Tension will be high when the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly resumed its sitting today with a group of opposition MPs plotting to ‘impeach’ house Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba.
While the impeachment call is strongly coming from across the floor, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), insists that only the ruling party, which enjoys the majority in the House, has the power to remove the speaker.
“If there is an issue, it will be referred to your party,” Agany, who is also the head of the information committee in the parliament, told City Review.
The impeachment push is being spearheaded by a group of MPs calling themselves the “Young Parliamentary Caucus”.
The group also wants the minister of finance to be sacked.
The MPs said they will push the agenda during today’s sitting. They said that if their agenda doesn’t go through then they will disrupt business by walking off the House.
The disgruntled MPs who have also threatened to forcefully evict the speaker’s aides are accusing Nunu of making an unwarranted trip outside the country while ordinary South Sudanese continue to suffer back at home.
But Agany told the legislature that the plan is ‘hot-air’, adding that Nunu enjoys the security of tenure and can only be removed from the seat by her party.
He added that lawmakers, especially those in opposition political parties, have no right to impeach the speaker.
“I don’t think they have the right to do that because the speaker cannot be impeached because she has gone for a visit. I don’t know which law they would use to impeach her. It treats them (call for impeachment) as rubbish. I don’t really believe that, and our laws are very clear,” said Agany.
According to the peace agreement, the speaker can only be removed by the party that appointed him. However, the conduct of business regulation of the National Assembly gives MPs the power to impeach.
Agany said the impeachment of a speaker of the assembly can only be done through a motion that would be raised in the house for debate.
Agany dared those pushing for the impeachment motion to do so if they feel they have substantial materials to support their claims.
“They have to raise it as a motion, and then it will be debated in the House. I don’t really believe that they have the substantial material that they can raise, but I’m sure if they raise it in the house, it can be debated,” he added.
“Our motion of no confident votes has reached the quorum,” Cueibet County (Lakes State) MP, Juol Nhomngek Daniel (SPLM-IO), said in an address to his colleague last month, City Review has learned.
By then, the opposition, which is plotting a ‘coup’ against the speaker, said that they were still looking for more signatures so that they could make the necessary changes in the top leadership.
“We have the necessary evidence that can support our motion. Your votes can save South Sudan by getting good leadership that can cooperate with the members and executive to protect the interests of the public,” Nhomngek said.
The Cueibet County representatives noted that to help this country through the Parliament, there is a need for the MPs to openly come up and use their privileges to change the current top leadership in order for the Assembly to work to effectively serve the people.
He alleged that the current leadership is only focusing on foreign trips while citizens across South Sudan are living in awful conditions.
Nhonmgek insists Parliament has the power to force the executive to provide basic services to the people, failing which they will have to wield the axe.
But while pressure is mounting ahead of today’s sitting, Nunu, who recently returned to the country, from India, stayed off the planned impeachment talks.
