Opinion by Kenyi Yasi
Advocate and human rights lawyer Kenyi Yasin Abdallah Kenyi has described South Sudan as “a God-blessed nation, abundantly endowed with gold, oil, fertile land, and untapped resources” that should be flowing with prosperity, opportunity, and hope, but instead “flows only with tears and blood.”
Kenyi said that under what he called the “kleptocratic rule of President Salva Kiir”, the country has sunk into poverty, chronic underdevelopment, and hopelessness. He asserted that Kiir’s government does not serve the people of South Sudan but instead serves foreign mercenaries such as the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF), leaving citizens trapped in suffering. He alleged that Kiir’s administration is “not a government, but a cartel of desperate thieves—the worst of the worst—whose only legacy is corruption, tribalism, oppression, and misery.” According to Kenyi, the regime has “blackmailed its own people while auctioning South Sudanese land to foreign interests—from Kajo-Keji on the Ugandan border, to Magwi County, to Yei River County—simply to cling to power and prestige.” Recalling events from 2014, Kenyi claimed that the regime banned public and media discussion of the Abyei issue out of fear of offending Khartoum and to avoid political risk to Kiir’s position, fearing that former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir might back Dr Riek Machar. Kenyi further alleged that “a quarter of our oil revenue is channelled to the family of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda in exchange for a so-called ‘security guarantee’ to keep Kiir’s grip on power intact.” He said this is “not governance, but national betrayal.” In his remarks, Kenyi stated that South Sudan is “in the grip of a criminal cartel that neither understands nor cares about the national interest,” accusing the leadership of selling away the country’s dignity, resources, and future. He concluded by urging South Sudanese to “rise and reject this tyranny”, calling for a nation “where our wealth serves our citizens, not foreign mercenaries; where our land is protected, not sold; and where our government serves the people, not its own pockets.”“Enough is enough,” he said. “South Sudan belongs to South Sudanese.
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