Kenya’s President William Ruto held talks with South Sudan Opposition parties’ representatives to the Tumaini (hope) Initiative ahead of his scheduled travel to Juba.
“As a follow up to my engagement with the Government delegation from South Sudan last week, I met Opposition parties’ representatives to the Tumaini Initiative,” President Ruto said in a post on X on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the opposition parties “confirmed their readiness to sign the Tumaini Consensus, the product of sustained, inclusive negotiations.”
President Ruto also confirmed that he will be meeting his counterpart, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, in an engagement that “leads us towards the final signature and implementation of the Tumaini Initiative.”
Meanwhile, Gen. Stephen Buoy Rolnyang, a leading member of the South Sudan opposition, confirmed today’s meeting with President Ruto in Nairobi, where they discussed the Tumaini peace process.
“He [President Ruto] informed us about his going to Juba to meet President Salva Kiir for the final signature of the agreement. He asked us if we could give him any information, and we told him we were ready for signature,” Gen. Buoy told Radio Tamazuj.
President Ruto is expected to fly to South Sudan on Wednesday for a one-day official working visit.
In December 2023, President Kiir requested President Ruto to take over the mediation lead from the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, Italy, saying that the talks with the holdout opposition group had taken long without reaching a solution.
The Kenya-led peace talks started in Nairobi on May 9 but halted in July after representatives of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar walked out.
The negotiations in Nairobi were meant to bring in opposition groups that had stayed away from the 2018 peace deal. The opposition groups who are part of the Tumaini Initiative include the Real-Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by Pagan Amum, the South Sudan United Front led by Paul Malong Awan, the former chief of staff of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the South Sudan People’s Movement/Army (SSPM/A) led by Gen. Stephen Buoy Rolnyang.
Both sides have already reached an agreement on a number of protocols.
Last week, a Government of South Sudan delegation representing a mechanism called the High-Level Standing Committee for South Sudan, led by Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro, met with Kenya’s President William Ruto in Nairobi where it conveyed a message from President Kiir.
A credible source who preferred anonymity disclosed to Radio Tamazuj at the time that the government delegation conveyed a four-page document from President Kiir to President Ruto. The letter also had a 54-page attachment in which the South Sudan government explained its concerns about some mechanisms in the Tumaini Initiative protocols.
“The 54-page document contains many concerns about the mechanisms of the Tumaini Initiative, such as the National Leadership Council (NLC), the National Implementation Oversight Commission (NIOC), and other bodies,” the source intimated. “The government delegation said anything already stipulated in the Revitalized Agreement should not be mentioned again in the Tumaini protocols.”
According to the government delegation, another source said, the Tumaini Initiative should be an annex to the 2018 Peace Agreement and not replace its mechanisms. He added that the government wanted the current peace talks to complement and not obliterate the 2018 peace deal.