Dr Lam Akol, the leader of the National Democratic Movement at a party Headquarters in Juba August 3, 2023 - Moses Awan/Eye Radio

The Chairperson of National Democratic Movement – a party in the SSOA alliance – has voiced support for the Kenya-led peace process, saying it is the only step toward full implementation of the slow-moving 2018 agreement.

Dr. Lam Akol said any process aimed at bringing on board political parties and military actors that did not sign the 2018 peace deal is crucial in restoring lasting peace to the country.

Dr. Lam described the peace process as a constructive move towards realizing the full implementation of the revitalized peace accord which remains largely on paper.

“In our discussion as a high-level standing committee, we saw that first of all the parties that we are negotiating with are mainly those who did not sign the 2018 agreement,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“Some of them were in the talk with us. it was only at the last minute that they didn’t see it fit to sign. So, we expected the other side of Tumaini to put on the table what they thought were the root causes that were not addressed by the agreement in 2018.”

According to him, the initiative is designed to foster reconciliation, strengthen governance, and enhance economic stability as part of the peace process.

“Nobody will deny that in the process of peace implementation, a lot of problems cropped up and we could not deliver the peace agreement on time. We had said that we would do it in three years and eight months. Now we are in the sixth year.”

Amid concerns over the continuous absence of a government delegation at the talks, Dr. Lam Akol assured the country that the Tumaini Initiative will not fail to deliver on its intended goals.

“As a matter of fact, the Tumaini Initiative did not slow down. It is in the head of some people that the delay means there may be a lack of willingness and some of them even go as far as saying people are against the process.”

“We were only evaluating the protocols to see if they satisfy what we feel should form a good agreement or not. This is a natural process and as a result, we did that we came up with what we think, is a way forward.”