kenya’s envoy to Khartoum was as a result of Nairobi’s delay in denouncing the court ruling.

He said the decision was intended to send a “strong message” of protest to the Kenya Government in the wake of the ruling and did not mean it was severing diplomatic relations.

When Nation called Kenya’s embassy in Sudan, Mr Ngesu was said to be holed up in a meeting with fellow ambassadors accredited to Khartoum.

Mr Wetang’ula could not be reached for comment as he is attending the EAC meeting in Burundi while his PS Thuita Mwangi and the Political and Diplomatic secretary Patrick Wamoto were also in meetings the whole day.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, Mr Adan Keynan, said Justice Ombija’s ruling undermined the country’s foreign policy.

“Whereas I recognise the inherent independence of the Judiciary, I am of the opinion that the court ruling was irresponsible and unpatriotic especially at a time when the government is consolidating support from African countries in the fight against militancy. The ruling goes against national interests and it is a slap in the face of our foreign policy,” he said.