A Hero Created By The “Government” of South Sudan!

By Rigoberto Modi,

July 09, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — Things that have happened since August 2014, in regards to Gen. Martin Kenyi Terensio, are enough to raise eyebrows. This man appears to be special in the eyes of the government of South Sudan. It is not about his defecting to support Dr. Riak Machar, for many generals have done so. But for reasons not clear, Gen. Kenyi appears to be a special focus of the government or their agents. Firstly it was denied that he defected. The usual SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) spokesman claimed he was out of the country for treatment. As it is always the case this was a fabricated lie.   Soon to be contradicted by the visit of the Vice President of a sort, 1^st Lt. Gen. Isaac Mamur and Gen. Aleu Aleny Aleu asking the people of Nimule to tell Gen. Kenyi to come back. It was a bit strange because the decision of Gen. Kenyi is not determined by the people of Nimule. In any case the government doing so would appear to be a justification of what followed: the arrest, torture, intimidation and humiliation of the Ma’di Community. As I write today, soon after the speech of the Vice President, Mamur, Aleu and the division commander of the area, more than 21,000 Ma’di Community members have crossed the border and registered in the refugee camps in Adjumani district.   This happened even before firing a shot in the area. That is strange!

Continuing from that point, one can ask why they have to do this. Was it the domino effect that people in the northern part of the country have been moving south so those in the south will move further south? That is not the case. What happened was because of Gen. Kenyi, all Ma’di area was militarised. Army units were deployed in every village. They occupied schools, water points and even health centres. They made life extremely difficult for people, especially women who go to get water. Even people who go out to harvest, or hunt were being killed. The case in point the woman who was gang raped and killed in Opari in January. She went out to harvest her crops. Those of you who are reading this article and have the capacity for mental picture can imagine what people were going through. Those of you who regularly read the articles in newspaper will also know how many Ma’di leaders were arrested, tortured and detained. Even Human Right Watch Africa recently published article about the situation in and around Nimule, in connection to the defection of Gen. Kenyi.

One would wonders why this person is treated in special way, in total disregard to his right to decision, identity as a person not related with the corporate entity as Ma’di. In that very line of reasoning, why is his personality attached to his house? If he has rebelled, the house did not rebel. The house has a legal personality independent of the moral personality of Gen. Kenyi. The house could exist or desist without Gen. Kenyi. The house does not choose the political identity but lives within the ruling system, whatever that may be. In fact now, as it can be proved, the house did not follow Gen. Kenyi in rebellion but remained loyal in Juba. It is vulnerable and needed to be protected by law because it has a legal personality. Now that is where the problem is. The law did not protect the house and the question looms large, ‘is there the rule of law in South Sudan?’

We may fish in history to find the answer, as South Sudan belongs to the zone of common law. So we could take a detour to see whether or not, there is jurisprudence in the matter. The easiest one is the case of Dr. John Garang and Republic of Sudan. You can see it is enough to make someone laugh. His house in Khartoum was not destroyed when he rebelled. Equally, there are so many commanders and officers who defected, including Salva Kiir, whose property in Sudan and South Sudan were not destroyed. Furthermore, there is a high population of Dinka in northern Sudan who were not mistreated on account of Dr. Garang because he rebelled. And if somebody mistreated them, later Dr. John used to create this story of the lost boys but he as he did not emphasize the Jebelein Massacre, with majority being Shilluk, everybody condemned such acts by a government because there is no association between the rebellion of Garang and the Dinka Nation or South Sudanese People. All of this is conceptually possible on the basis of the rule of law. In a place where there is the rule of law, these things do not happen. But if we want to tell where the rule of law does not exist, we look at these indicators. South Sudan will fail in all parameters or the critical indicators of the rule of law.   Comparatively, Khartoum, despite its Islamist government, did not fail in all of the key parameters of the rule of law.

Therefore it is very understandable that security units can destroy the house of Martin Kenyi. Anybody who wants to come forward to argue the contrary is welcome. You can only do such thing as destroying the building of a person if there is no rule of law. If there was one, there should have been a decision of the judge specifically stating that the property has to be destroyed, for whatever the law court found necessary. In the absence of the same, governing decisions are done by individuals who depend on their whims are feelings. Is this a country which has a respectable place among the community of nations? The answer is definitely no. We all know, that South Sudan claimed to be democratic. With democracy, as Churchill stated, it is not a perfect system but there is none out there that is better. So among the community of nation, South Sudan can rightly be qualified as a failed state. Regardless of what some people are arguing, the evidence collected at small level that matters, clearly shows South Sudan is a totally failed state. Stating it differently, it does not have state institutions that function according to the will of the people or the standards of international community and protect people, their freedom, their hope for betterment of their lives and their properties.

Functional government is not restricted to defending the territorial integrity or airspace or terrestrial boundary. In other words, anybody who wants to do business with South Sudan, cannot be sure when the president or the security are going to change their minds. Some people have already experienced that anomaly. The Vice President kept saying we are a new country we need to be given time. Pure nonsense! You build yourself up when you were fighting. So if you are not ready to govern now, don’t misgovern. Just leave it to other people. That is the simplest rule of politics.

If we have to point out where the rule of law really failed, we do not have to go far. Just drive the street of Juba and you see this SPLA  Number plate breach the law and drive with all four hazard lights on and pass at red light at intercession. Just go to Kenya, to Ethiopia, to Uganda even to Sudan which people consider as poor in democratic standards, are you going to see these behaviours? What is this style of driving implying Mr. president or Vice President, or Mamuur or Malong or Kual Manyang? Is this really a country with government? In the colloquial Arabic we call it ‘fouda’. Can a respectable government rule by ‘fouda’? Was that not the reason we fought?

Those days when we use to sit with you Salva, mamur and Kual, we talked a lot about ‘fouda’. But now see where you proved very helpless or unintelligent.   It is really a stupidity and the SPLA representative or whoever called themselves to be, cannot even see the simplest thing. That is more than enough. Somehow when Idi Amin was ruling Uganda it was said to be similar. But that did not go that far. So the current South Sudan is even below Idi Amin’s Uganda. Is this really a country that can enter into the nation of community, which are respectable and respect the law of moral properties? The answer is definitely NO. Something has to change. You are creating a bad legacy. At least people who came up after Adis Ababa Agreement proved to be real governors. Evidently there was no militarism and looting. This SPLA group proved to be full of looters, as they rightly want to describe themselves. There is no way to follow this step. Dr. Riak and Gen. Kenyi are on the right line.

Logically, there are two points to take into account if one has a wandering mind to reach to what we called conspiracy theory. The point is Gen. Mamur is in charge of security in the country. So when the people destroy the house of Gen. Kenyi, it implicated Mamur. Did he order it? If not, as the minister of security how could this happen in his watch? Based on that there is a suspicion on Mamur. The government wants to see how he reacts to this thing. The same theory can be stretched to include Gen. Clement Wani. How is it possible that things like that happens in the capital under your watch? The President is well covered by the constitution. This is the area of Clément’s jurisdiction. If all these are put together the conclusion is just one: the government is desperate. It is trying to cause conflict among Equatorians.

So Martin Kenyi does not need to take this event seriously. It has raised his profile and exposed the government. What needs to be done is to keep focus on the future and also keep working with people who can do analysis whether political or otherwise. Because the government’s strategy is subtle. It has even recruited expatriates to speak on its behalf. Reading the article of Eric Reev, sounds like propaganda to paint Riak as a bad guy. It says nothing of the monstrous atrocities committed by South Sudanese army. I wonder why an intellectual like Reev, has not commented on the scourge of people in Nimule? Is it because they did not know or as he mentioned it the other time these are the useless majority? Records have already shown that the people in Nimule have the longest grievance with this government. But people who purported to speak out like Eric Reev, have simply ignored it so as to reduce the conflict in South to power struggle between Nuer and Dinaka. It is time to say no. The problem in South Sudan is fundamentally on the GRAND NARRATIVE of nation building. In other words who is in and who is out and how do we move forward from here. Same thing that was decided in the American Republic. It is not about Dr. Riak or the events of 90s. It is not about Salva or Kenyi. It is what South Sudan is and who belongs and who does not belong. That means the idea of federal system is good. People have to define themselves not somebody to define them. Those who are working against the current are wasting their times. Tribal association as we know now is just a waste of time. There is only one clear solution, THE RULE OF LAW.

Since it can be seen through, there is no worry. Go ahead General Kenyi, Dr. Riak Machar, Dr. Alfred Lado. We want you to put South Sudan on the map of countries who respect the rule of law! The system that you advocate should be really transparent and based on the rule of law. If not, you too will lose the same way because South Sudanese are not happy for being taken for a ride. We have enough people with intelligence, valour and philosophy to demand a good system of governance and work for it. It can take any number of days or years to achieve it but finally it will be achieved.

Those who are settling for a temporary solution are self-deluded as usual there are too many deluded people. Men and women of South Sundanese origin will foot the bill. My warning is that South Sudanese have sacrificed for more than 70 years already. They are still able to sacrifice for more years in order to get a country and a nation of their choice which is also respected. Not the banana republic of Salva Kiir where Museveni is the ruler. For all of you, regardless of your tribe but so long as you advocate the rule of law, I salute you. Let us take a look at the house of Kenyi as an evidence of a system struggling to keep the wrong system in place.
 The author can be reached at rigoberto.modi@gmail.com

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