The Government of Kenya has deported and handed over SPLM-IO Chairman Riek Machar’s personal spokesman to his rival President Salva Kiir, according to Kiir’s spokesman in Juba.
Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek confirmed to Radio Tamazuj today that the SPLM-IO spokesman James Gatdet Dak, who lived in Nairobi, is now in their hands and is being detained and likely will be prosecuted.
“Yes, he’s in Juba. He was deported from Nairobi by the Kenyan authorities and was received by the South Sudanese government authorities,” said Ateny Wek. “The next steps will be the Ministry of Justice,” he added. “I can’t comment on the process because it’s in the Ministry of Justice.”
He declined to say where the SPLM-IO official is being detained.
Another SPLM-IO spokesman, Mabior Garang, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that Gatdet is at risk of being executed by South Sudan’s government following Kenya’s decision to deport him. Likewise, Riek Machar said that he had a phone call with Deputy President William Ruto appealing to him that Gatdet not be deported to Juba “due to profound fear for his life.”
“Unfortunately, my appeal was ignored,” said Machar.
In the meantime, the deportation of the SPLM-IO official from Nairobi could have an impact on the peace agreement, which is guaranteed by Kenya and was signed by Machar and Kiir last year. SPLM-IO supporters reacted with fury to the news of Gatdet’s arrest and deportation.
SPLM-IO youth league leader Puot Kang wrote prior to the deportation, “The illegal kidnapping of James Gatdet will never and ever silence any IO supporter instead it shall radicalize them.” He added after the news of Gatdet’s deportation that the move “shall always define the relation between the two nations for the next century.”
Machar, for his part, pointed out that Kenya is a guarantor to the peace agreement that was signed in August 2015 and “we do not expect that it would put in danger the life of an innocent person.”