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Africa Live: TV anchor cleared of murder gets top government job - BBC News Africa Live: TV anchor cleared of murder gets top government job - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Nairobi
A TV anchor who The newly appointed US Special Envoy to Sudan has begun a diplomatic tour of East Africa and the Gulf.
was acquitted of murder has now been hired for a senior job in the Kenyan government, to the astonishment of some in the country. Tom Perriello's trip comes weeks before the first anniversary of Sudan's civil war, and shortly after the UN Security Council's call for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Jacque Maribe was cleared of murdering a businesswoman called Monica Kimani, who was found with her throat slit. But Ms Maribe's ex-partner Joseph Irungu, also known as "Jowie", was found guilty. His visit will take in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - which has been widely accused of funding and arming the Sudanese paramilitary RSF. It denies the charges.
Giving the verdict last month, the judge said Ms Maribe should instead be prosecuted for giving the police false information. Sudan is suffering from the biggest displacement crisis in the world, and aid agencies warn it risks becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis.
However she has since been appointed as head of communications for Kenya's Ministry of Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management, prompting criticism. The new US envoy said his trip was focused on the urgent need to end the war, and to get humanitarian access to all the Sudanese people.
"As a Kenyan who likes fairness, I must ask if the position was vacant all along or if someone was occupying it in acting capacity or if someone has been fired to bring her in," lawyer Wahome Thuku asked on X (formerly Twitter). But even before he departed, reports said a top general in Sudan's army rejected a Ramadan ceasefire - unless the RSF leaves civilian and public sites.
"That Maribe story is a clear indication that the government has jobs, just not for you," another commenter said. The Americans are also pushing to open more land routes for aid from Chad - the army had closed access points, saying the RSF was using it to transport weapons, and has only re-opened one.
But Public Service Minister Moses Kuria told the private Nation website that this new job was "the right thing" for Ms Maribe. "This is a country of justice, equal opportunities and one that will lend you a hand to rise from your ruins," he said.
Ms Maribe - who had spent six years on trial - told the same publication that "the truth, which always sets us all free, has worked - and I thank God for everything".
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