New information revealed over assassination of parliamentary candidate

Independent candidate Bol Deng Kot from Unity State has been assassinated by gunmen allegedly dressed in military uniform. Bol Deng Kot, from Abiemnom County was running in the forthcoming national elections to represent Unity State in the South Sudan Legislative Assembly.

On Wednesday 10th March, Honourable Bol Deng Kot had returned to his house in Jebel Kunjur - west of Juba town, when a group of armed men reportedly entered his home firing bullets indiscriminately. According to his wife, five armed men in military uniforms with AKM rifles and pistols bound and muzzled her and went to the bed where Bol Deng Kot was sleeping.

"I tried to scream but could not as my throat and mouth were tightly held by two strong men while three others were wrestling my husband out of the bed and shot him in the head" said Kot's distraught wife.

According to Kot's brother, other gunmen were waiting outside the house as the assasination took place and then they all fled into the mountains.

As we approach these crucial days in our new fragile democracy, there is a growing concern amongst non ruling party candidates that the National Election Commission remains too weak in South Sudan to have any control over the real forces of power ...

The worrying background to this murder is that the late Honorable Bol Deng Kot was formerly a SPLM member of parliament representing Biemnom constituency. But then during the recent candidate selection process in January 2010, Hon. Bol Deng Kot’s name was omitted from the list of SPLM candidates, though some claim he had still got the majority of votes with state electoral college and was dismissed for other reasons. Without the endorsement of the SPLM, he chose to stand as an independent candidate and his continuing popularity in Unity State compelled the SPLM leadership to promise him a parliamentary seat from the extra 40 recently allocated seats.

A further cause for concern is that the Southern Sudan government has so far been very quiet about launching an investigation into Kot's assassination.

With this background information and evidence, questions are naturally being asked if Bol's death marks a new level of intimidation of independent candidates in the coming national elections?

There are now claims surfacing that the murder had tribal motivations and not political ones. 

Many suspected so, but since the death last week, there have been further investigations by the Sudanvotes journalists talking off the record to Government officials.  There are now claims surfacing that the murder had tribal motivations and not political ones.  Marvis Birungi was told by an unnamed source that the killing was out of revenge for a previous killing by Kot's family clan.  As Kot was running to be member of parliament, he was targeted as the most important member of the clan to reek maximum revenge.   It should be said that these claims cannot be verified as of yet and some might say it was in the interests of politicians to blame tribal conflict for the murder.

As we approach these crucial days in our new fragile democracy, what ever the truth about the motivation for the murder, there is a growing concern amongst non ruling party candidates that the National Election Commission remains too weak in South Sudan to have any control over the real forces of power on the ground.

The relatives of the late Bol Deng Kot have since taken his body to Bentiu State to be buried in his village of birth.