19/08/2025
MEMOIR: My public quarrel with President Salva Kiir in his office compound in Juba that left me baffled!
James Gatdet Dak
It is a long, but interesting story.
When an elder and leader says he has forgiven a real or perceived foe, it is taken for granted.
When he says or claims he has pardoned you, either for a real crime committed or simply a politically-motivated concocted charge, people will take his words for it.
It doesn't matter whether the decision is meant for political claims and gains, or actually from the heart. A leader stands by what he has pronounced, and more so, publicly.
Surprisingly or not, this dawned on me that the norm may not always be the case with all leaders, and particularly with President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
And this exactly occurred between me and him during a face-to-face quarrel, or should I say, the last unfriendly encounter in the year 2020. Then I left Juba, and never returned.
I say it could be the last because I am not sure if we will ever meet again.
I was so disappointed! I would not have bothered to share it if it was a private encounter. It happened in a public place, only that it was not captured on video like the bitter exchanges of words between the US PresidentTrump and the Ukranian President, Zelewinsky.
I was hoping to exhibit the spirit of reconciliation, but that opportunity was squandered by his angry response to me.
Here is what transpired in two phases:
EPISODE 1
It was on Monday, 20th July, 2020, in Juba, just four months after the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU).
This was also nearly two years after the President publicly ordered for my release on a peace celebration day at the mausoleum of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, on Wednesday, 31st October, 2018.
These two separate encounters I personally had with the President, and will narrate below, occurred on the day for swearing in ceremony of some newly appointed senior government officials: Hon. Deng Alor Kuol (Minister for East African Affairs), Hon. Gabriel Changson Chang (Minister of Higher Education), Hon. Sarah Cleto Rial (Governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal State) and Hon. Denay Jock Chagor (Governor of Jonglei State).
The first episode started like this: I was accompanying the First Vice President, H.E. Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, to the Cabinet Meeting Hall (as his Press Secretary) where the swearing in ceremony was to take place.
I sat at the Secretariat table facing the long rectangular table where the ministers and the Presidency sat. A number of Vice Presidents and ministers came to attend and witness the oath-taking event, which was being administered by the Chief Justice, Chan Reec Madut.
Everyone took his or her seat while awaiting the arrival of the President in the Hall in order to preside over the event.
My colleague, Ateny Wek Ateny (Press Secretary of the President), was sitting next to me on my left at the Secretariat table. A number of other members of the Secretariat were also seated with us.
Then the President entered the Hall. Everybody in the Hall arose to welcome him. The First Vice President moved forward to receive the President.
The President passed in front of us---the members of the Secretariat---as he was walking to his seat at the head of their table.
When the President reached to the point where I and Ateny Wek Ateny were standing, he suddenly stopped and turned to us. He asked Ateny, jokingly, “I was told you called?” Ateny replied, “No, I didn’t call.” The President again replied, “No, I was told you called.” Ateny again said he didn’t call. The President insisted and smiled and then he continued walking to his seat where the First Vice President welcomed him. Perhaps when the President smiled and walked away, this is when Ateny realized that the President was simply joking with him. Ateny then also smiled and said, “Ah, ween ya”, or literally translates as “Ah, where?”
It was a brief exchange of words between Ateny and the President that lasted for about 15 seconds. I liked the way the President cracked jokes with his Press Secretary. It was so cordial! It was a bit similar to how Dr. Riek Machar used to crack jokes with us.
But something else also caught my attention during the conversation between the President and Ateny. Because I was also standing very close to Ateny to his right, the President could briefly look at me and back to Ateny.
However, throughout their brief conversation, the President did not greet me or say anything to me, despite that he was facing both of us at a close range of about only three feet apart. This left me wondering!
I was actually craving for exchange of greetings between me and the President. This was going to be our first face-to-face meeting nearly two years after my release. I had always wanted to thank him in person for ordering my release, although he did it under intense pressure. However, this didn’t happen at that opportune time.
Instead, and sadly in the second episode, a more dramatic encounter between me and the President later on ensued about 20 minutes after the swearing in ceremony was over!
EPISODE 2
And this is the most dramatic one!
At the closing of the swearing in ceremony, an announcement was made that a group photo involving all the leaders who attended the ceremony was to be taken in front of the office of the President. Everyone who attended the ceremony moved out and walked to the nearby building hosting the President. The President’s other office was about one hundred meters (100 meters) away from the building of the Cabinet Meeting Hall. The two buildings are separated by a thick concrete fence.
We entered the compound of the office of the President. The President, the First Vice President, Vice Presidents, Chief Justice, Ministers, and Governors were seated for a photo shoot by the invited media personnel.
I was standing and chatting with Ateny as pictures were being taken. When it was over and the President and everyone stood and ready to disperse, the President and the First Vice President briefly stood alone and were having a conversation.
I and Ateny were also standing and conversing near them. I told Ateny to greet the President for me. Ateny moved forward to the President and the First Vice President and briefly interrupted their conversation, perhaps also trying if we could take a picture with the President and the First Vice President.
I remained where we were initially standing. I saw Ateny whispering to the President something and pointing his attention towards me. I didn’t hear his voice. I didn’t know exactly what he was telling the President. I just assumed that he was conveying my greetings.
The President turned his face towards me and stared at me. The distance between us was close and only about six meters. When I saw that the President was looking at me steadily, not turning his face away, I decided to move towards him.
When I reached in front of the President, I didn’t extend my hand to shake his hand because of the Covid-19 protective rules and social distancing. I also saw that he was not ready to extend his hand to greet me. I orally greeted him, “How are you doing, Your Excellency?”
The President looked at me and replied with a question, “Are you going to insult me again?” His face changed as he was looking a bit angry.
I was shocked, surprised and a bit confused. I replied, “No, I did not insult you, Beny [Your Excellency].”
He said, “What?” and he gave me an intimidating serious look although he was a bit frail. I understood that he expected me to simply beg him and apologize to him. But I was not ready for that since I knew I was innocence from the unlawful kidnapping in Nairobi, Kenya.
I again responded, “No, I did not insult you.” The President became more angry-looking and intimidating, and he again responded, “You insulted me.”
When I realized that he was insisting and getting angrier, I decided to pause and did not say anything else, just calmly looking at him.
Then the First Vice President, H.E. Dr. Riek Machar, intervened. He said to the President, “James is a very skillful writer. He would not insult you.”
The President replied, “Ok.” He paused and looked at me again.
Vice President Taban Deng G*i was standing a few meters away chatting with someone else. He then came to join us, probably he saw that there was something happening.
When I saw that Taban came and the President again turned his face to me, looking at me, I said, “Your Excellency, someone might have misquoted me to you.”
Then Vice President,Taban, intervened in response by telling me, “Yes, this is a better way to say it. Someone might have misquoted you to him.”
During my exchanges with the President, I could also see Ateny looking a bit surprised. It seemed that he didn’t expect the President to have reacted to my greeting in the way he did.
President's bodyguards who were also closer to us began to stare at me intimidatingly. I then stepped back from them to about a distance of three meters.
The newly sworn in Governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, Hon. Sarah Cleto Rial, joined in at that point and the four of them continued with their own topical conversations.
I recalled that after I was kidnapped from Nairobi, Kenya, and transported to Juba, South Sudan, in 2016, and detained at the Blue House for over one year and then taken to court for trial, one of the charges was that I allegedly insulted the President in my social media statements as a Press Secretary for the SPLM/SPLA (IO) leadership.
When I challenged the prosecutors in court to produce a solid evidence, they could not produce evidence. I was nevertheless sentenced despite my innocence, or “whether I liked it or not.”
Whatever the circumstances that led to my release, including internal and external pressures on the President, and the demand given to him by Dr. Riek Machar, I however thanked the President for later on announcing my release from that politically motivated prison sentence.
I was released on Friday, 2 November, 2018, in accordance with the demand of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
Well, back to the story, we dispersed from the scene. I accompanied the First Vice President back to our office.
I shared with a few colleagues and friends of mine what happened. Some of them speculated that the President might have been not happy to see me again together with Dr. Riek Machar in Juba, and particularly that I was also back to my previous position as Dr. Riek’s Press Secretary---the position which caused the dislike in the first place.
They told me it meant that the two years of detention and imprisonment and punishment and intimidations I had suffered during the political conflict did not produce their desired fruit. Also the suggested offers for a position in order for me to defect from Dr. Riek Machar and to surrender to join the President’s side did not work, hence the disappointment.
Others further speculated that the President simply tried to defend the previous action of his government’s officials who falsely accused me of alleged insults, etc., and therefore wanted to put the blame on me for the suffering I had unjustly gone through, instead of apologizing on their behalf.
Or the President wanted to intimidate me into admitting that I insulted him and apologize to him and ask for forgiveness. This is something he knew I previously refused to do in court since I knew very well that I did not insult him. I only challenged his bad deeds. But for the 'Benydit' he probably equated it to insults. The accusation was a mere fabrication by his prosecution team!
OBSERVATIONS
The following day on Tuesday, 21st July, 2020, I again with some of my colleagues from our office accompanied the First Vice President back to the office of the President. They had a schedule to meet. Since it was a confidential meeting between the two leaders which we could not attend, Ateny invited me to wait in his office downstairs. We went to his office.
Ateny and I then began a conversation by recalling my dramatic encounter with the President a day before.
Ateny told me something which I believed he thought would make me feel with ease. He said, “Don’t worry. That thing is over. There is nothing. You know, it was good that the President expressed his feeling to you. It means that it is over. It would be bad if he just kept quiet.”
I sighed and said to myself, wow! That is a good tip. I never knew that… He later on introduced me to some of his staff.
During our years of work in the Presidency, it never occurred that Ateny and I would sit and chat together. We were like predetermined rivals. We only met sometimes virtually on air as we debated for and against our political positions on an international TV or radio. This friendly conversation in Ateny’s office was only the second to a face-to-face conversation we previously had after my release in 2018, which also related to the President.
It was in November 2018 in the office of the then First Vice President, H.E. Taban Deng G*i. This was weeks after my release. I went to see Taban Deng as I was trying to secure my passport so that I could leave for Khartoum to meet Dr. Riek Machar, leader of the SPLM/SPLA (IO), and to proceed to my family in Sweden.
I was accompanied by three persons to Taban Deng’s office to ask for his intervention so that the department of Nationality, Immigration and Passports would process my passport.
By chance or by design, we found Ateny sitting in Taban Deng’s office. We greeted each other with funny greetings. I said to him, “How are you doing my former rival?” He replied, “You made my work difficult my friend.” We then laughed it off.
Then we thought it was good for the two of us to take our first picture ever. Taban Deng also urged or cheered us to take a picture. Taban said, “It is good that you two take a picture so that Ezekiel Lol will see it.”
I didn’t know what he meant by saying “so that Ezekiel Lol will see it.” I did not bother to ask Taban for a reason why it was important for Ezekiel Lol to see my picture with Ateny. I believe the rest in the room did not understand it either. We took our pictures anyway. Taban sounded friendly to me and promised me to help in getting my passport.
Then Ateny told us a good story about an advice he said he gave to the President about my fate when I was in prison. This is after I was sentenced to death for writing against or criticizing the government, which the prosecution team interpreted as a treason charge. We were about five or six people in Taban Deng’s office.
Ateny narrated this to us: “I told the President that look, if you will sign an ex*****on order to execute James Gatdet, he will die as a hero and people will curse you.”
Well, if that was really what transpired between Ateny and the President about me, I would say thank you Ateny for that great moral advice. You added your voice to countless others who knew that I was innocent!
I always thank the President for ordering my release, as I always boldly thank Dr. Riek Machar, and the rest of my compatriots in the country and around the world who struggled to see that I regained my freedom.
As I also dislike him for the mass attrocities, human rights violations, corruption, lack of development, chronic instability and the ongoing suffering the people of South Sudan have endured under his failed leadership, I also thank him for being a veteran liberator and co-father of the Republic of South Sudan. He toiled with his colleagues to ensure that we attained our freedom and independence, although he is ruining it.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are very important ingredients in moving forward together!
Like I stated earlier, I may not ever meet him, again! That quarrel with him was unprecedented.
However, despite the ongoing political and security chaos in the country, it is my hope that sanity will prevail at last, and all the political detainees will be released.
The writer of the article is a veteran journalist and author. He can be reached at: [email protected].
