The Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) on Wednesday said the fourth extension of the transitional period is a regrettable move by the parties that signed the 2018 peace agreement and that it is taking legal action to block any future extensions.
CEPO Executive Director Edmund Yakani said his entity has started a legal process aimed at securing a court ruling prohibiting any future attempt to extend the transitional period after the expiration of last week’s two-year extra time.
“The current political leaders of the parties’ signatory to the R-ARCSS demonstrated that they are not serious and they failed to genuinely engage in politically transitioning the country from violence to peace,” he said. “The underlying factors for their failure are mainly a high deficit in trust and confidence at the presidency level and administration of funds by actors that are not interested in the timely and effective implementation of the R-ARCSS (profiteers of the peace accord). This culture of political elites profiting in the name of peace agreement implementation is absolutely bad and it constitutes crimes (financial embezzlement in the name of the peace agreement implementation) against the peace agreement.”
Yakani added: “Following the practice of peace corruption and political high deficit in trust and confidence which led to dragging of feet for genuine and timely implementation of the peace agreement together with the practice of extending the political transitional period for the fourth time, CEPO will be undertaking legal action to get a court of law to prevent or prohibit any further extension of the political transitional period extension past 2027.”
He said CEPO will also ask the court to compel the transitional government to unify the forces to form a national army, make a constitution, conduct a population census, and kick-start the transitional justice process to create a conducive environment for the conduct of General Elections in December 2026.
“The same court ruling will seek to sanction the funding of the pending tasks of R-ARCSS to be direct cash transfer from the national ministry of finance and the bank accounts of the peace agreement implementation mechanisms for purposes of transparency and accountability,” Yakani stressed. “Finally, CEPO is urging the citizens to join this campaign under the umbrella of our recently launched National Trust for Peace. This fourth extension of the political transitional period is a real shame to the country and the leadership of the government. It is a diplomatic shame due to the extension in the face of the Tumiani Initiative.”