Kenya has ordered an immediate withdrawal of Kenyan troops currently deployed in South Sudan following the sacking of Lt-General Johnson Ondieki.
Ondieki was dismissed by UN chief Ban Ki-Moon as the head of the peacekeeping force in South Sudan after serving for six months.
While his sacking is unclear, a document highlighted Ban's expressed displeasure at how the UN missions in South Sudan handled the violence in Juba.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Foreign Affairs ministry said they have rejected the UN's decision and will disengage from South Sudan's peace process.
"Instead of addressing these shortcomings directly, the United Nations has instead opted to unfairly attribute them to a single individual, in the name of the Lt. General Ondieki," the ministry said.
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The ministry raised doubts in the manner the UN handled the matter, adding that Ondieki's dismissal "does not offer a sustainable solution to the recurring violence in South Sudan".
"It is apparent to the government of Kenya that the continued deployment of its troops in South Sudan is no longer tenable and is inimical to their safety and well-being," the statement reads.
The ministry said it will also discontinue its contributions to the Regional Protection Force.
"What is clear is that UNMISS suffers from fundamental structural and systemic days functionality, which has severed its ability to discharge its mandate since its inception."
UN Special Investigation findings
Ban's decision to dismiss Ondieki is attributed to a Special Investigation that indicated that the UN mission in South Sudan failed to adequately respond to violence during recent fighting in Juba.
According to the report, United Nations peacekeepers failed to respond to an attack on civilians by South Sudanese government
troops
at the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba in July, less than a mile from a U.N. compound.
"During the attack, civilians were subjected to and witnessed gross human rights violations, including murder, intimidation, sexual violence and acts amounting to torture perpetrated by armed government soldiers," the inquiry found.
Despite multiple requests by the U.N. mission's joint operations center for peacekeepers to respond to the attack on Hotel Terrain, each "contingent turned down the request, indicating their
troops
were fully committed."
After nearly four hours, South Sudan's National Security Service extracted most of the civilians. However three female international aid workers were left behind and the inquiry said the peacekeeping mission was quickly made aware of this.
One of the women managed to call the U.N. mission but the security officer "was dismissive of her appeal for assistance and did not call her back when her phone credit expired."
A private security company, dispatched by an aid group, rescued the women the following morning, the inquiry said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "alarmed by the serious shortcomings identified ... which were evident in the mission's failure to fully implement its mandate to protect civilians and U.N. staff during the fighting," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday.
Ban established the inquiry to assess the response by the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known asUNMISS, to the outbreak of several days of fighting in Juba between South Sudan President Salva Kiir's
troops
and soldiers loyal to his rival Riek Machar.
"A lack of leadership on the part of key senior mission personnel culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence," according to the executive summary of the report.
The U.N. inquiry found that peacekeepers did not operate
under a
unified command, "resulting in multiple and sometimes conflicting orders to the four troop contingents from China, Ethiopia, Nepal and India."
On two occasions Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their positions, the inquiry said.
Ban has asked for the immediate replacement of the
UNMISS force commander, Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki of Kenya, Dujarric said. U.N. South Sudan envoy Ellen Loj will step down at the end of November.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the contributions and sacrifices made in the operation by Chinese peacekeepers, two of whom were killed, were clear.
"Chinese peacekeepers braved life-threatening dangers to carry out their duties on the front line, defended the
United Nations objectives and principles, and fulfilled their promises to multilateralism and the U.N. peacekeeping operations," Hua told a regular press briefing.
She did not specifically address the finding that Chinese peacekeepers had abandoned their positions but said the
United Nations and its members needed to review the situation facing peacekeepers and increase capabilities.
Political rivalry in South Sudan between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, but fighting has continued. Machar fled South Sudan following the fighting in July.
U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in South Sudan since 2011, when it gained independence from Sudan. There are some 13,000 U.N.
troops
and police on the ground. Two Chinese peacekeepers were killed during the violence in July.
The inquiry found a "lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control and a risk-averse or 'inward-looking' posture resulted in a loss of trust and confidence ... in the will and skill of
UNMISS military, (and) police to be proactive and show a determined posture to protect civilians."