South Sudanese President Salva Kiir expressed his dissatisfaction with his top military generals, saying they are responsible for widespread corruption in the army.
Kiir said this during a ceremony organized on Thursday in the Bilpham army headquarters in Juba where the military leadership awarded medals to six veteran leaders for their outstanding and long military services during South Sudan’s war for independence.
The president took the opportunity to raise concerns over massive corruption in the military. Kiir lamented about the situation of his soldiers and the conduct of top military generals.
“I am not happy with all the military commanders and I have to say it. When I inspected the parades of the army, I observed that the health conditions of the soldiers are very bad. You [commanders] don’t pay their salaries, you are not feeding them,” he said.
He added,” We always bring food to the soldiers but after it is put into storages, it finds its way into the market. It is you who take food to the market, not soldiers.”
The president accused military commanders of starving his soldiers. “During the implementation process, I will come back to you, the army commanders. Now the soldiers are scattered and left because they are hungry. You receive their salaries and take their money to your homes, so we will talk about it and I will start with Jok, his deputies and division commanders,” he said.
“If you do good things, you will stay… Many South Sudanese are coming, I will lay you off and I will hire new people,” he continued.
Kiir, who is also the commander-in-chief of the army, said the current army leadership did not give him the total number of active military personnel in the country.
“They just say there are divisions and you find that the actual number of soldiers in one division is 100. But they demand salaries for 15,000 soldiers in one division, but this money actually goes to individuals,” he said.
The South Sudanese leader said he will not tolerate any corruption cases as such instances are an impediment to achieving efficiency in the military.