Kiir to blame for 5 vice-president positions as he wanted to keep Taban, Igga – critic

JUBA – A prominent South Sudanese activist has said that President Salva Kiir Mayardit is the first person to blame because he had wanted to maintain then First Vice President Taban Deng Gai and Vice President James Wani Igga in the president resulting in the establishment of five vice president positions to accommodate others including SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny.

Speaking to the nation during a prayer at Dr. John Garang De Mabior Mausoleum in Juba on Thursday afternoon, Kiir claimed that the establishment of five vice president positions was meant to divide his power and divide the world’s youngest country into smaller countries and said he will not accept that.

“These many vice presidents, for what?” he asked. “It is for the division of the powers of the president so that anyone has his own power and that means dividing the country into small countries very small and we will not accept that.”

The South Sudanese head of state went on to accuse unidentified person of pulling him behind and preventing him from fixing the country.

“I always say that when you go forward and somebody is pulling you from behind, you cannot reach even five meters you cannot cross,” he said.

“We are implementing the agreement and there people who are not allowing us to go smoothly. They intend to drain us from the road that we have taken,” he added.

But exiled activist Wani Michael said the idea to have a 6-person presidency started with President Kiir who wanted to keep Taban Deng Gai and James Wani Igga in the presidency and as such three more positions had to be created to accommodate the opposition.

“It was in 2018, when President Kiir himself during the Tripartite Entebbe meeting told former Sudanese President Bashir & President Museveni that where’ll his two deputies go. He want to keep former FVP Taban Deng Gai and VP Wani Igga around him and that’s where other parties demanded for their slots at the Presidency,” Michael wrote.

“It was President Kiir who started the whole thing of having more than one VP at the Presidency when he demanded the two slots. Today I am puzzled to hear President Kiir complaining about the 5 VPs when he was the same person who started and created this whole mess,” he added.