Kenya pulling UN peacekeepers from South Sudan in protest

In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) force commander Lt. Gen. Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki of Kenya, right, stands next to Ellen Loj, center, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, and an unidentified member of South Sudan's government, left, as they await a delegation of U.N. Security Council members, in Juba, South Sudan. Kenya's foreign affairs ministry said Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016 that it is pulling out its 1,000 troops deployed to South Sudan as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission after the U.N. secretary-general fired the force's Kenyan commander. (AP Photo/Justin Lynch) (The Associated Press)

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya says it is pulling out its troops deployed to South Sudan as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the force's Kenyan commander.

Ban made the decision after an independent investigation sharply criticized peacekeepers' response to deadly attacks in July on a U.N. compound housing 27,000 displaced people in South Sudan's capital.

Kenyan Lt. Gen. Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki was fired shortly after the investigators' report was released Tuesday.

A statement from Kenya's foreign ministry on Wednesday said the process of firing Ondieki lacked transparency, and it blamed the shortcomings of the peacekeeping force on the U.N.'s department of peacekeeping operations.