This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
Published on November 26, 2019, a UN panel of experts has accused Kenya and Uganda of contributing to a stalemate in South Sudan.
The panel reported that Uganda deployed troops in Yei River State in October, violating the international arms embargo on South Sudan.
Kenya, on the other hand, has not demonstrated sufficient political and diplomatic will to consistently support the peace process, the panel said.
Both countries have been criticized for failing to use their leadership roles in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) to exert regional leverage on South Sudan's antagonists.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and South Sudan's President Salva Kiir held bilateral meetings in Nairobi on July 1 and 2, 2019, but these meetings did not lead to sustained pressure to implement the pre-transitional provisions of the peace agreement.
The Kenyan government has also failed to respond to the panel's inquiries regarding apparent violations of the UN asset freeze and travel ban on South Sudanese individuals included on a Security Council sanctions list.
The panel identified accounts in a Kenyan bank related to Malek Reuben Riak Rengu, a former South Sudan senior security official accused of overseeing the killings of civilians.
Kenyan authorities also failed to request an exemption to the UN travel ban in the case of Gabriel Jok Riak, who participated in East African Community military games in Nairobi in August.
Paul Malong Awan, another individual subject to the UN travel ban, was allowed to fly from Nairobi to South Africa in July on a Kenya Airways flight, and later returned to Nairobi.
