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South Students League in Uganda: Response to Makuei Aguer’s Claims

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RESPONSE TO FORMER UNION PRESIDENT MR. MAKUEI AGUER’S CLAIMS: “THE NEW TWIST IN THE SOUTH SUDANESE STUDENTS’ AFFAIRS IN UGANDA’’

By South Sudanese Students League in Uganda (SSSLU) Kampala-Uganda

December 29, 2015 (SSB)  —  Gallant South Sudanese, fellow countrymen and women, I greet you in the names of the Almighty God and the Republic of South Sudan. It is my hope that this message finds you safe and sound. In everything said, there is always a hidden truth, and because lies are stronger than the truth, the truth tends to be hidden in the heap of lies.

Therefore the aim of writing is to respond to what Mr. Makuei Aguer, the former South Sudanese Students’ Union in Uganda (SSSUU) posted on Nyamilepedia on 25th December, 2015 entitled SOUTH SUDANESE STUDENTS’ UNION IN UGANDA DID NOT FORM ANOTHER BODY. Before I continue, I would like to take this golden opportunity on behalf of the newly formed South Sudanese Students’ League in Uganda (SSSLU) to first congratulate all students and the citizens of the Republic of South Sudan upon making it to this Christmas. It is my prayer and sincere wish that you reach the New Year, 2016 in good health by God’s grace.

Having expressed my good wishes for you in 2016, allow me to also congratulate our president, H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit and the SPLM-IO officials for finally bringing the long awaited peace to us and our desperate people of South Sudan.

Coming to the purpose of this message, it is prudent that I quickly take you through facts which clearly strip naked all the fallacy and the mischief that we all read in Mr. Makuei Aguer’s claims.

On behalf of South Sudanese students’ fraternity in Uganda, I would like to categorically state that what Mr. Makuei wrote and posted here is baseless and deserves no public attention.  Instead, the former Union president is a drowning man who is trying to find a leeway of escaping from the mess he created through his corrupt government.

As we all know, South Sudanese students in Uganda have been facing a lot of noticeable challenges, and in particular, the deadly corruption that reached its climax in Mr. Makuei Aguer’s regime.

Mr. Makuei’s regime of 2014/2015 was the most scandalous and type lotion all regimes in the history of South Sudanese Students’ Union in Uganda. As shall be explained in details shortly, the Union became a centre where corruption was praised and valued by a group of miscreant gang of leaders headed by Mr. Makuei Aguer.

As a result of the glaring corruption, bitter emotions from all South Sudanese students were evoked against the Union leadership as they felt betrayed and cheated by the Union. Thus, to support the statement made in the above sentence, it is important to note that the recently concluded elections coupled with misappropriation of students’ funds by the government of Mr. Makuei Aguer, among others (as discussed in details in my previous post) are among the main reasons behind the formation of this body. As pointed out in the foregoing sentence, the following are some of the outstanding reasons as to why we came up with the South Sudanese students’ league in Uganda which inter alia include:

  1. ELIGIBILITY OF THE CURRENT UNION PRESIDENT. Like I reported before, the current Union President, Mr. Akol Akol flagrantly bulldozed his way into the SSSUU presidential race after conceding defeat in the presidential primary elections held at his constituency, Makerere University and such an unprofessional behaviour of not accepting defeat is not only disgraceful and disconcerting but is also unpardonable in the modern era as it compromises justice. As such, his win is an unmerited and an undeserved one which only followed the dubious dogma of winning the SSSUU elections illustrated by his predecessor in the last year (2014/2015)’s presidential race.
  2. UNFAIR DISQUALIFICATION OF SOME PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. The disqualification of the threesome of Mr. Deng Panchol, Mr. Marial Makuong and Mr. Malou Mathiang was wantonly engineered by ingenuous architect, the former Union president, Mr. Makuei Aguer who unconstitutionally appointed the electoral commission to directly target the trio since they had been very vocal in his government. Mr. Makuei Aguer who claimed ‘leaders are required to lead by example’ contested last year when he wasn’t even a student. He purposely obtained an admission letter from Uganda Christian University for contesting. The question of the day is: Does the mere admission letter from a given institution automatically qualify someone to become a student in that institution? It is self-explanatory and this makes the intentions of this year’s elections questionable. I therefore urge you to treat Mr. Makuei’s claims that “the elections were free and fair” as apocryphal.
  3. MISAPPROPRIATION OF STUDENTS’ FUNDS. It is a known fact among South Sudanese students in Uganda that the corruption in SSSUU is not only chronic but also contagious. Rapacious leaders have continued to succeed one another and they have continued to avariciously squandered students’ money.

It is, therefore, disheartening to report that in SSSUU, succession is planned in such a way that the successor is one who won’t ask for any accountability from the predecessor. As such, I artlessly and forthrightly can’t help blaming Mr. Makuei and the ilk as huge sums of students’ money incredibly goes unaccounted for. Now is the time to bury alive the slogan “For justice, liberty and prosperity of one’s stomach “adopted by the Union leaders once they come into power. Below is the students’ money (in USD) that was collected from good Samaritans in Juba(December, 2015) by Mr. Makuei and misused.

NAME  (AMOUNT in dollars)

Office of the president 40,000

Office of the Vice President 7,000

Office of Hon. Minister of finance and economic Planning 7,000

Former Hon Min for Petroleum and Mining Hon Stephen Dhieu 10,000

Hon Daniel Awet Akot 2,500

Hon Akol Paul Kordit 5,000

General Akol Koor 5,000

Mr. Adam Alam1,000

Madam Ayen Manyuon 2,200

Total =  79,700

Amount that was contributed in SSP is not established yet but I will soon post it here as time goes on.

What perplexed me the most is Mr. Makuei’s intransigence to admit the naked corruption that has become a public secret among South Sudanese students in Uganda. Makuei assisted a student, Pel Ater (from Arua) with 500,000/= and now he exaggerates those figures to $1,000. The same thing applies to KIU Western Campus which he assisted with 500,000/= and today he inflates such figures to $1,000.

Furthermore, I was baffled to discover that Mr. Makuei Aguer threatened and bribed the student he claimed he assisted with $10,000, Mr. Dhol Ayuien (from Makerere University Medical School) not to expose him. Trust me, we shall get the financial statement of the student and we shall burst the bubble here.

In response to Mr. Makuei’s claims that he financially assisted students including me, I must publicly acknowledge that Makuei was a good personal friend who rightly assisted me with 200,000/= like he stated in his claims button a personal basis in April, 2015. I was therefore discombobulated that he used this friendly assistance to account for the students’ money that he collected from Juba in December, 2015 and mismanaged. I suppose it is disgraceful for the former Union president to start acting in such an irresponsible manner which only signals waves of fiasco running down his spine. If you want a refund as a friend then why can’t you make it clear! Please endeavor to account for students’ money.

 PUBLIC WARNING: The incorrigible inefficiencies in the South Sudanese Students’ Union in Uganda render it too deformed to be reformed. In a bid to bring back calm and restore unity among South Sudanese students in Uganda whose hopes have been damaged beyond repair by the Union leaders, a new era that comes with a new dawn is always the only option.

It was on this candid ground that a new inclusive students’ organization; the South Sudanese Students League in Uganda (SSSLU) was formed. Please note that the claim put forward by Mr. Makuei that ‘this body is illegal unless recommended by the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in Uganda’s bottomless, supererogatory and instead, unconstitutional. You are therefore requested to treat this blatant lie as last kicks of a dying horse.

The right to form or join a political or social organization like the current body is guaranteed not only by the national constitutions but also by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 and the International Covenant on civil and political rights of 1966.

Therefore, the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan of 2011 (as amended in 2015) like the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda adopted their provisions on protection of rights of the freedom to assemble from the international human rights instruments as stated above.

For instance, ARTICLE 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda of 1995 protects the freedom of assembly and associations. Thus, in relation to the foregoing analysis of human rights law, our right to form this political organization is protected and guaranteed by the law and no person, not even the embassy can have any right to declare it illegal or liquidate it without strong reasons based on law.

The only ground that this body can be declared illegal not by anybody but by court or parliament is when it is against the public interest as provided for under Article 43 of the Ugandan Constitution and under Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan.

In summary, the League was formed for the common good or welfare and interests of all South Sudanese students in Uganda; basically to provide a platform for combating vices of corruption, tribalism, regionalism and sectionalism, which are prevalent in the current defunct Union.

Therefore, South Sudanese Students League in Uganda is a true body reflecting the diversity and interests of all communities of South Sudanese Students in Uganda and should not be termed illegal. It is in line with the vision and mission of South Sudan as stipulated in Article 9 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011.

Having effectively guided the readers on the false claims posted on this website, I would like to conclude by wishing all South Sudanese a merry Christmas and prosperous new year in the name of New Era, New Dawn for Unity!

 BY JUMA KENETH;

INTERIM PRESIDENT

SOUTH SUDANESE STUDENTS’ LEAGUE IN UGANDA (SSSLU)

You can reached me Jkeneth57@gmail.com

Tel: +256759202533

          +211955887207

OUR MOTTO: “NEW ERA, NEW DAWN FOR UNITY

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