Page 21 - Nile Explorer Issue 006

Photo:Luol deng at a recent basketball campheld in juba south sudan. By Abdullahi Boru Halakhe Photo: In 2012, Kenyan troops helped Sheikh Ahmed Madobe,
positive change social agents. To be winning all their matches against envisaged. In the medium term, the An Expert on Governance, Security and Peace in Africa. leader of the Ras Kamboni, take the Somali port city of Kismayu
sure, he was elected as the president of Burundi, Tanzania, Eritrea, and Soma- federation is focusing on building a in southern Somalia [File: Reuters/Richard Lough]
South Sudan Basket Ball Federation in lia. Luol Deng took the financial burden strong term that can qualify and
December 2020 pledging to do more of the team including accommodation compete favourably at the world Basket has now metastasised into
towards development of basket ball in and sustenance. After selecting and Ball Federation to be jointly hosted by A er gaining independence in 1963 and Various agreements were negotiated entanglement in Somalia's internal
South Sudan, especially in developing assembling the team, the results were Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines in throughout the Cold War, Kenya tried and concluded in Nairobi, including the a airs and encouraged more al-Shabab
and nurturing female basket ball players there at the end of the tournament. This 2023. In the meantime, it is clear similar to stay away from the internal and 1985 peace deal between the Ugandan violence on Kenyan territory. Kenya's
and coaches. In the just concluded FIBA has marked the initial stages and efforts developments are not far fetched in external struggles of its neighbourhood. government of Tito Okello and the imprudent stance on its maritime
African Basketball prequalifies held in towards building a team and environ- Africa as far as basketball development While Ethiopia allied itself with the National Resistance Army (NRA), a dispute with Somalia also threatens to
rebel group led by Yoweri Museveni and
Kasarani National stadium gymnasium ment suitable for Basket Ball in South is concerned. erstwhile USSR and Cuba, Somalia the 2005 peace agreement between the erode its international reputation.
in Nairobi, Kenya, South Sudan gave a Sudan. The tournament was part of aligned with the United States and Sudanese government and southern
very good account of themselves after basket ball development in Africa as Tanzania became the intellectual rebels, which ended Africa's
hotbed for the ird World le , Kenya longest-running civil war. From intervention to occupation For
maintained poised neutrality and a decades, bilateral relations between
policy of non-intervention. Kenya and Somalia remained warm and
Kenya also played an important
mediation role in the Somali con ict, cordial. But in 2011, the Kenyan
Daniel Moi, the country's second hosting the negotiations and the signing government decided to send troops to
president a er independence, sought to of the agreement that led to the creation its neighbour, which since then has
rewall Kenya from spillovers of of the Transitional Federal Government been a source of considerable friction
regional con ict by maintaining a (TFG) in 2004. between Nairobi and Mogadishu.
foreign policy of ideological
ambivalence - being neither a friend nor is strategy not only ensured Kenya's Kenya's intervention in Somalia was in
a foe of regional and international internal a airs were undisturbed by line with the zeitgeist of the "war on
powers.
regional developments but also earned terror" launched by the US in 2001.
it a certain diplomatic reputation in the Packaging the intervention as an
Moi also took up mediating con icts in region. "anti-terror" operation automatically
the region and made it the main feature guaranteed domestic support and
of Kenyan diplomacy which carried on Today, both of these are on the line international immunity for human
even a er the end of the Cold War. because of repeated mistakes Kenya is rights violations.
During his presidency, Kenya became making in its policies towards Somalia.
the venue for peace negotiations Kenyan military presence on Somali
between the warring sides in Sudan, land has entered its ninth year, which
Somalia, and Uganda.
Photot:Luol deng and other basketball officials paid H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit the president of South Sudan a Courtesy call
at the presidential office.Photo\Courtesy
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