Kiir won’t be forced to go ‘like what Machar has been’ longing for, will seek another term if SPLM okays

JUBA – President Salva Kiir Mayardit has said that he won’t be forced to retire and vowed to run for elections if the ruling SPLM faction led by him and the people of South Sudan provide another mandate to be the flag bearer for the party during South Sudan’s next elections.

The South Sudanese head of state who was speaking during an interview with Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinange in an interview aired on Wednesday morning said he is always ready to retire, but will not be forced to do so like the way he said his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny has been longing for it.

“It is up to the people [and] what do you think if I am told by the party and the people? Of course I will have to run,” the South Sudanese president who maintained that Machar staged a coup against him said.

“I will retire but not a forceful retirement like what Riek [Machar] has been [longing for],” he added.

Kiir gave the interview days before South Sudan turns ten years old since gaining its independence from neighboring Sudan in 2011 following at least two decades of war led by the SPLM/SPLA against the Islamist governments of Sudan.