DR Congo: Former Foes Kabila and Katumbi Join Forces In Constitutional Amendment Fight

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman

Joseph Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and currently a senator, and Moïse Katumbi, one of the unsuccessful presidential candidates in the 2023 elections, have joined forces in challenging constitutional amendments proposed by the current government of President Tshisekedi.

The former political foes have called on the Congolese people to “actively resist the current government's determination to break the republican pact, the fruit of a broad national consensus that has enabled the country's reunification and stability, as well as the re-establishment of democratic institutions, at the risk of exacerbating divisions within the Congolese population and completing the disintegration of our Nation”.

These two opponents expressed their views in a press release signed a few days ago by Olivier Kamitatu, spokesman for Moise Katumbi. Before signing the press release, the two opponents had met last week in Ethiopia to discuss the situation in the DRC.

In recent months, President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo had officially declared his support for amending the country's 2006 Constitution.

According to Kabila and Katumbi, “any constitutional reform which, in the present circumstances, is illegal and inappropriate, and whose ultimate aim is clear to all: the consolidation of dictatorship through a life-long presidency in the DRC”.

They are therefore calling on “all political and social forces whose actions are part of the struggle against dictatorship and for the well-being of the Congolese people to join forces with them”.

Having observed the serious political, security and socio-economic crisis that the DRC is going through, and its consequences for the population, Joseph Kabila and Moïse Katumbi launch “an urgent appeal for peace and national unity, while stressing the importance and urgency of respecting the fundamental rights of citizens, which are now being trampled underfoot, and of preserving democracy and the rule of law, which have given way to oppression and dictatorship”.