President Uhuru Kenyatta with Deputy President William Ruto at JKIA
shortly before leaving for the aborted trip to the US FOR the 2015
Milken Global Conference. Eritrea on April 29, 2015 sought to absolve
itself from blame over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s aborted trip to the
US. FILE PHOTO | PSCU
Eritrea on Wednesday sought to absolve itself from blame over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s aborted trip to the US.
The
Eritrean Government protested its innocence, saying it had allowed the
President to fly over its territory on the night his plane flew back to
Nairobi last week.
Eritrean Embassy spokesman Beyene Russom said his country issued the permission “in a matter of 20 minutes”.
Last
week, the President’s plane was turned back mid-air en route to Dubai,
where he was to take a commercial flight to Los Angeles, US, for the
annual Milken Institute Global Conference.
He later cancelled the trip, but yesterday addressed the meeting via a video link.
Eritrea said it had allowed Kenya to fly the Air Force jet in its airspace after a request on Thursday last week.
The
country provided entry and exit permits for the aircraft, but the
presidential plane did not reach the Eritrean airspace, the spokesman
told the Nation yesterday.
“We are protesting formally because this is completely false information that Eritrea did not allow the Kenyan plane.
“The aircraft was, in fact, turned away in Ethiopian airspace,” said Mr Russom.
Initially, the Presidency cited “increased military activity in Yemen” as the reason for the plane’s U-turn.
It
later turned out that the flight path filed had not included Yemen. The
plane was to pass through Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, to the
United Arab Emirates.
Although these countries had
accepted the path, Ethiopian aviation authorities are said to have
refused to hand over the aircraft to their Eritrean counterparts.
President Kenyatta used a similar route when he visited Jordan recently.
On Monday, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Kenya Dina
Mufti was summoned by the Foreign Affairs ministry in Nairobi, but no
information on the discussions was given.
The Nation
yesterday sent an email enquiry to the Ethiopian embassy and later
placed a call to the ambassador to respond to the matter.
The email was not replied to and a spokesman said he would respond later. He had not by last night.
On
Monday, Mr Russom protested to the Foreign Affairs ministry after the
Standard reported that Eritrea had refused to endorse the flight path
taken by the military plane carrying the President.
In
a note copied to all foreign missions in Nairobi, Mr Russom charged
that his government “promptly” issued the permission to the presidential
jet to enter its airspace after receiving a call from protocol
officials in Nairobi.
He said the protocol department
had contacted Asmara by telephone and the permission was granted
“without waiting for a formal letter of request”.
The Senate on Tuesday said it was launching investigations into the incident.
Ethiopia
and Eritrea, which separated in 1993, have not had formal diplomatic
relations since 1998, when a war between them led to more than 100,000
deaths.
The war was ended by the Algiers Peace Agreement and the establishment of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission in 2000.
However,
a stalemate between them has continued because of a dispute over some
rulings of the commission. Eritrea also accused Ethiopia of sponsoring
rebels against Asmara, while Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of supporting
terrorists.
In 2009, the UN Security Council imposed
an arms embargo, travel restrictions, and an asset freeze on Eritrean
political and military leaders deemed to support extremist groups in
Somalia
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