Kakwa Community Summit Kicks Off

This article was last updated on May 26, 2022

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The members from Yei, Morobo and Lainya counties, including Yei Members of Parliament at the State and National Assemblies, Church leaders, Government officials, Chiefs and media gathered at Evangelical Presbyterian Church conference hall for a three-day conference supported by the Government of Central Equatoria State and being facilitated by Kakwa intellectuals.

Thomas Wani Lo’ba’ binya the chairman Kakwa Community in South Sudan told the press that the conference is as a result of the April 2013 arrest of the Kakwa chiefs, Chairperson and a former politician in Yei Town Payam who were alleged to be backing the M23 rebel fighting the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He said the incident created disunity among the Kakwa community as some of the their members were said to be behind the arrest of the community leaders by the security.

Thomas said the main objective of the conference is to bring all the community members together to seek reconciliation and open up a new chapter in their socio-economic development and live in peaceful co-existence with the rest of the communities in Yei Municipality and Yei River County.

He added the conference is to allow the community to understand each other, respect one another, and stop lying, corruption and support the national government in developmental activities.

The meeting is expected to discuss factors that disunite or frustrate the communities; taboos that cause misfortunes for the community progress in education and history of the Kakwa cultural values.

Land administration in the Kakwa area is also one of the sensitive agenda to be discussed by the members.

At the end of the three days discussion, the conference is expected to come up with resolutions on how the land in the Kakwa areas is to be administered.

The community will also be introduced to the Governance, genesis of politics and the Kakwa pioneers.

Thomas added the conference will also discuss possible ways and strategies on how to restore the lost cultural values and history adding the community has future plans to open learning centers and a collage where the language and literature can be taught to the current and future generations.

Honorable Paul Yoane Bonju, the chairperson organizing committee for the conference said this phase one conference is to cement the unity of the Kakwa people which will give a way to the phase two of the general conference which will involve all the communities living in Yei River County scheduled for the end of this month.

“Before you receive any visitors in your household, you need to clean your house,” he said.

Paul said the discussion will also focus on creating peaceful co-existence among the various communities living in Yei so as to avoid creating hotspots in Yei River County just like what is happening in other areas in the country.

He said the conference is also to put an end to the issues of ethnicity in the county and the country at large.

He added this conference is not a political conference but rather a community coming together to exercise their cultural rights mandated to them by article 33 of the Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan.

Honorable Hellen Boro Mursali, the Advisor to the Central Equatoria State on conflict mitigation, who represented the Governor of Central Equatoria State, urged the Kakwa community to make the Kakwa constitution to be understood by everyone to avoid confusion and suspicions of the Kakwa activities in the country.

She added if possible it should be passed by the State or National Assembly or through the community conference.

Hon. Helen said the arrest of the chiefs and the community leaders have raised an alarming and the Kakwa need to seek reconciliation, adding reconciliation cannot be achieved in these three days community dialogue conference, but rather it is a process.

She urged the community in the house to discuss satisfactory and come up with productive resolutions that foster peace and development in the county and the nation.

The three days conference is being run in a single Kakwa language to enable the communities have broad understanding of the conference objectives and discuss freely as it is a home dancing lyrics.

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