South Sudan’s Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior did not travel to Kenya on Monday afternoon because she had not received the required presidential authorization, her office said, rejecting reports that security personnel had stopped her at Juba airport.
David Aleu Deng, acting executive director in the Office of the Vice President for the Gender and Youth Cluster, told Radio Tamazuj that Nyandeng had been scheduled to travel to Kenya for official engagements, including a public lecture at Murang’a University of Technology.
The university has announced that Nyandeng is due to give a public lecture at the institution on Aug. 25, while its 10th graduation ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 28.
Deng said Nyandeng’s office submitted a travel request to the Office of the President on Aug. 13 but that the required authorization had not been granted by the time of her planned departure.
“As a senior government official, the Vice President cannot travel internationally without the necessary authorization and clearance from the Presidency,” Deng said.
He said Nyandeng therefore did not proceed to the airport.
“The reports circulating on social media claiming that the Vice President went to the airport and was blocked from travelling are therefore incorrect,” Deng said.
The Office of the President was not immediately available for comment.
Reports that Nyandeng had been stopped from travelling emerged three days after she publicly criticised the political direction of South Sudan and questioned who was providing oversight of President Salva Kiir.
Speaking at a requiem Mass for veteran politician Kosti Manibe Ngai at All Saints Cathedral in Juba on Friday, Nyandeng said she could sometimes go as long as two years without meeting Kiir.
“When Dr. John Garang was there, those of Deng Alor, Elijah Malok, those of Kosti Manibe, all those people were there, watching,” she said. “Who’s watching over President Salva Kiir now?”
Nyandeng, the widow of late Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader Dr. John Garang, also said South Sudanese had undermined some of the gains made by those who fought for independence.
“We have inflicted to ourselves things that our enemies did not do to us,” she said.
She also urged young South Sudanese to speak out against wrongdoing, saying fear was preventing them from defending their interests.
The Office of the President responded on Sunday, defending Kiir’s role in the liberation struggle and saying the struggle had been a collective undertaking.
The statement did not name Nyandeng but said Kiir was “a senior member of that struggle and a longstanding comrade” of Garang.
The public disagreement between Nyandeng and the presidency is unusual because she is a senior member of Kiir’s government. She was appointed vice president in 2020 as part of the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement that sought to end South Sudan’s civil war.
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