Lt-Gen Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki (right), the commander of the UN
peacekeeping force in South Sudan who was sacked by UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon on November 1, 2016 following a damning report showing
failure to protect civilians during violence in Juba earlier this year.
PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
A United Nations spokesman on Thursday rejected the claim by Kenya's UN ambassador that a special inquiry resulting in the sacking of a Kenyan UN commander had a “pre-ordained outcome.”
“There
was, of course, no pre-ordained conclusion” to the investigation of the
performance of UN military leaders in South Sudan, said spokesman
Stephen Dujarric.
Referring to Dutch retired Major Gen Patrick Cammaert who headed the investigation, Mr Dujarric told reporters at UN headquarters, “We trust him, and we value his work, and we value his judgment.”
“Mr
Cammaert went in with an open mind,” the UN spokesman added in his
press briefing at the world body's headquarters in New York.
Mr
Dujarric also took issue with Ambassador Macharia Kamau's statement
less than an hour earlier that the Kenyan commander of the UN Mission in
South Sudan (Unmiss) had not undergone “normal induction” prior to
taking up his post in June.
Induction courses, which
take place twice a year, “are focused on how to deal with the UN
system,” Mr Dujarric said. “It is not a course for senior military
leaders in terms of decision-making. So I don’t believe that had any
impact on the force commander’s ability to do his work.”
Asked
if there is a chance of reversing the UN secretary-general's decision
to sack Lt Gen Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki, Mr Dujarric said, “Not that
I'm aware of.”
QUELL THE ROW
But the UN spokesman also sought to quell the row that culminated in Kenya's decision on Wednesday to withdraw all its soldiers and police from Unmiss.
“I
can’t stress how much we value Kenya’s support for peacekeeping over
the last decades, the work that Kenyan troops have done and we hope will
continue to do,” Mr Dujarric said.
“The decision
taken by the secretary-general was not a decision about Kenya,” he
added. “It was a decision about a force commander.”
A
public summary of the report on Maj Gen Cammaert's investigation said
that Unmiss leaders had failed to adequately defend the mission's
headquarters in Juba against anticipated violence in July involving
government troops and rebel forces.
The inquiry also
found that Unmiss ignored pleas to repulse an attack by South Sudanese
soldiers on a civilian compound near the mission's offices. A journalist
was killed in the course of that rampage and several female residents
of the civilian compound were sexually assaulted.
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