Fighting the Shadow of the Beast, Not the Beast Itself: In Defence of the Errand Boyz in Salva Kiir’s South Sudan
The Crown Prince vs Madam Wun-Weng
By PaanLuel Wël, Sunday, 9 November 2025
This morning, I came across a viral video clip from Nyan Muonyjangda, Akuach Wuol, castigating Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel Kuol Akol as a heartless “thief” of both “Wëu” and Wël” and as “Abeel e Guop Chuaar” from “Mading Aweil cenic Abeel”. While I don’t necessarily disagree with her entirely, I kept wondering how we, the people of South Sudan and the Muonyjang in particular have reached a point where our collective anger and frustration are being directed at the errand boys, the presidential appointees, rather than at the president himself, under whose authority these looters have flourished and multiplied.
Across South Sudan, President Kiir is widely perceived as a failed leader who has betrayed the ideals of the liberation struggle. It is this same failed leader, both as President of the Republic and Chairperson of the ruling SPLM, who elevated Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel to prominence: first as the primary beneficiary of the “Oil-for-Roads” scheme through his construction empire, and later as SPLM Deputy Chairperson and Vice President of the Republic.
Now that the transitory political marriage between President Kiir and Dr. Bol Mel has soured, amid accusations that Bol Mel has overstepped his bounds and “usurped” presidential powers by bringing his monopolistic business mentality into politics, the nation has rushed to blame poor Wende Mel Kuol. Yet the real culpability lies with the President himself, who not only failed the nation but also thrust Bol Mel onto the national stage despite his lack of political constituency or military base.
If President Kiir is a failed leader, then perhaps we, the citizens, have also failed, by turning our wrath on Bol Mel, a mere errand boy, instead of the man who made him. And if Bol Mel is indeed applying his business acumen to politics, monopolizing presidential powers as his company once monopolized road contracts, is that not a mirror image of what President Kiir himself has done? Has President Kiir not long wielded his military intelligence background to monopolize political power in South Sudan? At worst, one might say Bol Mel is simply a student of President Kiir’s political school.
The deeper tragedy, however, lies in how the South Sudanese citizenry has been transformed from a bossy “gun class” to a servile “flattering class,” whose only purpose is to praise the president in hopes of securing a political appointment, a survival strategy in an economy wrecked by none other than the same authority they worship.
Figures like Bol Mel are branded as thieves, yet they are only errand boys serving the will of the appointing authority. One of the most perplexing realities of our time is how President Kiir has managed to outmaneuver everyone and emerge as the sole national authority, distributing government positions like personal candy, and reducing us to a flattering class whose sole survival mechanism is to roast his appointees when they grow too powerful for him to control.
The flattering class has not only failed the president but the nation as well. If, tomorrow, Bol Mel ended up confined in his house like Wani Igga, under house arrest like Akol Khor, in exile like Malong Awan, in the Blue House like Kerubino Wuol, or in detention like Dr. Riek Machar, will anything change for the better in South Sudan?
As one of my comrades aptly put it, “Bol Mel has been enabled and doing all he can on behalf of his enabler. That enabler is that infallible man called Kiir, the untouchable. We are best positioned to fight the shadow of the beast and not the beast itself.” Are we destined to keep fighting the shadow of the beast because we are afraid to confront the beast itself?
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