A member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly is pushing for the removal of the Commissioner of Lainya County from his position immediately.
Last month, the national assembly recommended the removal of Emmanuel Khemis from his position as the acting Mayor of Juba City Council and Commissioner of Lainya for assaulting a female vendor at Seventh Days Roundabout.
Following these calls from parliamentarians and women activists, the governor of Central Equatoria state, Emmanuel Adil Anthony, only removed Emmanuel Khemis from the position of acting Mayor while sparing him his assignment as Lainya County commissioner.
However, Reath Muoch Tang, a national MP representing Nasir County, demanded that the resolution of the Parliament, which calls for the removal of the Commissioner, be implemented by Governor Adil.
Tang raised the question to the Speaker on Tuesday during an ordinary sitting at the Freedom Hall in Juba. “We resolved last month to revoke the appointment of the acting Mayor of Juba city and recommend to the Governor of Central Equatoria state to remove this person. As my source revealed, that person is still the Commissioner in Lainya County,” he said.
“And is terrorizing people there and telling people that there was nothing done to him by the Parliament. The honorable speaker, this is the concern of this House. We need to reconsider that the governor should act to remove the Commissioner,” he added.
Reacting to the call, Jemma Nunu Kumba, Speaker of the Parliament, said the call for removing Emmanuel Khemis is no longer the responsibility of the national Parliament but rather the state.
“The governor of Central Equatoria state has already acted on the resolutions and removed the acting Mayor. On the issue of counties, we need to compare the competence of the national Parliament in relation to issues dealing with local government and the state’s constitution itself.”
Kumba, however, urged the parliamentarians to commend Governor Adil for responding to the resolutions by removing the acting Mayor, noting that the state legislative assembly will be the one to handle that call.
“We should appreciate that the governor already took action the same day the resolution reached him, and we need to commend him for that. And he, instead of appointing a male, he appointed a woman,” she said.
The speaker further directed her legal team to investigate the issue and advise where necessary.