Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow of South Sudan leader Dr John Garang. She
was once touted among personalities who could form the interim
administration in Juba to heal the country and defuse the bitter rivalry
between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar. FILE PHOTO |
NATION
Rebecca Nyadeng, the 61-year-old widow of John Garang de Mabior, is seen as a sober voice in the South Sudan conflict.
Indeed,
her name was once touted among personalities who could form the interim
administration in Juba to heal the country and defuse the bitter
rivalry between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar.
Would she take up such a role?
“When
the time comes, I want to be part of the decision, but currently I am
comfortable being an advisor to the negotiating parties. I have a son
who is 41 and it is time for his generation to lead,” said Ms Nyandeng,
referring to Mabior Garang de Mabior, one of Dr Machar’s allies.
At
the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad)
revitalisation talks that closed on February 16 without any deal, Ms
Nyandeng was invited by the mediators to play a “motherly role,” as she
is respected by all the groups.
Ms Nyandeng is allied
to the Former Detainees (FDs), which is the third largest group led by
former Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) secretary-general
Pagan Amum. She, however, maintains that she is the “mother of all” and
cannot afford to take sides.
Deep divisions
But opinion is
divided whether she represents a unifying figure like her late husband
in a country deeply divided on ethnic lines since the civil war began in
December 2013.
Peter Aduak Nyaba, a former minister for education, told The EastAfrican
that Ms Nyandeng cannot act as a unifying factor because she has been
in government and shares in the ills that have occurred since
independence in 2011.
“A mother of the nation is a
title given to somebody who should be available for consultations and
advice whenever the country faces challenges. Since she was once in
government, it is very difficult for her to advise former colleagues,”
said Dr Nyaba.
A member of the civil society
representing the youth, John Pen, who was at the Addis Ababa talks,
believes that “Mama Rebecca” has the capacity to unite the country, but
key Cabinet ministers led by Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth,
do not trust her because they believe she is among pro-FD, who are
commonly known as the “Garang Boys.”
Ms Nyandeng — a
former minister for roads and transportation and a presidential advisor
on gender and human rights — was among former ministers who called a
press conference in Juba on December 6, 2013, demanding democracy and
change of structures within SPLM.
Others included Dr
Machar, who went on to lead the rebellion, Mr Amum, the current Foreign
Minister Deng Alor, Costi Manibe and Dr Cirino Hiteng.
While
Dr Machar went to the bush and others were detained, Ms Nyandeng was
exiled to Nairobi. Analysts say President Kiir was afraid that detaining
her could weaken his position.
Ms Nyandeng was sacked
as the presidential adviser in August 2014, when she was accused of
“working for the downfall of the government.”
She says
her political relations with President Kiir were over “because we have
differed over his style of running the country and the way he has
fragmented SPLM into so many groupings.”
Today, she
lives in Nairobi’s upmarket Lavington suburb and no longer travels to
South Sudan because she believes that she will not be allowed to speak
freely.
“I can go to South Sudan. The president will
not do anything to me, but I will not be comfortable just staying there
and not being allowed to speak about the wrong things going on,” she
said.
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