Was Bashir’s welcome a Command to Balala?

Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled for three decades, stepped down recently and was placed under house arrest. Last month, Al-Bashir was toppled through a popular uprising.

Already, he has been bangled into prison and could be tried for violation of human rights. Soldiers have formed a transitional government which has been rejected by civilians too.

Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has been kicked by two top lawyers over the role he played a decade ago when he received ousted Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.

Working in the same docket, Balala, without the knowledge of his ODM party then, ushered in Al-Bashir, who had been summoned by International Criminal Court over suspected genocide in Darfur region.

“We would like to point out to Kenyans, and the international community as a whole, that this was indeed a very unfortunate visit that could put into question the commitment of the Government to implement the Constitution of the Second Republic in letter and spirit,” said Nyong’o Peter, then a minister in grand coalition.

Mr Bashir had visited to grace promulgation of the new constitution. The government sneaked him through Wilson Airport without the knowledge of Raila Odinga, then the Prime Minister. US President Barack Obama expressed his disappointment in the visit.

In 2010 @tunajibu said he was “proud to receive Bashir” during the criminal’s illegal visit to Nairobi. What does Mr Balala say now? @ahmednasirlaw @DonaldBKipkorir @WMutunga @ItsGeorgeKegoro @johngithongo @Maina_Kiai @KoinangeJeff pic.twitter.com/bKXKOvCMEH

— Prof Makau Mutua (@makaumutua) May 1, 2019

Kenya Human Rights Commission chairman George Kegoro recalled how he rushed to the court to seek for Al-Bashir’s arrest. He accuses Balala of subverting justice then.

He was on an assignment, on his bosses behalf.

Why not tweet to boss?

— JACOB WAFULA (@jacobwafulaaa) May 1, 2019

“By the end of the ceremony, Kenyan activists had already prepared placards against Bashir who was whisked away and back to the airport on his way to Sudan,” he recalled.

It is the lack of empathy, the inability to visualise the victims of Bashir’s crimes, that would have made @tunajibu proud of receiving a butcher. https://t.co/NXgPcX33zc

— George Kegoro (@ItsGeorgeKegoro) May 2, 2019

The then Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula disclosed that Kibaki had personally invited Bashir and added that “we invited our neighbours and Sudan is our neighbour.”