DRC Presidential Candidate Being Held For Questioning

On Monday, May 9, 2016, supporters of presidential candidate Moise Katumbi  gathered outside the DRC prosecutors office in Lubumbashi as Katumbi meet with a judge over suspected charges of hiring mercenaries. The charges came after Katumbi announced last week that he would run for the DRC presidency this November.  Under Congolese law a person cannot run for president if they have been found guilty of a crime.

Katumbi is the owner of the Congolese football team TP Mazembe, and had served under Kabila as governor of the Katanga province from 2007 to 2015. He stepped down after he accused Kabila of trying to delay the 2016 presidential elections. Katumbi announced his candidacy for presidency on May 4, and within hours DRC Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba ordered an investigation after accusing Katumbi hiring mercenaries including several retired American soldiers.

Katumbi is a very popular presidential candiate. He is viewed as a symbol of change in a country that has  never fully recovered from two wars that led to 5.4 million killed, and Hutu rebels remain scattered throughout the DRC. He has vowed to establish genuine rule of law in which people are not persecuted by the police and courts and not ridiculed by media outlets. He was endorsed as a presidential candidate by the G7 African Summit on March 31, 2016.

President Joseph Kabila is scheduled to step down this November as he has served the maximum two terms as president. Kabila shot to power in 2001 after the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, former DRC president, and won two disputed elections in 2006 and 2011. The country has been con plagued by conflict for decades and the DRC government announced this past January that it would take 13 months to update voter lists and the elections would be delayed until 2017. Kabila has not stated whether the elections will go on ahead as planned or if he will run for a third term. Kabila’s critics accuse him of trying to cling to power beyond the legal limit set by the constitution.

Kabila was a commander for the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) and ran a child army. He would orchestrate kidnappings them from their homes, schools, or church’s, and forced to kill or beaten if they refused. He also has a history of bribing legislators, a domestic death toll in the millions, and fears that he may refuse to step down in November. It was reported last June that Kabila admitted to looting $15 billion and had stashed it in off shore accounts, while his brother Soulemane stole an additional $300 million.

Katumbi is an outspoken opponent of Kabila and is projected to be the next president as long as free, fair, and timely elections are held. As a means of intimidation the DRC government had 27 Katumbi associates and political supporters arrested throughout the Lubumbashi region in southeastern  DRC.

If Katubmi is found guilty and cannot run for the presidency the next two most likely candidates would be the Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo or Kabila’s wife Olive Lembe De Sita. Both are viewed as both represent successors of Kabila’s regime.

There is concern that democracy is gradually being phased out from the DRC, and that if Congo has any hope of retaining a democracy it lies with Katumbi’s nomination.