A group of members of parliament (MPs) from the ruling party headed by Salva Kiir (SPLM-Juba) have sent a petition to their chairman opposing the National Security Bill 2014.
The Assembly Speaker Mannasseh Magok Rundial claimed last month that the bill was passed into law, but an independent report said that the Assembly failed to reach quorum for the vote, as required by constitutional law. The legislation was supported by SPLM-Juba faction leader Salva Kiir.
Kiir’s bill will require officers of the National Security Service to take an oath of loyalty before him and will give them powers to secretly monitor and detain people without judicial oversight.
The 47 signatories to the petition against the bill belong mostly to the caucus of Equatorian MPs still loyal to SPLM-Juba but leaders of the initiative say they are not representing Equatorian interest alone.
Thomas Kundu, representing Lanya County said, “We are not spearheading just for us as Equatorians, we are spearheading for the whole of South Sudan – this bill was rejected in Khartoum by South Sudanese – so why is it now that it is palatable to us?” said Henry Odwar.
He was referring to security laws in Khartoum that give the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) there broad powers to detain citizens. South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) was previously only the local branch of Sudan’s NISS.
Henry Odwar, a member of parliament representing Ikwotos constituency in Eastern Equatoria said, “We need the bill to be taken back to the parliament, to the committee of security so that members have to be given enough time to deliberate. Civil society should come, public healing must be made… we don’t want the security organ to abuse the law.”
The MPs were speaking on Radio Miraya, the UN-run radio service in South Sudan.
Related:
Dossier: Reporting on the National Security Service Bill, 2014