Juba, South Sudan, 17 May 2021 – Newly-appointed legislator Afekuru Animu Rasai has been disowned by Keliko Community of Morobo County in Central Equatoria State over compromised origins.
Ms. Animu is one of the 550 lawmakers appointed by President Salva Kiir in the reconstituted parliament earlier this month.
However, Keliko, a tribe in Lujule Payam in Morobi from which Animu claims to be hailing, publicly denounced the legislator in a hard-hitting statement seen by Nyamilepedia.
The document signed by Agele Simon Sebit, Hissen Wilson, and Nicola Diye, who serve as Community Chairman, Youth Chairman, and Chief respectively, reveals that the community has no knowledge about the wannabe lawmaker.
“After a thorough investigation to know her details, the community found her claims of origination from the Keliko tribe to be false,” part of the statement says.
The community used a social media post as one of the benchmarks for their investigations. It says in a document posted on Facebook in 2015, Animu acquired a South Sudanese nationality card in 2014 with the aid of local authorities without procedural means.
The letter signed by the leadership of the community further reveals that Animu’s national ID form was sneaked to Morobo County for approval among documents of students processing their IDs for government scholarship in 2012.
Notwithstanding the game at play, the county’s authorities endorsed the national ID form before details emerged later.
“The people of Keliko are not aware of this unfortunate authorization. The Keliko Community made several attempts for Animu to prove her lineage but were futile. In November 2018, the Keliko community in Juba summoned Animu to justify her claims but the meeting proved beyond doubt that her claims were false and tarnishing the image of the Keliko people,” reads part of the document.
The community cautioned the government and South Sudanese public to deal with and treat Animu as an individual acting in her own capacity and not in the interest of the community she claims to represent.
“Whilst Animu is engaged in different activities and representations across South Sudan and abroad, including in the recent appointment as the member of parliament in the [Reconstituted] Transitional National Legislative Assembly, we fear that some of her engagements at the expense of Keliko people may taint the image of the Keliko tribe, Morobo County, and South Sudan at large.
“If the public is engaging with Animu in South Sudan or abroad, we recommend them to involve her as an ordinary person without using the tribe Keliko where her counterfeit claims are based on. If she originates within South Sudan, she can continue with her activities without lying and using the name Keliko to do things,” the statement continues.
The community has called for the revocation of Animu’s South Sudanese nationality status by the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport, and Immigration in the Ministry of Interior.
Animu, who many say hails from Uganda, could be among many other MPs without constituencies if the aforementioned actions are taken. The only difference will be the rejection aspect.
