Women Fight Over President Salva Kiir in Nairobi
In the heat of the South Sudan heat, forces allied to President Salvar Kiir Mayardit and his former deputy Dr Riek Machar are locked in mortal combat for political power with fears that the world’s youngest nation could disintegrate. But in far off Nairobi and London, noisy battles are boiling in the house of General Kiir with a woman purporting to be his wife hurling ‘missiles’ at his elder daughter, Christina Adut Nardes.
In a stern letter seen exclusively by The Nairobian, Aluel William Nyuon Bany, who claims to be Kiir’s wife sternly warns Adut to steer clear of her marriage and threatens unspecified consequences if she persists. Reminding Adut that “I didn’t choose a relationship with your dad” since “it has been happening for at least 10 years”, Nyuon Bany nostalgically narrates the scene of her traditional wedding. “The Payun clan and a great many happy witnesses attended my wedding. It was so beautiful. The bulls that were sacrificed were of…the highest order,” she recalls. “I was undressed as the daughter of William Nyuon and was clothed and accepted as the wife of Kiir Marial-dit. They took me as a Nuer, as a hero’s daughter; (I became) the love of his life and his wife but I DO NOT (emphasis hers) need to be your stepmother”.
Aluel is the daughter of the late Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) leader William Nyuon Bany who alongside Dr John Garang, Salvar Kiir and Arok Thon Arok were the top four generals of the movement in its early days. He died in 1996, leaving several children, most of who live in the United States today. She made headlines in 2011 after she went missing in Juba where it was later alleged that powerful people with connections in government had kidnapped her. Explaining that she already has a powerful surname, Aluel firmly dictates her position by exhausting events surrounding the president’s family. “Try as you will, if and when I leave your dad, it will because I chose to do so. I’m Ethiopian by birth, South Sudanese by descent and a naturalised Briton. Please feel free to choose the jurisdiction where you seek your legal redress,” Aluel dares Nardes. “Stop meddling with my marriage and deal with your own marital problems…let your dad be with the woman he loves…allow us our choice. Consider this a written warning.”
Talking to The Nairobian on phone from Juba, an official from the South Sudanese government warned that the media should stay clear of matters of the first family. “These are matters that are very sensitive and should not be published,” the source who chose to remain anonymous said. “Whatever is happening between this lady and Nardes should not go to the media at the moment. This is a criminal since the President has only one wife, Mama Mary Ayen Mayardit. She is a criminal who should be arrested,” he warned. Joseph Lual, head of security at the South Sudan Embassy in Nairobi, called the newsroom to echo the same sentiments, saying what he knows is that Aluel lives in London.
This latest scuffle comes in the wake of another incidence last month when President Kiir’s son Manut Salvar Kiir was arrested by police officers from Muthangari Police Station for allegedly assaulting his sister Winnie Aguem while drunk at their Manyani East Road house in Lavington. Although Manut was released later, the South Sudanese leader is said to have convened a family meeting in Juba where he warned members against misbehaving in public. “I have always told you to behave in a way that would not create inconveniences to other people, because the way you conduct yourself would be interpreted to mean different things by different people,” Kiir was quoted by the Sudan Tribune. “You have to understand that you would never be alone wherever you go. So be careful with whatever you do. The real issue would be twisted and politicised.”
The incident led to political critics in Juba drawing the parallels between the incident and the president’s political life. “If you cannot manage your own family, it follows automatically that it won’t be possible managing millions of people with different family members from different ethnic groups,” the same paper quoted an anonymous source saying.
An editor was arrested and the English version of The New Sudan Vision banned after it published an opinion alleging that President Kiir’s daughter Adut had eloped with an Ethiopian immigrant, then considered a symbol of national shame. The said immigrant, Nardes Gebeyehu Alemneh, is now Adut’s husband after a high profile wedding in Juba where the president officially handed her over to her husband.
Aluel notes the fact that the country was generally against the wedding to the son of an Ethiopian elite when she tells Adut “allow us our choice. Just like the whole country grudgingly allowed your choice”.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/thenairobian/article/4998/battles-rock-salva-kiir-family-in-nairobi
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Reblogged this on annaagel's Blog and commented:
My opinion is on behalf of the orphan which makes her the underdog in this fight. If only Gen Nyuom Baby was alive to “enable her a choice” like Kiir did for his own child when she messed up big time!
Speak up, sir. Tell us if daughter of late CDR has a choice to make mistakes, in accepting you (some say Kiir, you are more unsuitable than Nadtrs for Christina)
I’m glad that finally this issue is up for discussion! I concur with Annaagel and agree that if our dad was alive, he would allow Aluel her choice just like Kiir did for Christina. In 1988, we as a family lived in a small crowded house in Addis Abbaba , yet my father William Nyuon rented a house for Mary Ayen in Bolly. He was concerned for Ayen’s health as at at the time she had given birth and lost her baby immediately. He provided for her healthcare and general well-being, whilst Kiir was angry with her for her opposition of his marriage to his new bride Achol Philip. Kiir and Mary Ayen should remember the generosity and spirit of brotherhood shown by Nyuon to his immediate family whilst he deliberates his course of action now that his marriage to Aluel is no longer a secret.
I had to reply on Kenya media. Adut, Habesha, I advise you to deal with matters in your own house. You have a husband, that is why your father gave you away. My God, which part of stay away do you not understand?? Let the president and mama Lucy Kibaki, sorry I mean Ayen di5 read out a statement that Kiir has only one wife. Which we all know is a lie, anyways!