Mabior Garang, the spokesman of the SPLM-IO and son of South Sudan’s former rebel leader John Garang has appealed to the Kenyan government not to deport his colleague James Gatdet who was arrested yesterday.
Gatdet who is spokesman to the rebel group’s chairman Riek Machar has been taken to Nairobi International Airport and threatened with deportation to South Sudan after he wrote a Facebook post welcoming the removal of a Kenyan general from the head of UN peacekeeping in South Sudan.
Kenya’s president says that a single Kenyan general should not be blamed for ‘systemic’ failures at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The general was only on the job for a few weeks when fighting broke out in Juba leading to a later special investigation into the performance of the blue helmets.
SPLM-IO’s James Gatdet welcomed the “change in UNMISS command” that Ban Ki-moon ordered after the special investigation was completed.
Mabior Garang, his colleague in SPLM-IO, told Radio Tamazuj this evening that Gatdet was arrested in connection with this Facebook post but he could not confirm rumors that Gatdet has already been taken to Juba. “We still do not have confirmation. That may be rumors.”
He said that SPLA-IO supporters were able to bring him some water and speak to him at the airport but afterwards they lost contact with him.
Mabior noted that Kenyan authorities “were not happy with what James said on social media.” Yet he called on Kenya not to deport him to South Sudan saying James could be killed if they do so.
“There are laws. If you want to deport somebody there is a way you are supposed to do it… if they deport him to South Sudan that would be very bad because the South Sudanese government is known for killing citizens so if they get somebody from the opposition what will happen?” said Garang.
He added, “We appeal to the Kenyan government to release that man because what he said on Facebook was just something of social media – it was not the official position of the movement.”
Mabior said that he was staying in Kenya as a refugee. “And also he is not carrying a South Sudanese passport he has an American passport. So if he did a crime in Kenya or they don’t want him here then they should send him to the US. But if they send him to South Sudan that is something political.”
Photo: James Gatdet Dak with Riek Machar (right) (Facebook)