Kenya indicted for shielding South Sudanese involved in illicit money flows

A human rights team has indicted Kenya for failure to prosecute South Sudanese officials suspected of economic crimes and illicit financial flows from South Sudan.

 The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan in a report to the Human Rights Council — which Kenya is a member — says that failure by Kenya, alongside Uganda, to act on the issue has contributed to the country’s poverty, security and fuel instability and the financing of the conflict.

 The report dated September 16 is headlined Plundering a Nation: How rampant corruption unleashed a human rights crisis in South Sudan.

 “All the five countries sharing borders with South Sudan are states parties to United Nations and African Union treaties on corruption and crime. Among them, Kenya and Uganda have introduced domestic measures to implement international obligations. Accordingly, the governments of these countries could undertake prosecutions and other interventions to counter illicit financial inflows from South Sudan,” report read.

 However, it said the governments of Kenya and Uganda are yet to deploy anti-money laundering provisions with respect to South Sudanese moving proceeds of corruption across borders unlike in the UK, the US, Sweden and Australia.

 Among the legal actions the said states have taken against South Sudanese officials on suspicion of economic crimes mostly focused on freezes, seizure or forfeiture of assets.

 “Several sanctions regimes, imposed by the United Nations, the European Union, and several states, are in effect for designated individuals and entities associated with South Sudan. Of the national jurisdictions implementing sanctions, the United States government for example has sanctioned South Sudanese individuals under its Global Magnitsky Act targeting human rights abusers and corruption, as well as its South Sudan sanctions programme and related laws,” the report adds.

 Regrettably, the commission observed that no prosecutions appear to have been initiated in Kenya and Uganda.

 This is despite anti-money laundering laws and evidence available to authorities being assessed as sufficient to investigate economic crimes related to human rights violations in South Sudan, with a view to effective prosecutions.

 The commission added that insider information shared directly to it showed that although officials possess significant evidence of money laundering, investigations and prosecutions are not pursued against South Sudan’s political elites, for fear of damaging diplomatic relations and lucrative export trade.

 This is a departure from other jurisdictions such as Sweden, where two former executives of Lundin Energy AB are on trial for allegedly aiding and abetting war crimes perpetrated by Sudanese armed forces and allied militia against civilians between 1997 and 2003.

 Lundin Energy AB was a Swedish oil company that operated in the US during the armed conflict when the territory was part of Sudan. The two executives are charged with supporting war crimes allegedly conducted on their behalf in the context of developing oilfields and related infrastructure.

 The trial is being conducted on the basis of universal jurisdiction, which under Swedish law enables the prosecution of international crimes in cases where the crime has a link to Sweden.

The report has also raised queries regarding loss of revenue to e-Services money making corruption mechanisms.

 For instance, the study found that in late 2020, the South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior launched an online portal to enable ‘e-Visa’ applications for entry to South Sudan and to facilitate visa fee payments.

The commission, however, identified that the website set up by Crawford — “ a company with connectedness” —uses the same ‘e-Citizen’ platform developed by Webmasters Kenya for use by the Government of Kenya.

 “Although Crawford did not build the platform software, nor significantly customise it for South Sudan, it nonetheless takes 75 per cent of the profits it generates. This is highly lucrative for Crawford,” it said.

 Comparatively, the report says, regular visa fees for citizens of most countries start at $100 for one month and rise to $350 for six months of multiple entries. However, Crawford’s payment processing subsidiary Capital Pay Ltd, also charges an additional service fee of $20.16 on top of their 75 per cent profit share for the $100 visa.

 “While the lack of available arrivals data makes the total monetary sums difficult to quantify, the arrangement evidently diverts significant revenue from the government to Crawford,” it added.

 Further, a November 2020 contract with the National Revenue Authority to be its ‘e-Tax’ collector also gives Crawford a legal entitlement to two per cent of all digitally assessed taxation in the country, a figure the team said is highly inflated.

 Commercial banks report receiving just 0.5 per cent for collecting, storing and transporting physical cash revenues to the central bank.

 Imports of goods to South Sudan from 2024 were also hampered by a separate new ‘Electronic Cargo Tracking Note’ tax imposition of $300 per importing truck.

 Despite being related to tracking physical goods into South Sudan, the team said this was another e-Government Service revenue, and its imposition caused cargo bound for South Sudan to pile up at the Port of Mombasa, resulting in delays still impacting imports in 2025.

 The CHRSS team lead by commissioner Barney Afako on Wednesday paid a visit to Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja.

 The National Police Service in a statement said discussions focused on the commission’s ongoing work in assessing the human rights landscape in South Sudan.

 “The commission emphasised the importance of collaboration with regional partners and institutions through the exchange of information and the sharing of recommendations via regular briefings. This is to ensure stakeholders are well-informed and aligned,” the statement said.

 NPS added that IG Kanja assured the commission of his support in addressing any emerging challenges.