Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President Salva Kiir Mayardit, who also leads the ruling SPLM party, has dismissed Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba and appointed Joseph Ngere Paciko as her replacement.
Kumba, a senior SPLM member and close ally of Kiir, had served as speaker since August 2021. She has not been assigned a new role.
Her removal follows a vote of no confidence by the SPLM parliamentary caucus last week, citing poor management and corruption. The caucus also recommended replacing Second Deputy Speaker Parmena Awerial Aluong.
Kiir issued a decree, read by SPLM Chief Whip Tulio Odongi during a procedural sitting on Tuesday morning, appointing Ngere—who represents Mundri West in Western Equatoria State—as the new speaker.
A separate decree removed Aluong and named Abuk Payiti Ayik, a lawmaker representing Malakal County in Upper Nile State, as the new deputy speaker for finance and administration.
Payiti has chaired several parliamentary committees, including Gender, Social Welfare, Youth and Sports, and Health. She is known for her work on women’s rights and gender representation, particularly during the peace process leading up to South Sudan’s independence. She is married to Prof. Peter Adwok Nyaba, a former higher education minister.
Both the new speaker and deputy are set to be formally endorsed by parliament during today’s session. The leadership changes come alongside SPLM caucus recommendations to reconstitute committee chairpersons, which will take effect under the new speaker.
South Sudan’s bicameral legislature includes the TNLA as the lower house and the Council of States as the upper chamber. Under the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, the TNLA has 550 members, with the SPLM holding 332 seats.
The agreement allocates the speaker’s post to the SPLM, with a provision emphasizing that the post holder must be from the Equatoria region. The TNLA speaker has three deputies: the first for parliamentary affairs (SPLM-IO), the second for administration and finance (SPLM), and the third for members’ welfare (Other Political Parties).
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