Kenyan MPs are putting pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) to freeze the assets of relatives and friends of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir (right) and former vice-president Riek Machar (centre). Photos/FILE
What you need to know:
Legislators say the freeze could push the warring factions to hold peace talks.
The South Sudanese elite have homes in Kenya and investments built during decades of wars in South Sudan that led to its split from Khartoum.
President Uhuru can only act on the pleas if Parliament makes a resolution supported by a simple majority.
MPs are putting pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta to freeze the assets of relatives and friends of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir and former vice-president Riek Machar to help ease fighting in the world’s youngest country.
The legislators say the freeze could push the warring factions to hold peace talks given negotiations between the government of President Kiir and rebels loyal to Dr Machar have failed to advance since the January 23 signing of a ceasefire which never took hold.
The South Sudanese elite have homes in Kenya and investments built during decades of wars in South Sudan that led to its split from Khartoum.
“Freezing the assets of both President Kiir and Machar’s close associates in Kenya will help contain the conflict,” said David Gikaria, the Nakuru Town East MP.
“Like in any war, we know the friends and relatives of the warring factions send monetary assistance which in turn is used to purchase arms and escalate the killings.”
Jimmy Angwenyi, the Kitutu Chache North MP and Asman Kamama, the chairman of the Administration and National Security committee echoed the sentiments while approving the deployment of additional 310 troops to South Sudan to help in peacekeeping. Already 690 Kenyan peacekeepers are in the country.
UN Security Council members are considering sanctions on South Sudan’s warring parties.
President Uhuru can only act on the pleas if Parliament makes a resolution supported by a simple majority.
More than a million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in the world’s youngest country in December between troops backing President Kiir and soldiers loyal to his sacked vice president, Dr Machar.
The fighting has exacerbated ethnic tensions between Kiir’s Dinka people and Machar’s Nuer.
The killing of hundreds of men, women and children in the oil hub of Bentiu, which was seized by the rebels a week ago, has increased ethnic tensions between the Dinka people and the Nuer.
A UN base, guarded by 500 peacekeepers, came under rocket fire.
Some 58 people were killed and another 98 injured, including two Indian peacekeepers, the UN mission said.
Anger across countries has escalated over the increasingly ethnic dimension to the violence and talk of sanctions intensifies among donors and at the United Nations.
Kenyan MPs said the mega infrastructure projects under The Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) could be derailed if pressure is not applied on the warring factions.
The Lapsset project is a multi-billion shilling investment that includes new roads, rail line and oil pipeline linking Kenya to Juba.
“We will also face serious security and humanitarian crisis in the region,” said Mr Kamama.
Kenya hosts a huge number of South Sudanese who settled in the country during the two decades of civil war with the Khartoum government of President Omar El Bashir.
Ndhiwa MP Agostino Neto has filed a Motion, urging Mr Kenyatta to request an urgent convening of an extra-ordinary session of the assembly of African Union to sanction interventions in the armed conflict in the South Sudan.
AU session
“This House resolves that the President request urgent convening of an extraordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in line with Article 6(3) (b) of the constitutive Act of the African Union, and that the Union makes use of Article 4(h) of the constitutive Act, giving the Union the right to intervene in a member state pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity,” states the motion.
President Kiir’s government announced on Thursday that it will free four high profile political prisoners facing treason charges, meeting a demand by rebels in a faltering peace process.
President Kiir had accused the four detainees of fuelling a coup when fighting erupted between soldiers loyal to him and his rival Machar.
He had released seven others to President Kenyatta earlier.
