Lainya County Commissioner and former Juba City acting mayor Emmanuel Khamis Richard who was sacked following a public uproar - Courtesy

The Speaker of the National Legislative Assembly has directed the August House’s legal department to look into recommendations for the removal of Lainya County Commissioner.

This comes after a member of parliament repeatedly raised concerns about why ex-acting Juba Mayor Emmanuel Khamis was not concurrently removed from his position as a Commissioner.

This is because last month, the national legislature had recommended the removal of Khamis from his dual roles.

Honourable Reath Muoch Tap questioned the inaction during Tuesday’s assembly session while the lawmakers passed the South Sudan Social Insurance Fund Bill 2023.

“We had made a resolution last month of revoking the acting Mayor of Juba city and recommending to the Governor of Central Equatoria state to remove this person as my source revealed that person is still the Commissioner in Lainya County,” Hon Muoch said.

“[He] is terrorizing people there and telling people that there was nothing done to him by the Parliament even though they passed the resolution,” he said.

“The honourable Speaker, this is the contempt to this parliament. We need to reconsider that the governor should act to remove the Commissioner or the Governor will come here again and we will deal with him according to the law.”

Responding to the concern, Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba advised the legal department to look into the matter saying the assembly needed to compare its competence in dealing with local government.

“The governor of Central Equatoria state has already acted on the resolutions and removed the acting Mayor,’ Hon. Nunu said.

“We need to compare the competence of the National Assembly in relation to issues dealing with local government and also the state’s constitution itself,” she said.

“I think the Governor took action and the one going down to the County I think this may be the competence of the state legislative assembly. So, the legal department looks at this and advises accordingly,” she added.