By William Madouk
Two leaders, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin and Dharuai Mabor Teny, have urged the parties to the revitalized peace agreement to convene and decide on the way forward with the Tumaini initiative.
In a co-authored letter addressed to the party leaders, the Chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, and the leader of the Party of National Unity (PNU), Dharuai Mabor Teny, stated that the public became aware of the transfer of talks between the government and the holdout group from Rome to Nairobi through the former minister of presidential affairs on December 26, 2023.
“Eventually, the talks began in earnest on May 3, 2024, and were launched with a big fanfare by the Kenyan president six days later,” the letter read.
However, the two leaders added that the move to initiate the Tumaini talks has caused a sense of bewilderment among the parties to the 2018 peace deal, as it remains unclear whether the talks were intended to bring the holdout groups on board or to replace the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
“It is unclear what the specific aim of the mediation was; was it to bring on board the non-signatories to the R-ARCSS? If so, how? How were the outcomes of the mediation to be related to the R-ARCSS? OR WAS Tumaini to replace R-ARCSS entirely?”
To them, it is this lack of knowledge that has shrouded until the leaked document and initiated protocols became public.
According to Lam and Mabor, if Tumaini were to consider including the holdout groups in the 2018 peace deal, they should start by addressing the reasons why the opposition refused to participate as the first agenda.
“The second item would have been for parties to delve into the reasons behind the failure of the parties to R-ARCSS to implement it on time,” they continued.
“If an agreement was reached on these agenda items, the negotiators would then move to discuss the inclusion of the opposition groups in the governance arrangement prior to conducting of elections.”
According to two principals, this would then be signed by parties to Tumaini as a text that will form the basis of amending the R-ARCSS, however, a leaked document cited the opposite.
“Paragraph 12.2 of ‘Tumaini Consensus and Implementation Framework for a Permanent Constitution and Sustainable Peace for South Sudan’ categorically states that, “This framework supersedes all previous agreement with regards to implementation plans, structure and processes, in as far as they do not align with the roadmap set out in this framework.”
As a results, according to duo, this is a clear indication that Tumaini constitute a stand-alone agreement and more importantly its provisions shall prevail over ‘all previous agreements including R-ARCSS.
This according to the heads of political parties.