Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has invited President Uhuru
Kenyatta for a state visit that Bashir’s envoys say will help “keep our
relationship” with Kenya.
On Monday, Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Ahmed Karti delivered the invitation for President Kenyatta to tour Khartoum.
Mr
Karti was in Nairobi for a one-day official visit in which he signed
two agreements with Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina
Mohamed.
The two pacts were on political consultations as well as diplomatic cooperation.
“It
has been a desire of not just me but his Excellency (President Uhuru
Kenyatta) to visit the Sudan and we are hoping that we can do that soon.
“And after that we are also hopeful that President
Bashir will also pay us a visit,” Ms Mohamed told journalists in Nairobi
after meeting with the Sudanese top diplomat.
UHURU COULD VISIT SOON
Ms Mohamed told reporters that President Kenyatta could “hopefully” visit Khartoum in the first quarter of 2015.
Bashir’s invitation signals a change in relations between Kenya and Sudan that had been lukewarm for several years now.
The
last state visit by a Kenya President to Khartoum was during President
Moi’s tenure and although President Bashir toured Kenya in August 2010,
it was not a state visit.
He had come to attend the promulgation of Kenya’s new Constitution.
The
invitation comes just three weeks after the International Criminal
Court (ICC) suspended investigations into two killings allegedly
committed by Bashir’s soldiers in troubled Darfur.
President Bashir was indicted by the ICC for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
In
2013, that indictment meant Bashir would not attend President
Kenyatta’s inauguration ceremony in Nairobi although was invited.
ICC supporters had threatened to go to court again to compel Kenya to arrest Bashir. He stayed away.
It
also comes a few weeks after ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced
she would withdraw charges President Kenyatta because of what she said
was lack of sufficient evidence.
AU STAND 'VINDICATED'
A communiqué by the two foreign ministers released after their talks indicated they had discussed the ICC.
They
agreed that the decision by the prosecutor “vindicated the stand of the
African Union (to oppose the prosecution of any sitting head of
state).”
The two ministers called for renewed efforts
and commitment by the continent to chart its destiny and establish
internal mechanisms to tackle the continent’s internal challenges.
Kenya’s Foreign Ministry insisted the invitation was not prompted by the events at the ICC but was a result of work in progress.
“As you know, it is not always easy to get time on our president’s calendar to carry out visits,” Ms Mohamed said.
“There
are no specific challenges. It is just an issue of timing; it is an
issue of preparations. We want to make sure that this visit is as
successful as it can be and so we were working on the different issues
that the two presidents will be discussing,” she said.
Mr
Karti said the invitation was meant to boost relations between the two
countries that once shared a border before the birth of South Sudan in
2011.
“We assure you that Sudan will keep this relationship and we will work together.
"You will see the shuttling of high-level officials between Kenya and Sudan soon,” he said at a press conference.
INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM
Bashir’s visits to Kenya had always been subject to international criticism.
In 2011, a Kenyan High Court judge issued an arrest warrant against Bashir if “he ever sets foot” in Kenya.
It
followed a petition by the Kenyan chapter of the International
Commission of Jurists that argued Kenya had a duty under the ICC’s Rome
Statute to arrest him.
It was a decision criticised by
the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which argued that the
order would threaten regional stability.
In response,
Sudan gave Kenya’s ambassador in Khartoum at that time, Robert Ngesu, 72
hours to leave the country and summoned its ambassador from Nairobi.
Bashir later added threats of sanctions, such as banning any flights destined to Kenya from using Sudan airspace.
But
Kenya moved quickly to cool the tension when President Mwai Kibaki sent
his Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to deliver “a special message”.
Meanwhile, the government appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeal declined to set aside the order.
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