Why President Salva Kiir Mayardit Must Go

I thank those who read the whole message whether they agreed with me or not. I respect their opinions regardless, and I expect that our blood relations or friendship should not hold my personal opinion hostage on national issues. I also thank those who are worried about my safety.

I hear you clearly but oppression of opinions, intimidation, and all sorts of death threats and/or actual killings did not deter South Sudanese people from expressing their disapproval of wrong-doings of various governments in Khartoum. Instead, South Sudanese became determined and fought for 38 years in total, which resulted into separation from the North.

Now, President Kiir and his group want to hold to power by bullets and so they sing a song of fair and free elections. These elections are going to be an endorsement of Presidency of Salva Kiir Mayardit by the group who treat his Presidency as Bridge Wealth to be shared among relatives and friends. Will President Salva Kiir go to Bor, Bentiu and Malakal and campaign there when he did not visit these people at the time of massacre in churches and health care centers?

I wish these elections were free and fair, I would have contested the Presidency of South Sudan and embarrassed President Salva Kiir with a 90% win but this will never happen because there will never be a free and fair elections under President Salva Kiir Mayadit.

However, questioning President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s mistakes amounts to questioning almighty god and the consequences include ban from going to South Sudan if one is lucky to be outside South Sudan. It seems these people want us to sing songs of praise when President Salva Kiir makes mistakes. It is like in the culture I grew up when lightning strikes any person, because it is assumed it is God’s act and people would praise God.

Some of us have known now that lightening is not God’s works but nature’s work. We believe that President Kiir is a human being who is capable of making mistakes and in fact he has committed a lot of them like any human being and worse, as authorized to lead the country to “Development, Prosperity and progress” the theme he ran for 2010.

To my Nuer friends who were surprised because of my objection to tribal commander-in-chiefs, yes, I also respect your opinions but I strongly believe this is a disaster in making. I cannot comprehend why most of you are so naïve to the extent that you cannot see the obvious. I have said this to many Nuer and Dinka relatives and friends alike, South Sudan has never and will never be ruled by the strength or might of a tribe – except by consensus.

Never will I support a rebel like Riek Machar whose mission is to destroy Dinka tribe because according him; this tribe is the obstacle to his leadership. Truth needs to be told. To my friend and security agent who asked me to study, I failed to understand the need for study here. Others jumped into conclusion blaming people in diaspora. Well, the people who started war in Juba on the 15th of December 2013 were not from diaspora but politicians and generals whose children and close relatives are all outside the country.

I had been to President Kiir’s house in Nairobi several times in 2000 and I witnessed how he lived. People who were in Nairobi at the time, are aware that low ranking officers of SPLM-A lived better lives than him, yet his determination to secure freedom for South Sudanese people was never shaken. Some wonder why I call President Kiir a Coward.

Let me be crystal clear, President Kiir has made sacrifices that are hard to imagine. Just to mention a few, Kiir abandoned his education and joined the first liberation movement at young age and fought for the country and the people of South Sudan. He understood the importance of liberation of his people and the country.

Instead of pursuing his studies and become Dr. Salva Kiir, he decided to put national interests above his personal interests. After the first agreement, he continued to serve his country as a military man to safeguard Addis Agreement. I am neither a historian nor a politician nonetheless; history of South Sudan must be fair.

President Kiir was one of the Anya Nya 1’s officers who worked underground to prepare conductive environment to launch another liberation movement and in the process became one of the founding members of SPLM-A, which fought various regimes in Khartoum for over two decades. President Kiir offered undivided loyalty to Dr. John Garang as Deputy Commander-in-Chief and deputy Chairman of SPLA-M. President Kiir rejected all calls to rebel against the cause of South Sudanese people, even when things did not go well.

In 2004, when he had disagreement with the chairman of the movement, Dr. Garang, President Kiir preferred reconciliation to forming his own SPLM-A like the disastrous August 28, 1991. There was lot of encouragement for him to break away from Garang who was seen as a dictator. President Kiir is called Joshua for a reason. It was under his wise leadership that South Sudan became an independent state.

However, President Kiir does not realize that he is doing the same thing he accused Dr. John Garang of – “dictatorship”. President Kiir issued a decree on July 23rd relieving Riek Macher from his position as vice president and now he wants to reward him with more powers after the death of thousands of South Sudanese. Kiir and Riek must be held accountable for the deaths of thousands of South Sudanese people. When he heard rumors in 2004 that Garang was going to replace him with Abraham Nhial Deng Nhial, he, President Salva Kiir was ready to fight for his position.

President Kiir knows Riek better than anyone else, what did he expect when he relieved him? Of course, war, now he wants to sacrifice all venerable Dinka people in greater Upper Nile, and by the way, my area borders Riek’s state Bentiu. Riek’s tribal militia has no rules of warfare, any Dinka, child, women, men elderly must be killed including people in places of worship or those dying in health care facilities.

It will be the end of Dinka neighboring Riek’s state, so instead of Dinka massacre again, it is better that Kiir goes and someone fight Riek’s ideology to destroy Dinka for his Nuer kingdom led by him. President is ready and willing to sacrifice everything and anything to stay in power.

I called Kiir a coward because tribalism, nepotism and corruption flourished in his government and he never dared to hold his ministers accountable. Instead, in 2012, he took the law of the country into his own hands and began to beg 75 people who stole 4 Billion US dollars to return some of those funds to the country.

Where in the world would a president of a country ask thieves to return stolen funds to the country? Worse, he created a secret account for the funds to be secretly returned. Yes, that is true.

Nowadays, even the leaders of religious institutions are paid or intimidated to get rid of anyone under their authorities seen to speak out against the government. Close relatives and friends treat Kiir Mayardit’s presidency as dowry or bride wealth to be shared among relatives and friends.

As elected president by all tribes including Nuer, Kiir did not condemn the killings of innocent Nuer people in Juba in a timely manner. Kiir failed to visit the victims in Bor, Makalal, and Bentiu, the very people who voted him into presidency. Kiir is now running to every country in East Africa trying to sign peace deal with Riek Macher.

I thought Wani Igga was a vice-president but it seems President Kiir does not see it that way and that is why the tribal militias are calling for removal of vice president’s position. If there is a person to negotiate with Riek, it must be Vice President Wani. When President was deputy chairperson of the SPLM-A, he led negotiating team in 2002 and signed some protocols of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Is this something to do with the tribal might? God save South Sudan!

My problem is that Kiir has now abandoned the cause he spent most of his life fighting for and resorted to rewriting the constitution of the country with Riek Macher. As I stated in my previous post, South Sudan neither belongs to Kiir nor to Riek Macher. These two men led the country for good 8 years with rampant tribalism, corruptions, nepotism and lack of services delivery.

It is time for South Sudanese people to rise up and have a new leadership that must be accountable to the people. Enough is enough. President Kiir, the problem are not the people who point out mistakes in your government, but those who put people in sacks and shoot people with impunity.

Let your security organs stop harassing people. You are president of South Sudanese people not few individuals close to you.

I end here with the quotation from President Salva Kiir December 1, 20014 in Rumbek during their reconciliation meeting with Dr. John Garang:

“I must warn the Chairman that Nimeiri was made to be unpopular by his security organs. Those who are misleading you and giving you false security information about others will suffer with you together or leave with you… Mr. Chairman, you have talked about people eating the boat while we are in the middle of the river. Let me add this; the issue is not eating the boat in the middle of the river. The issue is that there are a few who have already crossed to the other side of the river and when the remaining ones asked them to bring the boat, they refused to return the boat. This is the problem”.

This was President Kiir, deputy chairman by then speaking in Rumbek in 2004.

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