On the day of the week in February, politicians and military men were packed at the People’s Events Center in the Central Business area in Nairobi and reached unanimously to form a new government.

But instead of the red and black Kenyan flag, one of the Sudanese decorated the hall. Instead of Kenyan politicians, everyone was sitting with the Rapid Support Forces of Sudan (RSF), a paramilitary group that destroyed its ongoing war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The huge screaming – from the Sudanese government and people as well as many foreign governments, including Turki and Saudi Arabia – followed RSF movements. However, anger was also directed to the Kenyan government for its apparent support for the ethnic. The SAF -led government, which is currently based in Port Sudan, called its ambassador to Kenya in February. When RSF met again in Nairobi last week to sign a “transitional constitution”, SAF did not produce words.

“These clear positions confirm that the Kenyan presidency’s irresponsible position in the adoption of the RSF genocide,” said in a statement on Sunday.

RSF Signature “Foundation Charter Sudan” Last month, the road paved the way for a parallel government in the RSF lands, including in parts of the capital, Al -Khartoum and the western region of Darfur.

For analysts, the fact that this exciting step is permitted in Nairobi means that Kenya is not neutral.

“In the language of football, this is a special diplomatic goal,” said Abdullah Boro Halack, a political expert in Kenya and also works with international refugees. He added that the consequences of such a step on Kenya’s reputation are expensive and the damage “will take some time to repair.”

It is only the latest diplomatic incident that the government of President William Roto was not recently. Clashes with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to host the rebel groups in Nairobi in late 2023. Analysts said that Roto’s situation in the two events represents a major shift in politics of a country that is considered once as a neutral regional leader where peace negotiations were detained between the warring factions in Somalia and at the same time Sudan.

A division line in Sudan?

Fighting erupted in Sudan for the first time in April 2023 after Muhammad Hamdan.Glow“Dagalo, the leader of RSF, and General Abdel -Fateh Al -Bouran, the president of SAF, fell. The two leaders participated earlier in a coup that ended a transitional government that included civilians, but the subsequent power struggle ended their alliance.

more than 60,000 people They were killed in the war, and 11 million were displaced. Both sides were accused by the United Nations of potential war crimes. However, there are more dangerous allegations against RSF, whose fighters are mainly from the Bedouin Darfur tribes. The United Nations said last year that RSF launched a “horrific” campaign against the “non -Arab” Masalit people in West Darfur, and the attacks could be “genocide indicators.” In January, the United States announced that RSF committed “genocide” and was targeting people “on an ethnic basis.”

While Egypt and the International Government Authority in Development (IGAD), an alliance from northeastern African countries, Kenya and Sudan tried to negotiate peace talks, it has not succeeded significantly.

After the first RSF meeting in Nairobi in February, the Kenya government defended itself against the reaction of Sudan and opposition politicians at home. In a statement, Foreign Minister Moussalia Modafadi said that Nairobi was actually playing a role in the peace industry.

“The status of a road map and leadership proposed by RSF groups and Sudanese civil groups in Nairobi are consistent with Kenya’s role in peace negotiations, which requires the provision of non -party platforms for conflict parties to search for decisions,” said Modafadi.

But some Sudanese did not agree. Despite the presence of civil groups in RSF meetings, including some of Darfur, Sudanese political analyst Shaza Al -Mahdi said that SAF did not exist, any peace negotiations would be empty.

“I do not buy it at all,” Al -Mahdi told Al -Jazeera about Modafadi’s statement. “For RSF, this meeting with civilians is more than something brand to wash their image. It indicates great warnings for us as black because RSF puts the first stone in a line that would divide Darfur from the rest of the country. It is an exciting step for the dispute.”

Moreover, RSF NAIROBI is likely to be used as a launch launch to generate a form of legitimacy. She said that this step affected how the Sudanese considered the Kenyan government.

“I personally do not support RSF or SAF because the two sides were perpetrators and they should face justice,” Al -Mahdi said. “But after that, many Sudanese people prefer SAF and see it as a better alternative, and now people believe that Kenya supports RSF against Sudan.”

Some observers have referred to the “friendship” between Roto and Hameriti as a possible reason for the cause of intimate friendship in Nairobi with RSF.

In January 2024, Roto Hemiditi, who was on a regional tour and was also welcomed in Uganda and Ethiopia in the anger of the SAF government. Then, the talk about “Brom” between Roto and Himiditi intensified after Roto traveled to Juba, South Sudan, on a government visit in November. On a presidential plane with Roto, he was the brother of Hemiditi and deputy commander of RSF Abdullah Dagalo, who was punished by the United States for his role in the war.

However, others pointed to a modern economic agreement between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, and it is believed that his government supports RSF Although he denies this. The deal, which was signed in January, will witness UAE dual investments in Kenya. Indeed, NAIROBI awaits a $ 1.5 billion loan to finance a budget deficit that occurred from the borrowing boom during the previous administration.

Peacekeeping Forces and “high -difference pants”

In December 2023 in a similar way to the Sudan catastrophe, Nairobi hosted rebel leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, causing a deep row between the two countries, even when the Kenyan government insisted that it was trying to peace.

In the midst of the crawling progress at the time of M23-a rebel group, the United Nations said was supported by Rwanda, which seized the cities of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in recent weeks-its leader, Bertrand Pisima, met with Cornell Nanga, head of the former election committee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has turned into a political basin. Their news came from the Nairobi Hotel lounge.

This was astonished by political observers not only because of BisimWa, but also because the Kenyan soldiers at the time were leading the peacekeeping forces from East Africa (EAC) to impose a ceasefire between the Army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a group of armed groups, including M23.

Several problems have already arisen between Nairobi and Kinshasa on the M23. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been accused of the months of the leader of the Kenyan, who was first published in November 2022, of “coexistence” with the rebels.

This is because Kinshasa wanted EAC forces to confront and stop M23 – its biggest headache. However, Kenya’s force refused to continue the attacks, on the pretext that its mandate was only to oversee the withdrawal of armed groups and impose a ceasefire. Tensions have grown. In parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the protests and riots erupted as the angry Congolese of the EAC, as well as the United Nations, attacked its failure to stop M23 violence. In December 2023, Congolese President Felix Chesikdi sent the mobilization of EAC forces.

Unlike this background, the M23 head reached Nairobi. In angry data after the meeting, Kinshasa Roto ordered the arrest of the rebel leaders, but this request was frankly rejected.

“Kenya is a democracy,” Roto answered in a statement. “We cannot arrest anyone who issued a statement. We do not arrest people to make their data, and we arrest criminals.”

Now barely a year later, M23 continued to seize the main eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu. The war has succeeded in hundreds of thousands of Congolese, and at least 7,000 people have been killed since the fighting was intensified in January, According to To the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“How can anyone trying to mediate peace can absorb the people who took arms against the Congolese people?” Cambal Musafoli, Congolese human rights defender and an analyst at the United States Research Center on Congo Kinshasa, said on the island.

“Regardless of the interpretation that Roto might provide, I think he tried to enter the issues of the Congo. One will ask, if it is a Kenyan citizen who captured weapons allowed to organize a press conference in Kinshasa, was Kenya responded in the same way [that Ruto did]? “

Several Congolese, Mossafoli, continued, was already fond of Proto because of a “close friendship” with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and because of the “concession” position against the country.

Analyst referred to the Gaffe Ruto, which he made while he was on the campaign path in 2022, which angered the diplomats of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and harmed many Congolese. Speaking to a crowd of young business owners, Roto promised more agricultural revenues because he intends to open ways to sell livestock to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying, “with a population of 90 million, but does not have any cows.” Roto has also called on The Conocilese, people “wearing high -end trousers”, referring to a common style in Congolese music videos. He later apologized for Gaffe after Congolese politicians expressed their anger.

“When Roto’s elections were held, we were not in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Roto rooted. We wanted an alternative because we already knew his position towards us.”

Who is the peacekeeper to the side?

A long time before her current screaming with her neighbors, Kenya was once looked at as a mediator of peace in East Africa.

In 2004, under the leadership of President Mai Kibaki, the warring factions in Somalia gathered that were subjected to the war in Nairobi to agree to a deal that formed a federal parliament and ended the bloody civil war that erupted since the fall of 1991 from the dictator of Muhammad Sayed Bar.

Just one year later, Kenya again led and hosted the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a peace framework that helped end the Sudanese civil conflict and eventually pave the way for the establishment of the nation of South Sudan in 2011.

Analysts said that now under Roto’s management, Kenya seems not only struggling to support that image but also to cause trouble. The apparent alliances that do not contain two foreign armed factions since Roto took office in 2022 have damaged Kenya’s previous regional status as a state with a diplomatic force and its weakest reputation as honest axes, according to the experts.

Even internally, Kenya shook tensions that have not been seen since the post -election crisis in the country in 2007. The youth -led protests protests in June and July last year, when thousands of Roto’s plans to increase taxes followed. In weeks, the demonstrators were shot by the Kenyan police. At least 50 people were killed, hundreds were wounded Many others remain missingAccording to the Kenya National Human Rights Committee. The Kenyans on social media are still calling Roto to step down with the retail sign: #rutomustgo.

Halach said: “Sudan and the intercourse of Kenin revealed the following Achilles of Kenya’s diplomat.” “Despite its internal stricken policies, the foreign policy of Kenya-although it is not principled-was not self-harm.”

He added that everything that changed.

“now [Kenya] He took sideways. From being the place where peace operations are negotiated to engage now to washing genocide, is a sharp decline in Kenya’s diplomatic position. “