After his sudden appearance in the M23 controlled city of Goma, news about former DRC president Joseph Kabila have been quite dormant.
However, almost three months after the return of the Congolese politician in May, the Congolese public prosecutor General Lucien René Likulia has ordered his death sentence after civil parties have demanded a sum of nearly 25$ billion in reparations for the victims of the Eastern DRC conflict.
Kabila is accused of war crimes such as murder and rape as well as of treason charges for alleged cooperation and support for the M23 rebel group in the Eastern DRC region.
The military court goes even as far as to call him a Rwandan citizen and thus demand to charge him for the crime of espionage as well.
But what basis do these charges have and how true are the claims about Kabila’s background being on Rwanda’s side of the conflict?
Kabila’s Rwandese heritage?
The background behind Kabila’s contested national identity is barely mentioned in prominent news reports concerning the trial.
In light of his alleged support for the M23 and therefore fueling the conflict in the Eastern DRC, the military court of Kinshasa raised the assumption of Joseph Kabila being of Rwandese descent.
The argument is based on the claim that Kabila was originally born under the name Hyppolite Kanambe and biologically related to Rwandese Marcelline Mukambukuje, who was known as one of Laurant Désiré Kabila’s wives.
However, these claims are highly controversial and are not substantiated enough to be called “evidence” as the concept of marriage differs largely from the western standard and thus is not necessarily always documented as such.
Political rivalry and return to Goma
Nevertheless, due to Kabila’s return to Goma and comeback into Congolese politics, the rumors gain more feasibility in the eyes of Kinshasa’s political elites.
According to the Tshisekedi administration, this return shows clear evidence for a long-lasting cooperation between Kabila and the M23 including its political wing Alliance Fleuve de Congo (AFL) and thus is deeply involved in the current Eastern DRC crisis.
Therefore, experts such as researcher and analyst Henry-Pacifique Mayala view this trial rather as a “settling of scores session than a quest for truth.”
As Joseph Kabila’s whereabouts remain unknown, the whole trial was held in his absence with the final verdict still to be announced.
