The Office of the President of South Sudan has denied claims that President Salva Kiir sent former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni before granting him access to meet First Vice President Riek Machar who is in detention.
According to Presidential Press Secretary David Amuor Majur, President Kiir did not send Raila to meet Museveni.
Majur noted that the claims made by Odinga were a ‘misinterpretation of diplomatic norms and principles’ as Kiir did not make the suggestions.
South Sudan denies claims that President Kiir ordered Raila to meet Museveni before visiting Machar. Photo: Courtesy.
Additionally, the government of the foreign nation claimed that the trip made by Odinga to Uganda to meet Museveni was pre-arranged.
“The suggestion that His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, requested Right Honorable Raila Odinga to meet with the President of Uganda is misrepresenting diplomatic norms and principlesThe Right Honorable Odinga’s mission to Uganda was pre-arranged. Nobody has sent him to go and talk to President Museveni,” Majur stated.
Amuor moreover explained that the meeting between Raila and Machar did not take place due to an ongoing investigation into the First Vice President.
Speaking on March 29, the former Prime Minister noted that he was denied access to Machar, claiming that Kiir told him to go to Uganda instead.
Raila disclosed that Kiir informed him that Machar was placed under detention following the killing of a general and ten other people in the town of Nasir, in the Upper Nile.
