Q four days after the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Sylvestre Ilunga, from the camp of ex-president Joseph Kabila, and like Jeanine Mabunda, dismissed from the head of the National Assembly on December 10, it is the president’s turn of the Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, to be the target of an unprecedented double offensive, judicial and political. Explanations.
A case of embezzlement of public funds
It all started on Monday. The prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Victor Mumba Mukomo, asked the Senate office to “authorize the investigation” against Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, “for embezzlement of public funds and thus allow him to present his means of defense ”, according to a letter, a copy of which has reached Agence France-Presse. The alleged embezzlement concerns “two million euros” and “one million dollars” that the President of the Senate Alexis Thambwe Mwamba was given “at his residence” on January 6, says the prosecutor in this letter addressed “to the members. of the Senate office ”. In its response to the prosecution’s request, the Senate office confirmed that Alexis Thambwe had “agreed to house these funds temporarily at his home”, because of “a strong excitement” that day in the premises. of the National Assembly which adjoin those of the Senate.
The next day, “the treasurer recovered the funds to send them to the treasury of the Senate,” said one in this correspondence signed by Tibasima Mbogemu Ateenyi, second vice-president of the office of the upper house of Parliament. Consequently, the office of the Senate “considers that there is no matter to authorize the requested investigation, the facts described not being analyzed in infringement as touted”. During the period of parliamentary recess, the Senate office is empowered to authorize or oppose proceedings against a senator. This request against Alexis Thambwe, the last supporter of former President Joseph Kabila still at the head of an institution, comes a few days after the fall of pro-Kabila Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba, following a vote against his government in the National Assembly.
Thambwe Mwamba, under fire from a political offensive
In full parliamentary recess, the senators were summoned this Tuesday, February 2 by Mr. Thambwe Mwamba for the examination and adoption of the bill authorizing the ratification by the DRC of the agreement establishing the free trade area African continent (ZLECAF), desired by President Félix Tshisekedi. It is the day that exactly chose a group of 64 senators out of 109 in total also to present a motion of censure, for “bad management”, against all the members of the Senate office, except its vice-president Samy Badibanga, a pro-Tshisekedi. It could be examined in March, during a future session.
As the Senate is mostly controlled by supporters of ex-president Kabila, “if the motion is voted on, this would mean that the last pawn of Kabila’s device will be swept away, leaving Tshisekedi totally free,” analyzed with from AFP the Congolese cartoonist Thembo Kash, who draws Congolese political news on a daily basis. The political attack against Alexis Thambwe comes in the context of an offensive by President Tshisekedi’s camp against that of his predecessor Kabila. Head of State Félix Tshisekedi signed his first victory on December 10 by returning the majority in the National Assembly in his favor, through the dismissal of its pro-Kabila president, Jeanine Mabunda. Commissioned by the president to identify a new majority in the lower house of Parliament, Senator Modeste Bahati indicated on January 28 in a report that there was now a pro-Tshisekedi majority of 391 deputies out of the 500. Felix Tshisekedi had been proclaimed winner of the elections of December 30, 2018, which allowed his predecessor Joseph Kabila to keep control of Parliament. The official results had been widely contested by part of the opposition.
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