Kenya’s former vice president and leader of the opposition Wiper Democratic Movement, Kalonzo Musyoka, has accused Nairobi of facilitating the illegal export of gold from Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region.
Appearing on the popular Citizen Television program Sunday Live, Kalonzo claimed that the gold was clandestinely brought into Kenya, rebranded, and then exported through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Darfur is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been locked in an egregious war with the Sudan Armed Forces since April 2013. The conflict has caused what many describe as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in recent times.
Kalonzo, a presidential aspirant and Kenya’s former Foreign Affairs minister, said the illicit trade was one of the reasons behind Kenya granting a passport to the fugitive warlord Algoney Dagalo Musa, who is a younger brother of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF commander.
Kalonzo urged Kenyan authorities to immediately revoke Algoney’s passport, lamenting that the questionable acquisition had lowered the rating of the Kenyan travel document and diminished the country’s stature internationally.
Kenya has been in the eye of a storm following the revelation that Algoney held a Kenyan passport, number AK1586127. He is also said to hold two different Sudanese passports.
Kenya’s second most popular daily, The Standard, in late February revealed Algoney’s controversial possession of the passport. The paper, founded in 1902, cited U.S. records showing that Algoney had acquired the Kenyan travel document.
According to The Standard, Kenyan immigration officials had aided one of Sudan’s most powerful warlords in securing the passport to facilitate his movements while evading sanctions.
Last year, Kenya’s President William Ruto hosted the RSF chief, Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), in Nairobi, prompting local and international backlash. The Kenyan leader was accused of providing political and logistical support to the warlord.
The gesture greatly offended the Sudanese government, which promptly recalled its ambassador, accusing Nairobi of interfering in its internal affairs. Khartoum also banned Kenyan tea imports, causing the East African state to suffer huge losses in foreign earnings.