February 25th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – Former press secretary for prominent opposition and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny said on Sunday that he did nothing wrong against Kenya and its people for Kenyan authorities to deport him in 2016.
On November 2nd 2016, James Gatdet Dak, former spokesman of Dr. Riek Machar was arrested by Kenyan security apparatuses and was handed over to South Sudan security operatives who later deported him to Juba the following day.
Dak said he was told that he was being deported because he welcomed – in a Facebook post – the dismissal of the commander of United Nations peacekeepers deployed in South Sudan.
The UN commander is a Kenyan and was removed by the world body for failing to protect civilians from government forces who sought to massacre civilians.
In a statement to the Sudan Tribune on Sunday, Dak said he did nothing wrong against Kenya and its people for the Kenyan authorities to expose his life to danger.
“I did not do anything wrong. I did not commit a crime against the Republic of Kenya or its people which would have warranted my arrest or deportation. There was nothing misconduct or criminal about my statement in regard to the dismissal of the UN force commander,” Dak said on Sunday.
“First, the Kenyan officer was a UN commander deployed in my country and failed to protect my people despite his mandate to do so. Second, he was dismissed by UN Secretary-General who had his representative in Kenya. They didn’t deport any UN official. Third, I was a refugee and I was speaking on behalf of my organization and people,” he added.
He said the Kenyan authorities should have notified him if they no longer wanted him in their country and the choice to chose where to go should be his saying deporting him and handing him over to Juba was not the right thing for Kenya to do.
“I didn’t expect authorities in Kenya to have overreacted in the way they did. If they didn’t want me in their country for any reason they should have simply asked me to leave and choose where else to go,” he said.
“Handing me over to the enemy and exposing my life to danger knowingly was never a right thing to do,” Dak added.
Dak who was sentenced to death in February 2018 by a Juba court was pardoned by a presidential amnesty in October last year as part of a peace agreement which guaranteed for the release of all political detainees.
He now lives in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
