ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi has told off President Uhuru Kenyatta over what he termed a hasty and unwise decision to withdraw forces from South Sudan.
Mudavadi said the move endangers Kenya’s broad interests in South Sudan and the United Nations.
He said Kenya stands to lose a lot regarding economic interests in South Sudan and that the move would further destabilise the country.
“Kenya has everything to lose if the civil war in South Sudan escalates. There is no need for Jubilee to antagonise South Sudan, former VP Riek Machar, and the UN,” Mudavadi said in a statement released before he visited Elgeyo Marakwet yesterday.
Mudavadi said the government should not mishandle the situation in South Sudan at the expense of the lives of Kenyans and others threatened by the civil war.
“The withdrawal comes hot on the heels of the diplomatic goof of deportation of Machar’s spokesperson,” he said.
He said Kenya’s financial investments in South Sudan are huge, adding that a hostile attitude and withdrawal of forces jeopardise the country’s stability.
Mudavadi described the President’s reaction as a “strange diplomacy of frustration that borders on despondency.”
The ANC leader went on, “A deceptive helplessness he brings to fighting corruption is the same attitude he takes into the diplomatic arena.”
“Our international obligations cannot be dependent on one incident. The moment partners know we easily succumb to provocation, it will be the beginning of being ignored as whining fellows.” Mudavadi accused the Jubilee regime of practising a policy of ethnic exclusion meant to facilitate corruption.
