South Sudan Embassy in Nairobi Closed: “Until Govt Intervenes”
- The South Sudan Embassy in Nairobi’s Kilimani neighbourhood was shut on Tuesday, 11 August, over unpaid rent
- A South Sudanese citizen said he was turned away by security guards when he visited the mission to process travel documents
- A civil society leader warned the closure damaged South Sudan’s image and undermined its national interests abroad
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The Embassy of South Sudan in Nairobi has been shuttered after the government fell behind on rental payments by at least four months, according to embassy staff and South Sudanese nationals who visited the mission.
Source: Twitter
A staff member told Radio Tamazuj that the mission, situated in the Kilimani neighbourhood, was closed on Tuesday, 11 August 2026, and would remain so until the government stepped in to resolve the matter. The precise amount owed could not be independently verified.
“The embassy is currently closed. It was closed yesterday. The embassy will remain closed until the government intervenes,” the staff member said as reported by South Sudan’s Radio Tamazuj.
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Citizens Turned Away at the Gate
A South Sudanese national who identified himself as Stephen said he travelled to the embassy seeking to process travel documents, only to be told by security personnel that the building had been closed the previous day.
“I went to the embassy to process some documents, like a travel document, but I found it closed,” he said. “The security at the gate told me that the embassy had been closed the previous day. When I asked why, he said he was not aware.”
Radio Tamazuj was unable to reach Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Apuk Ayuel Mayen for comment.
Civil Society Condemns the Closure
Edmund Yakani, a prominent South Sudanese civil society leader, said the closure reflected poorly on the country’s standing in the region.
“The leadership of the country has to prioritise financing our foreign missions as a budget priority,” Yakani said. “The absence of functional foreign missions demonstrates a lack of appetite for foreign engagement, which is a strategic mistake in regional and global politics and undermines the pursuit of national interests,” he added.
The closure came just days after newly appointed Ambassador Simon Juach Deng bid farewell to President Salva Kiir in Juba on 6 August. Deng is expected to assume his post at the Nairobi mission in September, after Kiir urged incoming diplomats to maintain high professional standards in representing South Sudan abroad.
This is not the first time the Nairobi embassy has faced a similar crisis. In November 2025, the mission was also shut over rental arrears, with Senior Presidential Envoy for Special Programmes Adut Salva Kiir later paying three months of rent on behalf of the government to reopen it.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been contending with a severe fiscal crisis driven by its heavy dependence on oil revenues. The Nairobi mission has served as one of the country’s most strategically important diplomatic posts since independence.
Do Kenyans need to pay for South Sudan visa?
In other news, South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior denied reports that it had introduced a new visa policy granting visa-free entry to Egyptian and Tanzanian nationals while requiring Kenyans to pay visa fees.
The ministry said no directive, policy decision or statutory instrument had been issued to change the country’s existing immigration framework, and urged the public and foreign missions to rely on official government communication.
The confusion was linked to a 2019 directive that instructed South Sudanese immigration officers to grant Tanzanian citizens free visas, citing the East African Community Common Market Protocol on the free movement of persons.
South Sudan maintained that its immigration policy was unchanged, although the ministry did not clarify whether the 2019 directive remained operational.
Source: TUKO.co.ke