Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi on Saturday defended President William Ruto's recent diplomatic strategies aimed at consolidating peace within the East African region, among them sending peace emissaries to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaking during an Iftar dinner in Malindi, Kilifi County, Mudavadi maintained that the President was not overstepping on his mandate as his critics had portrayed.

According to the PCS, the government is actively taking the peace process in its neigbouring countries to prevent a spillover effect of the instability in the neighbouring countries in Kenya. 

''When peace effort comes from Kenya, people tend to think that we are wasting efforts. I want to tell you that if all these countries become insecure around us, the instability will spill over to our country,'' Mudavadi asserted. 

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi during the Regional Ministerial roundtable session on Open Government Partnership on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

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Musalia Mudavadi

Further, Mudavadi maintained that Kenya will do anything possible to address the instability and conflicts witnessed in the region to help the country from sinking into a similar situation. 

He added that despite the process being an expensive one, the government remains fully committed to ensuring that the warring parties reach an agreement. 

''The mandate of the President is that if possible, we put off the instability in the foreign soils before it gets here on our soil. It will be more expensive if the trouble comes to visit us here,'' Mudavadi maintained. 

''That is why there are efforts to bring peace to these neigbouring countries by the government of President William Ruto. Peacekeeping is an expensive affair.''

Mudavadi dismissed critics of the government's recent foreign policy efforts, insisting that its regional peace initiatives were both necessary and purposeful.

His remarks come amid growing concerns that Kenya is being 'overzealous' in its diplomatic interventions, particularly after hosting Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and subsequently facilitating the signing of a charter to establish a parallel government in Nairobi.

"Sometimes people think this is just a game," Mudavadi stated. "My dear brothers, it is not a game. Let us make it clear to our children that it is not."

The PCS’s remarks came just hours after Kenya’s diplomatic efforts in South Sudan suffered a setback when former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was reportedly denied the opportunity to speak with the country’s Vice President, Riek Machar, who remains under house detention.

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan ​is rooted in a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his Vice, Machar. The rivalry has deepened ethnic divisions, with Kiir belonging to the Dinka ethnic group and Machar to the Nuer. 

On March 26, Kenya stirred diplomatic relations with Serbia, which is often backed by Russia and China at the United Nations level, after President William Ruto recognized Kosovo as an independent state, causing a storm in the foreign relations of the two nations. 

First Vice President Riek Machar leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO)

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South Sudan News Agency