Edmund Yakani speaks to Eye Radio from Nairobi. December 5, 2024. (Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio).

Activist Edmund Yakani has criticized the transitional government for allegedly sending a large delegation to the Tumaini Initiative and abandoning a paid-for hotel to book another expensive hotel when civil servants have not received salaries for the past year.

Yakani said the 17-member Juba team is now more than 30 and opted to stay at the affluent Serene Hotel although the government claims it lacks money to pay salaries for civil servants.

He stressed that the money spent on luxury accommodation could have been used to pay the outstanding salaries of civil servants who have not been paid for nearly a year.

Yakani alleged that the government delegation abandoned a paid-for rooms in the Glee Hotel and opted for more expensive lodging at 100 dollars a day per delegate.

“For instance, now you say we don’t have money to pay almost 1 year salaries for our civil servants in juba and as well. I’m speaking right now me and you are Akile we are in Glee Hotel,” he said.

“In Glee hotel, under the mediation, government is given 17 rooms that have to accommodate them and this 17 rooms have been paid for by the money of the donors but still our government delegation, beyond 17 almost 30 something they went and live in Serena Hotel in Nairobi.”

According to him, the mediator has already paid for 17 rooms at the Glee Hotel in Nairobi, and yet the government delegates have gone beyond the agreed-upon 17 rooms.

Yakani criticized what he called diversion of funds intended for civil servants to cover the high costs of these luxury accommodations.

“Calculate a single room for a single delegate which are like 35 at the expenses of $100 that is almost thousands of dollars which could have paid outstanding arrears of one county of a group of civil servants, they could have enjoyed the Xmas.”

The activist’s called for accountability comes against the backdrop of widespread frustration over the lack of progress in paying civil servants and addressing their dire financial situation.

Mr. Yakani accused politicians of exploiting the suffering of ordinary citizens for personal gain and called on the President Salva Kiir to intervene.

“Why should the government live in Serena hotel and leaving their room in Glee hotel, if they really value the suffering our citizen? That’s why I would like to call upon his Excellency the president to direct the government delegation to come and occupied their empty rooms in Glee hotel.”

“They are deepening their hands into the revenue that’s supposed to pay outstanding arrears of our civil servant which is almost one year that money that they are using it in Serena hotel for the accommodation for their meal for everything.”

Yakani further urged political leaders in the Kenya-led peace process to reconcile their differences and prioritize national stability.