The former Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Mukhisa Kituyi, has strongly accused Kenyan President William Ruto of supporting Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This has further intensified the domestic and international criticism surrounding Nairobi’s controversial engagement with the militia group.
Speaking on Citizen Television’s JK Live program, Kituyi stated that President Ruto’s dealings with the RSF and other controversial foreign figures have diminished Kenya’s international standing and severely damaged the country’s economic interests. “The country’s stature has diminished,” Kituyi said, pointing to the suspension of Kenyan tea exports to Sudan following diplomatic tensions between Nairobi and Khartoum as a primary example.
Kituyi described the RSF as a “racist force” responsible for atrocities against civilians and heavily criticized the Kenyan government for hosting its leaders and facilitating their international travel.
These remarks from the former UN official come a few months after Kenya’s *Standard* newspaper reported that Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa—a figure closely linked to the RSF—and Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo had allegedly been issued Kenyan passports. According to the report, Algoney held a Kenyan passport while concurrently possessing Sudanese travel documents.
In October 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Algoney. The United States accused him of coordinating weapons procurement for the RSF and helping sustain the bloody conflict in Sudan. Following these reports, the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation called for Kenya to be held accountable globally if it had indeed issued passports to individuals linked to the RSF.
President Ruto’s administration faced severe backlash last year after hosting RSF officials in Nairobi. The sovereign government of Sudan accused Kenya of interfering in its internal affairs, recalled its ambassador from Nairobi, and subsequently suspended all imports of Kenyan tea. This retaliation inflicted a massive market loss on Kenya’s agricultural sector.
Conversely, Kenya has consistently denied supporting the RSF paramilitary force. Nairobi maintains that meetings involving the group were strictly aimed at promoting dialogue and supporting peace efforts rather than endorsing or legitimizing the paramilitary force.
The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions, and triggered what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
