The murder of Laurent Kabila remains one of the great unsolved political mysteries of modern Africa. What is known is this: he was shot by a teenage bodyguard, a former child soldier named Rachidi Mizele, known as “Rashidi.”
The official version, announced by Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo, held that Rashidi acted alone. He was shot dead immediately after the killing — by Colonel Eddy Kapend, Kabila’s personal military aide eliminating the only direct witness.
The investigation that followed was described by historian Thomas Turner as “shambolic.” Dozens of bodyguards, including Colonel Kapend and the commander of Kinshasa’s garrison, were convicted and sentenced to death in a military trial that human rights organizations condemned as fundamentally unfair.
Eleven of them subsequently died in custody. In 2021, President Félix Tshisekedi released Kapend and 23 others, citing humanitarian reasons.
The real story who planned the assassination, who gave the order, and why has never been definitively established. CIA cables declassified decades later noted that all members of Kabila’s close protection unit were aware of the plan, that most were from South Kivu province, and that they had sent their wives to Brazzaville in advance. There were reports of approximately 20 Kivu natives serving in the ANR deserting in the days before the shooting, after complaining of mistreatment by Katanga-region officers.
Declassified intelligence assessments identified Kapend as playing a central role: on his orders, according to the commission of inquiry, the assassin had been granted access to a small communications room adjacent to the president’s office.
Kapend had also allegedly downplayed warnings received immediately before the attack.