The Congo: Frenemies

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Frenemies

A court sentenced Vital Kamerhe, chief of staff to President Felix Tshisekedi, to 20 years of hard labor on charges of corruption and embezzlement in a case that was a test of Congo’s resolve to tackle high-level corruption, Bloomberg reported Saturday.

Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling more than $50 million from infrastructure projects linked to the first 100 days of Tshisekedi’s term. He has denied the charges and said the accusations were politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Tshisekedi has not commented on the case.

Kamerhe has been a powerbroker in the country for 15 years, leading former President Joseph Kabila’s first election campaign in 2006, after which he became head of the National Assembly.

Kamerhe broke with Kabila in 2009, then ran for president against his former boss in 2011, finishing third. He became chief of staff in 2018 in a deal with the current president which would have allowed him to run for the top job in 2023.

He is no longer eligible due to the conviction.

The case has captivated the nation, especially after Congo’s justice minister announced last week that the judge who had initially presided over Kamerhe’s trial, and who died last month, was murdered: The judge’s autopsy revealed that he died from a brain hemorrhage caused by head trauma, prompting the police to begin a murder investigation.

His arrest marks a win for Tshisekedi’s government in the fight against endemic corruption, but also removes a key ally in the president’s power struggle with Kabila’s supporters who still dominate the country’s institutions.

Even so, analysts say the verdict doesn’t mean Congo has turned a page in its fight to clamp down on corruption.

“It’s not lost on anyone who knows the DRC that this will make both Kabila and the Tshisekedi camp very happy…because both Kabila and Tshisekedi always saw Vital Kamerhe as an important political rival,” Stephanie Wolters of the South African Institute of International Affairs, told Bloomberg. “So, there are a number of reasons to be skeptical about the motivation of this and also to be skeptical about the longevity of any kind of sustained effort to go after anybody in the DRC who’s involved in corruption.”