15 Kenyans Killed in South Sudan in the Last One Year

Fifteen Kenyans have been killed in the last one year in South Sudan, raising concern over the security of foreigners in Africa’s newest nation.

In an interview with the Nation, Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka said 15 Kenyans had been killed in the last one year.

Mr Onyonka said some cases involve prostitution but the deaths have not reached an alarming level to be labelled xenophobic.

He said investigations have been going on, adding that Kenya’s ambassador to South Sudan, Mr Cleveland Leshore, has been handling the cases.

Mr Onyonka said after being in a 21-year-old liberation war, the country was facing numerous challenges.

Militias are being used as police officers and they are applying excessive force, he added.

“We are now assisting our neighbours in training their police officers and magistrates so that natural justice can be carried out among perpetrators of various incidents, be they Kenyans or the Sudanese,” he said.

The latest victim is Ms Martha Wanjiku, 25, who was killed on Friday last week. Ms Wanjiku, who used to trade in spare parts, hailed from Elburgon, Nakuru County.

She was stabbed in the neck in her house in Jebel, near the capital city, Juba, by an assailant said to be a Sudanese. Relatives of Wanjiku said South Sudan officials harassed them at several security check-points, demanding they open her coffin so that they could make sure that it was a body.

Relatives and friends who lived with Wanjiku in South Sudan who accompanied the body to Elburgon claimed they had left six bodies of Kenyans at a hospital mortuary in Jebel.

They said five of the cases were murder-related.

On April 13, Ms Tabitha Musangi, who was a teacher at the John Garang International School, was reportedly shot dead by a soldier. In February, three Kenyans were killed by armed raiders.

Source: Daily Nation