Hon. Adut Salva Kiir Mayardit,
Senior Presidential Envoy on Special Programs,
Hon. Martin Elia Lomuro, Minister of Cabinet Affairs,
Hon. Africano Mande Gedima, Minister of Presidential Affairs,
Affable greetings to you,
It is a remarkable feat that the Republic of South Sudan spent a decade building something rare: a public health institute established by an Act of Parliament, signed into law by the President himself. However, in the span of six weeks this year, it was gutted, not by any epidemic or disease, but by a dispute over vehicles, and this dispute was aggravated by a contemptuous act of boardroom majority that emboldened a corrupt minister.
The facts I am presenting in this matter require no embellishment; they are clearly supported by the signatures of those involved.
On June 3, 2026, the Office of the President, represented by Hon. Adut Salva Kiir Mayardit, Senior Presidential Envoy on Special Programs, donated ten vehicles to the National Public Health Institute (NPHI). The intended purpose of this donation was specifically for Ebola preparedness and response. As the Envoy stated, this action reflects “the government’s commitment to enhancing the NPHI’s capacity in addressing public health challenges.” This commitment is commendable, and it exemplifies the kind of oversight essential for sustaining this vulnerable sector.
Days later, the Minister of Health, Hon. Luke Thompson Thoan Teny, sought half of that donation for his office. He first requested three vehicles, then two, on a claim branded, “temporarily. Executive Director Dr. Kediende Mapuor Akech refused. He was right to. Those vehicles were never the Ministry’s to requisition; they were part of the Presidency’s instruments for fighting an epidemic, transferred under a Republican Order signed January 19, 2026, guaranteeing NPHI’s “operational and financial autonomy.” Diverting them meant defying the president’s own policy at its source.
The Executive Director of NPHI rightfully denied the minister the free hand to grab the vehicles meant for Ebola preparedness, and what followed cannot be regarded as governance. This incident represents thuggery disguised as an administrative action. It was a true retribution from a bitter group, procedurally dressed up.
A board meeting called for June 22 was rejected in the minister’s own hand: “Not attainable on this appointed date.” A revised date was fixed for June 26. That day, with only twelve of the Board’s nineteen statutory members present, the attendance was short of the two-thirds supermajority the NPHI Act requires for action of this weight. The Board reversed an endorsement of Dr. Kediende it had given unanimously five months earlier. Six weeks later, on August 6, the minister signed the order of removal, invoking not one of the five statutory grounds Section 28 prescribes, but the vague standard of a “withdrawal of trust.”
The removal was and is never an administrative measure. It is a minister who was denied an asset he had no legal claim to, engineering the downfall of the man who denied him, bringing him down through a board he could not lawfully command and that had been harbouring a vested interest on grounds the statute does not recognize.
The chronology moved in remarkable lockstep. Board Chairperson Dr. Angok Gordon Kuol has himself been regarded within the sector as a contender for the Executive Director position he now stands to see vacated. That alone should have demanded heightened transparency the moment the Board turned to the incumbent’s removal. By all measures of a transparent system, that could have been the standard, but a twelve-member quorum failed to provide it.
Serious questions also surround the roles of Mrs. Yar Manyuon, Director General for Preventive Health Services, and Dr. Bino Andrea, a national security officer attached to the Ministry, given their positions of institutional influence over the Ministry’s dealings with NPHI during this period. Whether personal relationships, prior disputes, or competing interests shaped decisions taken here should be independently examined. These are solely questions for investigators to answer, not conclusions this article draws.
The current institutional gains did not arrive by accident. They exist because the Office of the President, through Senior Presidential Envoy Adut’s own hand-delivered commitment to Ebola readiness, chose to invest in structures larger than any single minister. They exist because Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, signed the directive shielding NPHI’s autonomy from this kind of ministerial overreach. That labour has now been defied by a minister who mistook an epidemic-response fleet for a personal motor pool and a board chair who mistook a rival’s downfall for opportunity.
Ministerial Order No. 016/08/2026 rests on no lawful foundation. The Presidency built NPHI to survive politics; it should not now watch politics dismantle it. The Order should be annulled, and those responsible for producing it unlawfully should answer for what they did.
Luke Thompson Thoan has failed to meet expectations; he has shown a tendency to follow the instructions of those who provide him with handouts, makes decisions under the influence of alcohol, and has not projected the values expected of a minister of health. He even missed the cabinet meeting last Friday, August 7, 2026, because he was overly drunk.
The fragile health system cannot afford to be overseen by a group that prioritizes politics and personal gain over effective service delivery. Therefore, he, along with his enablers in destruction, should be sent home immediately.
Till then, yours truly, Mr. Teetotaller!
and then