Katumbi withers political persecution ahead of nomination in DRC presidential race
Democratic Republic of Congo opposition Together for Change leader Moise Katumbi is ready to file his nomination for President next month (September), despite enduring widespread persecution at the hands of the ruling party.
The local Independent Electoral Commission of Congo (CENI) has set September 2 to 23 as the period presidential candidates will file their nominations ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections slated for December 20, 2023. Former president Joseph Kabila, leader of the FCC and 2018 presumed winner Martin Fayulu, have technically boycotted from contesting the polls.
Kabila has opposed the composition of the CENI and the Constitution Court saying they were unconstitutional. As for Fayulu, he has said failure to subject the voter’s register to an independent audit will compromise the holding of a credible election. Yet Denis Kazadi Kadima, the chairman of the CENI has refused the international audit of the list of voters by an independent organisation.
Katumbi, however, has soldiered on while demanding an inclusive, free, fair transparent and credible election. The former Katanga governor has forged alliances with parliamentarian Delly Sesanga, Fayulu and former Prime Minister in the Kabila regime, Augustin Matata Mapon.
Apart from attempts to stop him from contesting the elections through a failed constitutional amendment, Katumbi’s residences have been raided, his aides thrown in prison and his party spokesperson recently assassinated. In May this year, Katumbi’s senior advisor Salomon Kalonda Della was picked up at Ndjili International Airport in Kinshasa while preparing to board a plane with the opposition leader.
A law requiring that both parents of presidential candidates be of Congolese heritage failed in parliament two years ago and its reintroduction has stalled after countrywide protests ensued. Although the government of President Felix Tshisekedi has publicly not supported the bill, indications are that it is being advanced by ruling party surrogates. He was seven days later charged with illegal possession of a firearm and schemes that bordered on attempts to overthrow the government. The firearm charge has since disappeared after it was discovered that the weapon in question was registered to the security detail of another opposition with the overthrow charges switched to supplying of release of classified information.
Katumbi’s other aide, Mike Mukebayi, is also in jail for allegedly preaching hate speech with another ally Franck Diongo of the Movement Lumumbist Party (MLP) who was recently released from prison on account of poor health having been nabbed for his association with the Katanga businessman.
Several other voices including journalists have been silenced ahead of the polls, but it is the death of Together for Change spokesman Cherubin Okende that left the nation gutted. Okende, a member of parliament, quit Tshisekedi’s government alongside Christian Mwando Simba and Veronica Kilumba in solidarity with Katumbi. The official was found dead in his car on the side road of a business Kinshasa highway less than 24 hours after he was kidnapped in the premises of the Constitutional Court.
Despite the blatant persecution at the hands of President Tshisekedi, Katumbi is determined to give the people of Congo an alternative at the polls.
“It’s important that the international community also takes a keen interest of what is happening in Congo so that we can have a credible election. The choice of the people must be respected. We are determined to go all that way. There’s no turning back for us because the people of Congo have asked us to make the difference,” he said in a recent interview.
Congolese are determined to vote but do not want a repeat of 2018 when the election was decided outside the ballot. Then CENI chairman-turned opposition leader Corneille Nangaa dropped a bombshell when he disclosed that President Tshisekedi did not win the polls but was a compromise choice.