By Bida Elly David
A Civil Society activist is blaming the national parliamentarians on the slow move towards enacting legislations that might pave ways for the matriculation of the unified forces to remedy some constraints that faced the country.
The Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO) Edmund Yakani made the statement following several complaints raised from different sides regarding the factors that delayed the graduation of the unified forces.
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, Mr. Yakani said five legislations were still pending in the parliament, after being submitted by the Ministry of Justice for enactment.
“We are heading towards the end of the life span of the Revitalised Agreement and for us to conclude this agreement, it requires political processes. Right now, we have five legislations in the parliament and out of the five, three are security legislations or security acts, we have South Sudan People’s Defence Act, South Sudan Police Act, South Sudan National Security Act,” he said.
“These Acts are still pending in the parliament after being submitted by the Ministry of Justice. But also, we have other two important bills on transitional justice and bill on constitutional making process which is not also enacted,” he continued.
The activist stated that the country would only be freed from the impeding challenges if the legislations are enacted by the parliamentarians.
He said right now the army is under a unified command structure, and the unified command structure has brought together the institutions of defence and security under one command.
He stressed that, these laws are not enacted for the unified command structure to unify the forces per each institution, which requires the laws of those particular institutions.
Yakani however urged the Parliament to speed up enactment of the laws, so that the country proceeds for election.
He also called on the Parliament and political parties to avoid blaming donors towards implementing the peace agreement before enacting laws, since the primary responsibility on the establishment of the transitional government is their mandate.
“The Parliament should stop blaming IGAD, RJMEC, and Troika for not having funded the peace process before they could open ways by enacting the laws,” Yakani said.