The residents of Lainya County in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State have urged their newly sworn representatives in the county council to prioritize peace, service delivery, and development initiatives in the area.
On Thursday, over 30 councilors drawn from all the payams of Lainya County were sworn into office at the Lainya County headquarters building. The councilors who took oath are from the SPLM-IG, SPLA-IO, and SSOA.
Edward Ladu, a resident of Lainya town, welcomed the new councilors and urged them to advocate for the provision of good roads, clean water, and rehabilitation and re-opening of more schools and learning centers.
“We are very happy because we now have councilors and a council in Lainya County,” he said. “What we want is good roads in Lainya, secondly drilling and rehabilitation of more boreholes, schools and health centers to help the growing population in Lainya County.”
Joice Apai, a resident of lokurbang Boma, appealed to the legislative and executive councils to work together and focus on service delivery to the local population at the boma and payam levels.
“We need clean underground water. The other thing is that we need more schools for our children and health centers to address health challenges in the bomas and payams,” she said. “We do not want people to die because we already have community representatives who can advocate for solutions affecting people at the grassroots.”
Meanwhile, Ija Victor called on the councilors to maintain peace and rule of law and initiate development and establish good governance in Lainya County so that refugees can return.
“For us civilians, we expect the councilors to promote development so that people who fled to the refugee camps due to the conflict can return home and we also expect the councilors to ensure the promotion of rule of law and build a foundation for good governance in Lainya County,” he said.
For his part, Thomas Ladu Moses, the new speaker of the Lainya County Council, said his administration will prioritize a participatory approach toward development and service delivery in the area.
“Our people have limited access to clean drinking water, health, roads, and education services and we cannot address all these issues at once. We shall go on the ground to find the most critical challenges and address them one after the other,” he pledged. “My message to the people of Lainya County is that people should get united, work as a team, reconcile and forgive and be one community and one people and forget their past differences.”