Thomas Cirilo, the leader of National Salvation Front - Courtesy

The National Salvation Front has raised the issue of changing the venue for peace negotiations, citing security concerns including the past reports of the disappearance of South Sudanese in the neighbouring country.

On Tuesday, the Presidential Affairs Minister said President Kiir asked the Kenyan President to mediate peace between the government and the dissidents.

Bangasi Joseph Bakasoro hoped the process would begin as soon as possible to allow the return of the groups before the planned general elections.

According to Bakasoro, the President wanted the holdout groups to participate in the democratic process.

Reacting to the move, the NAS spokesperson Samuel Suba says Kenya is not a neutral ground to conduct peace talks due to allegations of kidnapping of government critics.

“Juba has penetrated security in the region and you have known the people who have been kidnapped and people who have been killed all these things have been done by the supervision and instruction in Juba,” Suba said.

“The region is not safe and what we know is that the regime in Juba wanted this talk to be brought here to Nairobi near to the area such that they will have an interest,” he said.

“They will influence the negotiation, they will also influence it through intimidation, through coercion just like what happened in Khartoum through RC, and at the end of the day you will have a peace which is of course not balanced which is not addressing the interest of the people”.

Besides, Suba said that the stalemate in the Rome peace process was after the government and holdout groups differed over the agendas of the meeting.

During the March 2023 meeting, the government had proposed that the discussions focus on security sector reforms, political and governance, economic and social issues, and justice, while the non-signatory group proposed the conduct of an inclusive round table discussion.

According to Suba, the issue is not about location or mediation but disagreement over agenda.

“We prefer the talks to continue in Rome because they should be video, the Romans did not fail, and the decision remained intact. What failed was that the two sides had not agreed on the agenda, so then no,” Suba said.

“If we have not agreed on the agenda then what logic is there that now you are shifting the ground to another deviation and yet the agenda was not agreed we shall still disagree on the same agenda and then go to another and also disagree.

“If I am to summarize the new move by Salva Kiir, I will say the issue is not the location, the issue is the agenda”.