South Sudan’s top leaders, including President Kiir, SPLA Chief of General Staff Paul Malong and former first vice President Dr Riek Machar “appear to have accumulated significant wealth since 2005”, according to a report by The Sentry.
“Much of the wealth that has been accumulated by these top leaders is in the form of high-end properties outside the country and extensive commercial holdings in both public sector and oil services contracting in South Sudan,” the Sentry said in the report.
The Enough Project initiative says it found that members of the families of both President Kiir and former Vice President Machar reside in luxurious homes outside South Sudan, including homes in one particular upscale neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya.
The investigation further indicates that one of Gen. Malong’s houses in Kampala, Uganda, is located next door to a home maintained by Gen. Gabriel Jok Riak, a South Sudanese general subject to a UN-mandated asset freeze and travel ban—a move that should have effectively frozen any of his assets and barred him from traveling outside the country.
Gen Malek Reuben Riak has a house inside a walled compound just a few miles away.
“Unexplained wealth such as this should be enough to provide authorities with a reasonable basis for investigating the sources of that wealth and whether any wrongdoing occurred,” the report says.