He did not state when the graduation will take place.

But his statement came weeks after the president directed the peace parties that plans and preparations for graduation of unified forces must be completed within four weeks.

Reacting to Dr Elia’s remarks, some deserters say the reality on the ground is contrary to what the cabinet Affairs Minister talked about.

According to some of them, the screening exercise has not even started.

The angry soldiers also questioned the logic of being made to starve if indeed there is food kept somewhere…

They were speaking on the Sundown program…

“Elia Lomuro said that we are ready for the graduation and everything is ready, that is not enough. Now, soldiers who came from SSOA, from IO are not there. Those who are suffering are those who are in the cantonment center, I am also among those people. The graduation that they are talking about will be free or there is support? Let them inform us about what they will give to people. Are they going to graduate the hungry people or feed people first after graduation?,” unnamed caller asked.

“I am among those people who are going to graduate, I am in POC because there is nothing. The reality on the ground is that those who are fat are growing thinner, and those who are thin are looking like giraffes. Let them distribute the uniform if it is there because the motivation of soldiers is the uniform.” another caller stated.

“No, we cannot believe that, we know them very well, we know every month they talk about graduation but nothing happens, people talk about implementation of the peace agreement but there is nothing.” 

On Thursday, the interim chairperson of RJMEC – Maj Gen Charles Tai – pointed out that the government had made little progress in implementation of the security arrangements so far.

“The critical issues that remained unsolved include the unified command structure, force ratio between the parties, disproportionate numbers of senior ranks, funding for sustaining the personnel in the cantonment sites and training centers as well as funding for the DDR commission,” Gen Gitua said.