Kiir’s appointment of states government officials is “constitutional” – Activist

JUBA – A South Sudanese activist on Wednesday disputed what a group of lawyers described as a violation of the country’s constitution when President Salva Kiir appointed constitutional post-holders for five states.

President Salva Kiir appointed constitutional post-holders for Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Warrap, Unity and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states this week, a move which sparked criticism from a group of lawyers to petition the Ministry of Justice.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an interview yesterday, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said the president has the right to appoint states post-holders per the agreement.

“As we are speaking now the agreement has not been incorporated into the constitution and that means the national constitution and state constitution  are no longer functional until the agreement is incorporated into the national transitional constitution,” Yakani told Sudans Post.

“The fear is that when you allow the governors to use state constitutions and you allow the President to use the constitution without being incorporated into the agreement, maybe some powers will be misuse,” he added.

The outspoken activist said that the governors will have powers to appoint state post-holders when the agreement is incorporated into the constitution.

“When the state constitution is subjected to compliance with the National Revitalized Transitional Constitution then the governors will have powers to appoint state ministers and commissioners but per now as long as the national parliament has not incorporated the agreement into the constitution, the agreement is supreme to the constitution,” he said.

He added that the failure by the parliament to incorporate the agreement into the national constitution made the agreement superseded the constitution.