South Sudan Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior/FILE

South Sudan Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior did not travel to Kenya for planned official engagements after the required presidential authorisation had not been granted, her office has said.

The clarification followed reports circulating on social media that Nyandeng had been stopped from travelling at Juba airport.

David Aleu Deng, acting executive director in the Office of the Vice President for the Gender and Youth Cluster, said Nyandeng had been scheduled to travel to Kenya for official engagements, including a public lecture at Murang’a University of Technology.

The university had announced that Nyandeng was expected to deliver the lecture on August 25. Its 10th graduation ceremony is scheduled for August 28.

Deng said Nyandeng’s office submitted a travel request to the Office of the President on August 13, but 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 authorisation 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,” he said.

The Office of the President had not immediately commented on the explanation from Nyandeng’s office.

The reports about the planned trip emerged days after Nyandeng made remarks about the political direction of South Sudan and raised questions about oversight.

Nyandeng, the widow of late Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader Dr John Garang, has in the past criticised what she described as the failure by South Sudanese to protect some of the gains made during the struggle for independence.

“We have inflicted on ourselves things that our enemies did not do to us,” she said.

She also urged young South Sudanese to speak out against wrongdoing.

The Office of the President subsequently issued a response defending Kiir’s role in the liberation struggle.

The statement did not name Nyandeng but described Kiir as “a senior member of that struggle and a longstanding comrade” of Garang.

Nyandeng was appointed Vice President in 2020 as part of the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement, which sought to end South Sudan’s civil war.