Uhuru leads quest for peace deal in South Sudan

President Uhuru Kenyatta today oversaw the beginning of a new initiative to stabilise South Sudan by merging two parallel peace processes. Former senior political detainees who were released through President Kenyatta’s intervention during the early days of the conflict in South Sudan will also play a bigger role in reconciling the warring factions.

Speaking at State House, Nairobi, after a lengthy meeting attended by representatives of the IGAD peace process, the Arusha peace talks and 10 former SPLM officials, President Kenyatta announced that the South Sudan peace process will now have a new impetus to bring the war to an end.

The IGAD peace process has been going on for two years but has been marked by lack of adherence to agreements by the the two warring sides led by President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar. The Arusha peace talks to re-unify SPLM was an initiative by Tanzania and South Africa with an aim to reunite the SPLM.

Despite being complimentary to each other, the two processes have not resulted in an end to the conflict.

President Kenyatta announced that the two processes have been merged and the former detainees will go back home to start reconciling President Kiir and Mr Machar. “Five of the former detainees who are here today will head back home to lay the groundwork for an all-inclusive process to bring together the two sides in the conflict,” he said.