By Juma Mabor Marial
Response to Miguna Miguna's article titled 'South Sudan Crisis Due To Corruption and Tribalism' published on January 24, 2014 in the Kenya local daily
January 28, 2014 (SSNA) -- I have for some time till now, refrained from media engagement due to some personal verdicts but there are times when situations may dictate one to infringe on his/her own resolutions and use the violation to overcome some other challenges. Now is that time, when after a week of a very defaming, embarrassing, belittling and arrogant article with the above title was written by a Kenyan citizen and subsequently published by his media came into public domain both in Kenya and South Sudan and no citizen from my country took the courage to refute such falsehood. I felt obliged to response to these malicious and useless allegations by the so-called Miguna Miguna.
For those who might have come across such article, there is no useless thing that Miguna has not said about South Sudan starting with the government, people and even individuals. He made all the flagrant mockery of our leaders and our people using all the vocabulary that he has and one begins to wonder whether he was talking about South Sudan or a different country.
From the very onset for those who have read his article, you must have realized that there is a very wider disconnect between the title and the content of Miguna Miguna article. For instance, the title as it appears above was about 'corruption and tribalism as the root cause of crisis in South Sudan' BUT Miguna Miguna due to his epileptic condition turned to talk about the '9th July, 2011 Independence day organization'.
This truly shows the malice intentions Miguna Miguna had against South Sudan as a nation and against the citizens of South Sudan as people. Not only that, again due to his paranoia, Miguna Miguna said and I Quote 'On December 3rd, 2013, South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, sensationally claimed that he had quashed a coup attempt by his former Vice-President Dr. Riek Machar, when many knew that Kiir was only trying to consolidate his iron hold on power ahead of what many South Sudanese expected to be a remarkable ruling party leadership convention a few days away.' Which calendar date is not true because in my recollection of events as they unfolded and as a citizen of South Sudan and someone who was in Juba when the crisis happened, 'President Kiir only talked about the foiled coup attempt in the afternoon of December 16, 2013 and not 3rd as alleged by Mr. Miguna? This shows Miguna is operational on hearsays or even more on contractual basis to extent the falsehoods fabricated by the enemies of peace and stability in South Sudan. These are some of the few explicit mismatches that I can identified for you in his article but if you read through his whole article, you will find out that the man did not know what he was talking about.
For those who may not know Miguna Miguna, He is a man who is vast known for his controversies and conman behaviors starting from many years in Canada where he claimed to have been practicing law to the recent intricacies in the Kenyan politic between him and his employer Raila Amollo Odinga where he fabricated numerous falsehoods about Mr. Odinga in his book 'Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya'. ABook that eventually tends to be different from its title as he largely tends to talk about Raila Odinga instead of comprehensive coverage of the injustices in Kenya.
Just to be precise, when Miguna Talked about the poor organization of the 9th July, 2011 independence day celebration he had this to say and I quote 'Although the inauguration had been planned for a long period of time, they hadn't even constructed a mini-stadium for the event in the five years they had been in power under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Not had they thought of hiring a large tent for the occasion if they couldn't construct a stadium. The event was embarrassingly held at the Dr. John Garang de Mabior Mausoleum.'
This was out of the many quotes but as you also read a bit ahead to his article, here comes another contradictory quote from crazy Miguna Miguna and I Quote 'There was a huge white tent behind the Mausoleum, which was reserved for VIP lunch after the event. Surprisingly, the place was being run by the Ethiopian wife of a South Sudanese cabinet minister. All the waiters, cooks and servers inside that tent were Ethiopian. When we inquired why, we were shocked to learn, from a South Sudanese, that South Sudanese don't like working.'
Now, studying very critically the two quotes and I hope Miguna Miguna himself got to read this response, where he and many of us will find out that, there were indeed tents and many other arrangements were in place and not as portrayed by Devil advocate Miguna Miguna. However, the bottom line here and all of us need to know is that, when South Sudanese were celebrating independence on 9th July, 2011, it was not to showcase what we had in term of material wealth but it was purposely to let the world know that, at last, we have our identity, our sovereignty, our own country and indeed our own image and that is exactly what was being celebrated on that day and not sitting in modern stadiums , eating barbecues, drinking Royal wines, wearing Italian suites and what have you etc…
On individual level, here is what I quoted from Miguna Miguna 'First, there were no acknowledgements, even from President Salvar Kiir, of regional leaders like Moi who had played pivotal roles in their independence. No mentions and no opportunity to address the gathering.'
Now, in this case, you could sense that Miguna Miguna emotions were overclouding his judgments because if this is not the case, then how many times have the people of South Sudan through their leadership led by President Kiir been thanking the people of Kenya and Moi in particular for ushering in the peace in South Sudan. Do Kenyans and Miguna Miguna in particular want South Sudanese to licks their feet in order for them to acknowledge that we have paid and have indeed given enough appreciation for whatever debts we owed to them and other foreigners who claim credit for our independence? I think we have paid enough for our independence and it is time Kenyans, foreigners and Miguna Miguna in particular leave us alone.
Finally, unlike Miguna Miguna who doesn't appreciate any little effort that comes from someone, I feel that, the last beats of his opinion are needed if we want everlasting peace to prevail in South Sudan. As South Sudanese, we need to protect the image of our country because the foreigners even those who pretend to be our friends when here are not what they tend to be when they are back to their countries and I learnt a lot during these crisis when I went to Kenya and I could watch on the Kenyan media particularly on the television some Kenyans who were successfully evacuated shamelessly claiming that their colleagues were looted, rapped and some killed and here one is left to wonder how a dead person could still give testimonies of such nature . Miguna Miguna is a true reflection of what many Kenyans and foreigners say about South Sudan and South Sudanese once they are in their countries. I am not calling for xenophobia but South Sudanese need to watch out. What pains me most is the hardship I had to undergo explaining to Kenyans that Foreigners were the savers people in South Sudan even at the backdrop of the skirmishes that unfolded in South Sudan.
Kindly, circulate this response to all the media houses including that of Kenya.
Juma Mabor Marial is a Lawyer based in Juba, South Sudan.
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