Kiir sacks Rumbek Center Commissioner

President Salva Kiir has relieved and replaced Kaman Matur Ajak, a representative of South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) as a Commissioner of Rumbek Center County.

No reason was cited, as usual, for Mr Matur sacking in a Presidential Decree readout on the state-owned SSBC. In a separate decree, Kiir replaced Matur with Dut Manak Akout Manyiel on Thursday evening.

Mr Matur’s successor also hails from the party, SSOA, an umbrella of eight political parties that signed the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.

Speaking to The City Review on Friday morning, the Chairperson of SSOA, Josephine Lagu who doubles as the national Minister of Agriculture and Food Security said it was a normal change, and should not spark an internal feud within the party.

Ms Josephine said a party receives the right to make changes when deemed necessary in the process of implementation of the peace agreement, commending the level of collaborative works among peace parties.  

“What I would urge is people should not focus too much on this normal change,” Josephine said while calling on parties to the agreement to work together to implement the peace agreement.

“A lot of us are saying at least for the time of interim period let us put partisan politics aside. Let us focus on the implementation of the peace agreement, and the time for election will come and that is when we go partisan,” she added.

Mr Matur’s relief came two days after President Kiir fired three commissioners of Rumbek East and North Counties, Mapour Malek Arop and Kumbai Dalbeny respective and Johnson Malual Achiek of Yirol East County.

The three commissioners were from President Kiir’s ruling party – Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Government (SPLM-IG).