23/08/2026
๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฆ๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฆ ๐ง๐๐ ๐.
๐๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐บ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ธ ๐๐๐ฒ๐บ
The passing of Kosti Manibe Ngai on August 11, in a Nairobi hospital in Kenya, where he had been admitted several weeks earlier, is certainly a searing loss not only for his immediate family but also for the entirety of South Sudan, a country he served with the diligence of the steadfast patriot he was. Several friends, relatives and former colleagues at the various public institutions where he once served in different capacities have written, from their firsthand experience, about that great public figure. In my capacity as a former colleague in the worlds of journalism and government, there is little that will be new to add.
The purpose, therefore, is to confirm how effective he was at whatever he did and to affirm the statements that have been made publicly about his humility, despite his towering achievements in performing his duties and the admiration he earned from all who came close to him during his time as a public office holder or private citizen.
After reading several pieces, including a detailed account of Kostiโs style and operation written by Abraham Diing Akoi Nyuon, the late Kostiโs personal assistant, I feel there is almost nothing new to reveal about this great man South Sudan has lost. However, as a friend and former colleague in journalism, and later in the government of independent South Sudan, I will touch on some events in which the integrity of this great personality who has left us shone like a torch on a mountain peak.
I first came to know Kosti Manibe in April 1975, after the Regional Ministry of Information had assigned me to the Nile Mirror, a Juba-based weekly newspaper owned by the government of the autonomous Southern Region. Kosti, a BA degree holder in Geography from Makerere University in Uganda, was practically the deputy editor under Benjamin Warille, a graduate of English Language and Philosophy from the University of Khartoum, who was one year my senior.
At the time, Kosti was the weeklyโs managing editor and was very competent at the job, despite the fact that his degree was in Geography and, like me, he had not yet received any theoretical training in journalism. At the time, such training was judged not to be necessary. In those days, the emphasis was that much of the trade was learned on the job, mostly by working under old hands, many of whom did not have degrees in any field.
Unlike Kosti and me, Warille had obtained a diploma in Journalism from the International Institute of Journalism in what was then West Berlin, in the then-divided German city. We had reporters who included Rufus Taban and Urbano Oyet, a cartoonist who later took on the nickname Jobo Jobo, which earned him nationwide popularity.
๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ก๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ข๐จ๐ ๐๐ก๐ฆ๐ง๐๐ง๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ ๐จ๐ก๐๐๐๐ง๐๐ข๐ก
In 1976, Kosti Manibe, William Hai Zaza, the late Chaat Paul Nul, the late Chol Kuany and I were nominated by the Regional Ministry of Culture and Information to go to Khartoum to attend a nine-month course in Journalism at the Institute of Communication, which had been established by Bona Malwal, then Minister of Culture and Information in the central government.
There were prominent journalists working with the central government who were drawn from Radio Omdurman and Sudan Television. One of them was the famous Sudanese radio and television newsreader Ayyub Sadiq, who later became the BBC Arabic correspondent in Khartoum before moving to London to become the corporationโs Arabic Service newsreader there. Ayyub left after attending just two days of the course and moved to London, where he briefly became a newsreader for the BBC.
๐๐ข๐ฆ๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ง๐ข ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐จ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ง๐ข๐จ๐
At the end of the course, we returned to Juba, where our arrival within the Regional Ministry of Culture was widely judged to be a step forward in the human-resource development of the self-governing region.
The region had the right to claim that its growing number of qualified human resources entitled it to be given more financial resources within the parameters of self-rule.
Unfortunately, Kosti soon left to join the Sudan Council of Churches. Most of us who knew his capacity and the contribution he was destined to make within the mass media of the Southern Region felt his departure to be the loss of a valuable asset; we, as his colleagues, were certainly the first losers. I was one of those who felt his departure was going to leave a dent within the ministry.
Upon our return to Juba, Mading de Garang, who happened to hail from Pakuoor village in what is today Kongor Countyโwhich is also my birthplaceโwas planning to launch a government monthly magazine. In those days, vices such as nepotism were unheard of or unseen in public life. The minister was intending to recruit a Kenyan journalist as the editor of the periodical, which was to be called Southern Sudan. Hilary Paul Logali, then Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, told Mading that he should give the job to a national instead of a foreigner. Not mincing his words, the minister gave my name to his colleague, which Mading reluctantly accepted.
If Kosti had not left, the surest bet was that he would have been the right candidate for the job, since the minister was familiar with Kostiโs work ethic and publicly acknowledged his competence.
There were two main reasons Mading de Garang would have preferred Kosti over me. The first was that it was public knowledge within the ministry and beyond that the minister considered Kosti to be one of the best performers. The second was that the minister and I were born in the same village, although in different years, in what is today Kongor County of Twi East State.
In those days, public servants avoided conflicts of interest, of which nepotism was a leading malpractice that had to be avoided by all possible means. Left with no choice, as well as the absence of someone with better qualifications than mine at the time in question, the minister gave the job to meโeditor of The Southern Sudan monthly magazine.
๐ฆ๐จ๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐จ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฆ
At the outbreak of Sudanโs second civil war in 1983, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), where patriots such as Rev. Clement Janda and Kosti Manibe were senior figures within the ecumenical body, had some of its core members supporting the Sudan Peopleโs Liberation Movement and its military wing, the Sudan Peopleโs Liberation Army (SPLM/A). The organisation provided both moral and material support worldwideโof course, operating behind the curtain.
The SCC raised awareness of the objectives the SPLM/A was fighting to achieve: to end the domination of Sudanese rule, which was based on racial and faith-based discrimination and the exclusion of non-Muslim and non-Arab citizens.
One day, the then-Major Deng Alor and the writer of this piece met Rev. Clement Janda in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital city, then an important base for the SPLM/A. The man of the cloth was bringing financial support in US dollars, raised by the SCC through the efforts of Kosti and some of his trusted colleagues.
Shortly after Rev. Clement Janda was received by representatives of the SPLM/A in Addis Ababa, represented by Deng Alor, then head of the SPLM in Ethiopia, and in the company of this writer, the visitor handed over the cash in US dollars. After the receipt of the amount, our logical question concerned the safety of our compatriots involved in raising funds for an organisation that the government of Sudan had branded as an outlawed organisation.
Calm, as he was always known to be, Clement Janda brushed aside our fears by stating that the risk that could befall them was minuscule in comparison with what the SPLA fighters faced. He said they were constantly living in danger of being killed at the war front and were, most of the time, living with little or no food at all. They suffered mosquito bites, were pricked by thorns, were exposed to elements such as rain, heat and cold, and faced snake bites or drowning while crossing streams in hostile countryside.
After the war was over and South Sudan had become a sovereign nation, Clement Janda explained who had provided the material support that he, Kosti and some of their trusted colleagues solicited and received from foreign donors who supported the cause of the Southern Sudanese. To him, the main brain behind the flow of financial donations and moral support for the SPLM/A was Kosti.
Those of us who had worked with and known Kosti before were not surprised by the leading role he played in the SCCโs moral and material support for the struggle of the people of what is today South Sudan. In the struggle for the nation of South Sudan, there were unsung heroes who were unknown to the general public, led by people such as Kosti Manibe.
The fact that few South Sudanese knew about the patriots who fought in other ways was partly because such information was ideally classified and protected. However, in the case of individuals such as Kosti, their modesty made it almost impossible for the beneficiariesโthe general publicโto know about those who made enormous contributions behind the curtain, not only for their safety but also because they sincerely believed their sacrifices did not require publicity.
It was only after the countryโs independence that those patriots who had operated behind the scenes resurfaced. Surprisingly, those who were not aware of their involvement started asking questions such as, โWhere was he during the armed struggle?โ
That question went contrary to what the late SPLM/A leader John Garang often used to tell the fighters at the war front: that there were several forms of struggle which complemented and supplemented each other. Khartoum and its secret cells supporting the SPLM/A cause, which included some Northern Sudanese nationals, formed another unconventional division.
The late Kosti Manibe and most of those operating within enemy territory were part of an unknown but powerful band that also provided rare and needed information about what could be termed the internal front.
This is why it came as a surprise to some members of the public when individuals who were not publicly known to be within the top hierarchy of the SPLM/A were accorded respect, with a few of them offered senior positions, such as Kosti becoming Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
After Kostiโs appointment to that department, one of the journalists who raised that question was told that the war of liberation was not fought only with guns; there were several ways to contribute to the objectives of the struggle for freedom and justice.
Kosti and others who did not carry guns during the war made enormous and vital contributions, as was also the case with the rural population, who provided SPLA fighters with shelter, information about the enemy and food in the form of livestock or medicines. These were channelled to the SPLA soldiers or, in the 1960s, to Anya Nya, who were widely known as freedom fighters.
๐๐ข๐ข๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ก๐๐๐ข๐ง๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ฅ
There are many forms of struggle for justice and freedom. People often take up arms when dialogue fails to resolve national issues, as was the case in Sudan. During and even after the armed conflict, negotiations between the government in Khartoum and the SPLM/A often took place. The dialogues were mediated by bodies devoted to the promotion of peace between warring parties through dialogue.
From the time of the Koka Dam Conference in Ethiopia in 1986 between the SPLM/A and the political forces in Sudan, dialogue became one of the means the SPLM/A endorsed for resolving the armed conflict. A couple of years later, the SPLM/A adopted dialogue as one of its means of ending the war with justice.
During dialogues that took weeks and lasted many hours per day, Kosti Manibe and Deng Alorโjust to mention two of the most outstanding negotiatorsโproved themselves to be among the best negotiators within the SPLM/A team.
Their distinguishing characteristic was that neither of them could be driven to lose his temper, regardless of disparaging remarks from the other side, a practice which was common among members of the delegation from the Government of Khartoum during peace talks.
The intention, as is widely known, was to provoke the other side into losing track during heat-engendered disagreements through concealed abusive statements, which were not uncommon during heated sessions. This occurred while controversial topics, such as Khartoumโs application of Sharia law to everyone, including non-Muslim Sudanese, were under discussion.
๐๐ง ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ก๐๐
The appointment of Kosti Manibe Ngai as the first Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of the new nation in 2011 was one of the most judicious decisions President Salva Kiir and his advisers made. Deng Alor and Nhial Deng were instrumental in the allocation of that vital portfolio to Kosti Manibe.
Those who knew Kosti were full of praise for the choice of a man widely known for his tested integrity. When the news of his appointment went out, pundits of South Sudanese affairs were excited and concluded that the new country had started on the right footing.
Upon arriving at the ministry, he assured the staff that cooperation and consultation would be cornerstones of the administration. Before discussing his appointment to that vital post, I have to deviate a little to give a silhouette of what was taking place within that important department, which some bluntly call โthe ministry of money.โ
๐ง๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐๐ก๐๐
Upon my return to Juba shortly before independence, I was trying to find a place to rent. A young person who was working at a lower level in the Ministry of Finance learned of my search. They came and told me that they had a furnished property ready for rent.
I went to the building, which had four bedrooms and fine pieces of furniture usually found in the homes of wealthy people. The owner, who had known me while we were in one of the countries in East Africa, told me they were happy that I was back home, where they said my services were needed.
They told me that, since they knew me as someone with no money, they would charge me less than the amount they would ask from a stranger. But before I went into the business at handโhow much I would pay per month in rentโI asked a sensitive and virtually irrelevant question about how they had acquired the property, which I judged must have cost a lot of money for a young person whose income, mainly a salary, was likely to be modest.
To my surprise, the young person opened up:
โUncleโโnot a blood relative, but using the South Sudanese way in which young people address individuals of a similar age to their parentsโโI canโt hide the facts from you. What happens is that, in the Ministry of Finance, when a businessman makes a claim for whatever he has done for the government, he will promise to pay โsomething smallโ to anyone who has been involved in processing his claim. When the payment is approved and he is paid, he will go around giving some moneyโranging from the higher ranks downwardsโto everyone who was involved in the process.โ
Meanwhile, I was listening quietly and attentively as I attempted to digest this new behaviour, which had not existed throughout the 1970s, when I was working with the press in Juba.
I thanked them for their kindness and told them I would consider their offer. After meeting a friend who was knowledgeable about how such young people were acquiring wealth through illegal means, he told me I should not be surprised.
โThis is not our time,โ he said, referring to the period of self-rule for the Southern Region from 1972 to 1983, when such behaviour was unknown.
Interestingly, Kosti was, by the time in question, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, while I was a deputy at the Ministry of Information and Broadcastingโa post I later regretted accepting, since I never achieved anything as a result of what I can only call unjustified sabotage within the ministry.
One of those projects was an offer from the Kenyan Government to help South Sudan by providing technical assistance worth millions of US dollars. This involved training and equipping the ministry with the latest communication equipment at the expense of Kenyan taxpayers. It fell under my direct supervision, since I had signed the agreement with my Kenyan counterpart.
Through open sabotage, the Kenyan team that came to Juba to implement its governmentโs programme of updating and equipping the television service and training its personnelโwith all expenses, including the teamโs accommodation and food in Juba, covered by the Kenyan Governmentโwas prevented from doing so by some individuals within the ministry.
For five consecutive days, the trainers went to the place where the training was supposed to take place, but the staff members who were to be trained had been told not to go. After five frustrating days, the Kenyan team, led by a woman, left Juba for good.
When I told Kosti about my frustration with what was happening, he advised me to remain calm and do what was possible. Otherwise, worrying about the scandal would do nothing to solve the problem I was facing at work.
After the dissolution of the government in July, through what was known to insiders as the agenda of a malicious and ignorant former adviser to the government, members of the dissolved cabinet began holding meetings at the SPLM headquarters to discuss the role of the ruling party. The agenda included the dissolution of the cabinet, and the meetings were attended by nearly all the sacked ministers, who met as members of the ruling SPLM party.
I did not attend a single meeting, and that explains why I avoided the arrest of the former ministers who were falsely accused of plotting a coup against the government. Kosti was among those who were arrested, who became known as the Group of Ten.
Although I did not attend any of the meetings, it was later construed that the gatherings were part of a plot to overthrow the government. The subject of the discussion that led to the membersโ arrests concerned the usurpation of the SPLMโs role as the ruling party by certain individuals. At the time, there were two characters known for fabricating stories that tended to mislead the leadership and were inimical to democratic practices.
It was this development that led to those who later became known as the Group of Tenโformer ministers who included Kosti Manibeโbeing falsely accused of plotting a coup, arrested and detained.
After their release, Kosti and some of his colleagues embarked on correcting the path the ruling party had taken: the emasculation of the democratic principles and practices of the SPLM as the ruling party.
Several talks aimed at reuniting leaders within and outside the SPLM culminated successfully in the Arusha forum, which provided for a return to the status quo ante. However, the government has not shown a serious commitment to the letter and spirit of the agreement. That is why individuals such as the late Kosti Manibe had been living outside the country since the outbreak of hostilities between the rival wings of the SPLM.
The late Kosti fell ill and underwent surgery on his head. Tragically, he passed away.
As I mentioned earlier, the passing of Kosti Manibe Ngai is a loss for his family as well as for the entire nation of South Sudan. In stature, Kosti Manibe Ngai can be compared with the great, loyal and patriotic South Sudanese of the calibre of Abel Alier, Hilary Paul Logali, Peter Gatkuoth Gual, Natalie Olwak, Isaiah Kulang Mabor, Joseph Oduho, John Garang, Samuel Abu John Kabash, Martin Majier G*i, David Bassiouni, Victoria Yaar Arol and Yithaya Achol de Dut. The list of distinguished public servants to which the late Kosti Manibe Ngai belonged is too long for everyone to be listed here.
Our news media has a duty to teach the younger generation that South Sudan has always been fortunate to have citizens whose ideas and contributions have made its people proud, not only of their achievements but also of their drive to serve as role models for younger generations. Their leadership was a responsibility based on self-denial and care for others, regardless of ethnicity, faith, regional division, creed, language or dialect, gender, age or other factors that divide families and nations.
To conclude, I would say to my dear friend and former work colleague, Kosti Manibe Ngai, that his memory will live with usโthose who served with or under his wise, temperate and always self-sacrificing leadership. He will live in the memories of all those who had the good fortune to work with him and were guided by his reason, self-denial, generosity and the milk of human kindness.
May the younger people who served with him or knew of his generosity, hard work and love for people, regardless of who they were, follow in his footsteps while they are in the service of the people.
