NilePet Boss Emmanuel Athiei Under Fire Over Kiir, SPLM Campaign Remarks
Kenya Today Nile Petroleum Corporation Managing Director Emmanuel Athiei Ayual has placed himself at the centre of a potentially explosive election controversy after openly calling on employees of South Sudan's state-owned oil company to rally behind President Salva Kiir and the ruling SPLM, while also linking NilePet's fuel preparations to the forthcoming elections. The controversy goes beyond an ordinary expression of political preference. NilePet is not a private company owned by Ayual or the SPLM. It is South Sudan's state-owned national petroleum corporation, entrusted with public assets and the country's commercial interests in an oil sector that remains critical to government revenue. Yet during an inspection of fuel depots and stations in Juba this week, Ayual openly declared that the SPLM needed to win and urged NilePet employees to support Kiir. Radio Tamazuj quoted him saying the SPLM should be supported “by all means,” including by Nile Petroleum Corporation and other institutions relevant to the government. ( Radio Tamazuj ) That statement immediately raises questions about where the boundary lies between a state corporation carrying out legitimate preparations for a national election and a public institution being mobilised for the political interests of the ruling party. NilePet Employees Told to Rally Behind Kiir Ayual did not merely express his personal support for Kiir. According to both Radio Tamazuj and Eye Radio, he specifically called upon NilePet staff to rally behind the president ahead of the December election. He also described NilePet as the government's commercial arm in the petroleum sector and spoke about procuring and stocking sufficient fuel to support the elections. ( Radio Tamazuj ) The remarks are especially sensitive because they came immediately after Kiir dissolved the transitional government and established a caretaker arrangement ahead of the election. According to Radio Tamazuj, the presidential decree governing the caretaker period requires officials to remain politically impartial and prohibits the use of public office, public resources or government institutions to promote or disadvantage political parties and candidates. ( Radio Tamazuj ) There are also specific election regulations at play. Radio Tamazuj reports that Section 8.1 of the National Elections Commission's Regulation No. 3 of 2024 prohibits political parties and candidates from using state or administrative resources, public human resources or public materials for campaigning, subject to the regulation's provisions concerning public media. ( Radio Tamazuj ) Whether Ayual's statements amount to a formal breach is ultimately a matter for the competent South Sudanese authorities to determine. But the conflict they create is difficult to ignore: the head of a state corporation was publicly asking employees of that corporation to support the ruling party at precisely the moment officials had been reminded about political neutrality. Public Fuel or SPLM Campaign Fuel? An equally important question concerns fuel. Eye Radio reported Ayual as saying NilePet was procuring and stocking enough fuel to support the president and the SPLM during the elections, while Radio Tamazuj's account quotes him speaking of stocking fuel to support “the elections.” ( Eye Radio ) That distinction deserves investigation rather than assumption. Supplying fuel necessary for the National Elections Commission, election logistics, security operations and other legitimate state functions would be very different from supplying fuel for SPLM campaign activities. The available reporting does not establish that specific NilePet fuel stocks have actually been diverted to the SPLM campaign. Ayual and NilePet should nevertheless explain exactly who will receive the fuel, who will authorise its release, how quantities will be accounted for and what controls exist to prevent publicly owned resources from being converted into partisan campaign resources. Transparency is particularly important when the managing director responsible for those resources has simultaneously told his employees that the ruling party must win. He Inherited a NilePet Already Battling Serious Problems Ayual took control of an institution already carrying substantial baggage. When Kiir appointed him in November 2025, his predecessor Ayuel Ngor Kacgor was removed following months of internal unrest. NilePet employees had staged sit-ins and accused the previous management of mismanagement, including months of unpaid salaries, suspended benefits and unfair promotions. ( Radio Tamazuj ) Those allegations should not be transferred to Ayual merely because he subsequently became managing director. In fact, available reporting shows his administration presenting itself as trying to repair some inherited problems. For example, Ayual subsequently ordered payment of outstanding end-of-service benefits owed to former NilePet managing directors after an internal review reportedly identified unpaid statutory entitlements and gaps in administrative records. NilePet presented that decision as part of an effort to improve institutional accountability. ( Sudans Post ) His administration has also reported clearing approximately $120 million in inherited Dar Petroleum liabilities, which NilePet said would strengthen the corporation's financial position and ability to meet obligations. ( Sudans Post ) Those facts make the latest controversy even more striking. A managing director who came into office promising institutional reform now faces questions about whether the state corporation he leads is being kept institutionally separate from ruling-party politics. Weapons Allegation Was Denied and Remains Unproven Ayual has also previously found himself facing an extremely serious public allegation concerning weapons allegedly supplied to armed youth in Lakes State. A social-media publication claimed that hundreds of rifles and other weapons had been supplied to cattle-camp youth and attributed the alleged supply to Ayual. NilePet responded forcefully, describing the accusations as false and malicious and insisting that neither the corporation nor its leadership had anything to do with supplying weapons. Importantly, Sudans Post reported that the allegations could not be independently verified and that no evidence had publicly been presented supporting them. ( Sudans Post ) That episode should therefore not be presented as established misconduct by Ayual. It does, however, demonstrate the intense scrutiny surrounding the leadership of one of South Sudan's most strategically important state corporations. The present election controversy is substantially different because it is based not on anonymous allegations but on remarks attributed directly to Ayual and reported by multiple South Sudanese media organisations. NilePet Cannot Become an SPLM Campaign Office There is nothing inherently improper about Emmanuel Athiei Ayual personally supporting Salva Kiir or the SPLM, subject to whatever restrictions apply to him as the head of a state corporation. The bigger question is whether that personal political preference is being separated from his management of NilePet. When the managing director tells employees to rally behind one candidate, invokes NilePet while discussing what is necessary for the SPLM to win and simultaneously oversees fuel preparations connected to the election, the distinction between state responsibility and party campaigning risks becoming dangerously blurred. South Sudan's electoral authorities and caretaker administration now face a straightforward governance test. They can establish exactly what Ayual meant, determine whether his statements comply with election regulations and ensure that NilePet's employees, fuel, vehicles, money and other resources are used only for lawful public purposes. Ayual also has an opportunity to provide clarity. NilePet can disclose what election-related fuel it is procuring, its intended recipients, the authorisation process and the safeguards preventing partisan use. Until those questions are answered, his remarks will continue to attract scrutiny because NilePet belongs to the South Sudanese state, not to an individual politician or political party. And in an election period where the government itself has prescribed political neutrality for state institutions, the man entrusted with the national oil company should expect every litre of fuel, every public resource and every instruction issued to employees to be subjected to scrutiny. ( Radio Tamazuj )