President Salva Kiir and President William Ruto pose for a photo after a meeting on Saturday. August 19, 2023. (Kenya gov).

President Salva Kiir and his Kenyan Counterpart William Ruto have directed Tumaini Initiative mediation team to reconvene and resolve the outstanding issues within two weeks.

In a joint statement, the two Heads of States commended the parties for drafting and initializing nine protocols so far.

In order to finalize the mediation process, President Kiir and his counterpart Ruto directed the mediation team to reconvene and resolve the outstanding issues within two weeks.

Meanwhile, both leaders agreed to secure regional endorsement of the Tumaini Initiative.

They urged the Inter-governmental Authority on Development, IGAD to mobilize resources and goodwill of the international community including the TROIKA and other countries to enable full implementation of the initiative.

It’s not clear what the outstanding issues are, but the Kenyan-led mediation for South Sudan peace process stalled since August after the SPLM-IO reneged from the process, arguing the protocols proposed institutions were parallel or replaced some of those under the R-ARCSS.

The opposition also said the Tumaini undermined the sovereignty of South Sudan by establishing five institutions with the head and deputies to be appointed by the regional body, IGAD.

These include the Security Supervision Mechanism, Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism, Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, National Transitional Committee, and Strategic Defense and Security Review Board to be co-chaired by the parties to the 2018 agreement.

According to SPLM-IO, the initiative had taken the role of a funder, supervisor, coordinator, convener of a donor conference, funder manager, monitor of the agreement, guarantor and governing authority.