Hippolyte Kanambe – Joseph Kabila: Horrendous Betrayal by Former DRC Head of State

Boulevard du 30 Juin in Kinshasa on May 17, 1997, tyranny was lining up in perspective. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi predecessor discovered this large 2 lanes each side road then with amazement – not used to this minute luxuriance. Rubber boots as military shoes ending up his outfit in a dirtiness advanced state for having missed out on showering, he barely smiled thinly. Hippolyte Kanambe Kazembere, who was later called Joseph Kabila Kabange, supposedly a twin brother of Jeanet Kabila, when he replaced Mzee Laurent Désiré Kabila as the DRC president, according to sources, holds a fake fatherly bond that would link him to the assassinated president biological family. The main feature of his tutsi morphological description foreshadowed an etymologically genealogical impoverishment. Beardless, silent and taciturn, Hippolyte was stunned by the enormity of the task assigned to him by Kigali, for lack of mastering any landmark of a country as large as Western Europe. The Congolese could not question the essence of these AfDL lightning victories without serious fighting until Kinshasa. For the Sphinx of Limete, Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, he did find it hard to dissect the war final objectives and tossed around to put a meaning thereto, but to no avail. The West was concocting a plan that Kagame was bound to carry out in his capacity as proxy once Mobutu would have been removed from power. It did not last long!

Four years later – the Mission was accomplished doubly with the assassination of Mzee Laurent Désiré on January 16, 2001 and the co-optation of Hippolyte Kanambe as the DRC next head of state. He succeeded his late fake father but remains a product of a slyly concluded cabal, as Belgium declared in a Parliament sitting that Europe identified a young Tutsi lad in Rwanda and made him Congo president, aiming that he would be manipulated to doing their likings thereafter. It is with prominent, poorly shaped cheekbones – evidence of a taste not satiated in full. that he was stingily sworn in, in a borrowed outfit without practicality or elegance. Such a way of dressing up could not escape its similarity with an old costume, picked up on a grave and prepared by an old man in a village for the christening of his great-granddaughter one Sunday at the church. Help! Help! Francis Kalombo was quick to attend to such a SOS and rescued the new head of state with stylish Swag clothing – Jeune Premier, Bon Chic Bon Genre! New “Kitendiste” in his own way,  Hippolyte never let go of Francis Kalombo who brought out a certain shine from his Nilotic physiognomy for ages. He would later become the louse that had to be crushed, fortunately Francis escaped from his clutches to join Kampala before his return to France where he has been graciously blessed by Katumbi. Ingratitude is always the benefactor’s reward by the ungrateful.

The third penalty taking that Moise Katumbi did not want Kanambe to kick on the eve of 2016 elections ignited a feud between the two. Soriano, the son of a Greco-Italian Jew, had exposed the forgery and use of forgery by Hippolyte Kabila Kanambe. Not only had he entered into DRC  illegally, he is a holder of a Tanzanian passport too. Moise Katumbi stands fit to corroborate such  facts so easily reported beyond any doubt. Congolese nationals  have finally understood the reason behind his reluctance to condemn neither M23 nor RDF for their attacks on Goma, Bukavu and the killings perpetrated among the population. Hippolyte Kanambe alias Joseph Kabila has casted shadow on his doubtful Congolese citizenship; he is a tutsi as several sources have stated, including the Belgian parliament. The massive destruction of the DRC’s economic foundation in 18 years of his unchallenged reign is proof enough to question his realpolitik. The sale of 7 hills, Gecamines’ reserves deposit and the fragmentation of several mining quarries belonging to Gecamines following by their sale, made the latter to only benefit from rental income for its survival. Shamefully, Kanambe Kazembere called Félix Tshisekedi a tyrant while he is in cahoots with Kagame who has never held democratic elections, but still managing Rwanda as a dictator with iron fist; he oppresses his opponents and confiscates freedom of expression. The dictator is killing innocent people in DRC without distinction and recruits Congolese minor children, with the aim to shake off M23 features and dress it up as a true Congolese rebellion. Thinking dichotomy by a former president who is drowning in his own trickery has irrelatively made him a fool. Tshisekedi Féix Antoine is not a saint rather and his regime has widely exposed its shortcomings and weaknesses; nonetheless these loopholes are far from nearing an acceptable percentage of resemblance with Kanambe’s regime on the scale of comparisons.

Silence Finally Broken in a Failed Comeback by the Goatee Style Beard Hippolyte

From 2001 to January 2019: 18 years of a merciless bloody regime aided by intelligence services protecting Kanambe, not the republic. These services were mightily  supervised by an all-powerful Kalev. Massacres of Tingi-Tingi, Makobola, Beni, Bundi – dia- Kongo and Kamwina Nsapu are Kanambe’s  regime doings. Also, the mass graves in Maluku and targeted assassinations – Luc Kulula, Thérèse Kapangala, Rosy Mukendi, Eric Boteti, journalist Franck Ngike and his wife for having revealed that DRC treasury pays salary for Rwandan soldiers. Armand Ntungulu whose mortal remains are nowhere to be found. Marches and political sit-in and uprising were bloodily tamed by foreign forces; former opponent and businessman Gabriel Mokia bears the scars thereof to this day. Bishop Kutino, imprisoned for no apparent crime committed for 8 years, came out with a heart attack that left him hemiplegic. People are stunned to hear Kanambe claiming today that “the current regime has muzzled all forms of political opposition, intimidation, arbitrary arrests, brutal and extrajudicial killings, as well as forced exile for politicians, journalists and opinion leaders has become the main features of Tshisekedi’s governance“. Kanambe, whom his acolytes nickname CARA (the one who does not answer or talk) has strangely broken his license. Tshisekedi’s diplomatic supremacy strike has cracked this name and country usurper. Why did he choose to wait until Security Council voted for Resolution 2773 to come out since he remained unmoved and unshaken when Goma and Bukavu were invaded by Rwanda RDF? Since   the situation is no longer favourable to them, those who do not spew out a word do end up letting go of the speech they thought was rare. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi has foiled schemes and plots against the Congolese people hatched by Kanambe, Katumbi and NATO (European Union).

To this abracadabra statement by the man with eyes bulging out of their sockets, Pastor Grâce Emie, the youngest daughter of Bishop Kutino Fernando retorted as follows: “If only these are the criteria on which his judgment is based, then it is a total shame. For a thousand times, I would have preferred that my father, Kutino Fernando, be incarcerated under this regime rather than under the other one. Tortured, beaten in his cell, humiliated… he resisted, prayed, hoped. But how much suffering can the body endure? A stroke in prison. A hospitalization under high surveillance. Despite our pleas, a categorical refusal to let him go abroad for proper medical care. A year went by. A year of pain. A year of relentlessness. A year locked up in a hospital under constant surveillance before they finally accepted his exit to France, the last hope for a miracle… But the doctor’s verdict is final: too late – too late for repairing. Too late for catching up. Too late for hope. Today paralyzed forever, he bears the after-effects of their regime.” With a heavy heart, Grâce Emie desperately posted this message as a eulogy while the Bishop is still alive, riddled with his burden of disability that will accompany him to his grave, unless a miracle occurs based on his faith in the absolute present.

Why does he oppose a refusal for a self-examination? When Mobutu left, Kabila Mzee inherited a flamboyant maritime fleet of 37 ships; behind Mzee who was taken away  from his own (Congolese people) through a coup d’état in which Kanambe would have played his part, ONATRA had 22 ships. After 18 years of Kazembere, the country has no ship left; instead the scrap metal accumulated, bears witness to the sad end of these maritime machines. National ports have been  privatised as  means of quickly obtaining liquidity for this highly mercantilized presidential family. Never does one pass through the arteries of the republic without being challenged at the sight of a real estate arsenal, owned by Kanambe Kazembere. In the banking sector, non-existence’s inconceivableness of a Congolese commercial bank defines tyrannical leadership – Kanambe style. 6 major foreign banks share the market in this sector: BGFI (Gabonese), Stanbic (South African), Equity (Kenyan), Rwabank (Indian), Ecobank (Togolese) and Sofibanque (Arab). In his puny dwarf intelligence, Kanambe Kabila Joseph never knew that the development of national commercial banks is an entrepreneurship’s vector, providing access to bank credit possibilities. The Gabonese BGFI served as a money laundering factory for 68 companies owned by the Kanambe dynasty. Coming out so arrogantly and displaying, Tshisekedi regime weaknesses are a daydream in a hypnotic sleep following a solitary walk. Hippolyte Kanambe Kazembere is far from Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo republican managerial grip. To think of it in this way is an approval of a total solar eclipse to the detriment of Fatshi Béton.

Brutal or arbitrary killings that Kanambe accuses the current regime of are a glaring cerebral hiatus. The Voice of the Voiceless boss, Floribert Chebeya was atrociously asphyxiated to death during his reign. That day, he had never thought that his ill-meeting with Numbi was not going to be, nor did he know that it was the last time he waved good-bye to his offspring and his wife. The body of his brother-in-law (his wife’s brother) at the same time his driver Banzana, has never been found. The sham trial that was held before corrupted judges was a smokescreen. Christian Badibangi, the Bas-Congo governor Jacques Badou, Samba Kaputo, General Mukuntu were all poisoned for having discovered this or that other truth about the regime. Pointless to single out other victims who were never mentioned and whose disappearance has yet to give rise to investigations. Even Caligula would not have approached a monster of Kanambe’s calibre in counting the dead. Killing and death were for both of them, a game. That is at least their common denominator! Giving him the benefit of the doubt is a fact, certainly, but the disappearance of two United Nations experts – Zaida Catala and Michael Sharp on March 12, 2017, who were investigating the mass graves in the Kamwina Nsapu killing spree in Kasai-Central, is a burden in the hurdy-gurdy that will lead him to sentencing by the ICC. The hunt for UDPS activists in South Africa facilitated by the DRC former ambassador to Pretoria Ben Mpoko is another main feature of Kabila’s rule. They were arrested and imprisoned for having expressed opposing opinions on the management of the country by Kazembere Hippolyte. Zombi, the head of  AJKK movement, had, on Ben Mpoko orders, accompanied the South African police forces in identifying Congolese opposition militants and arresting them against a backdrop of false accusations. These are some of many achievements by a regime that wants to be more salutary than the current one!

The Kabilas have amassed wealth in DRC and are well off to enjoy it as they do abroad; such riches could not have prevented him to remain speechless watching tears scrolling down Congolese people cheeks. The luxuriant heritage they  cherish elsewhere, heralds from Congolese’s usufruct that they have seized through unjust and illegal enrichment. Between 2015 and 2018, the former president, Joseph Kabila adoptive brother, Francis Selemani, built an impressive real estate portfolio in the United States, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania and recently in Rwanda, spending over $ 106.6 million. On behalf of Kabila. The family assets around Washington DC, Cape Town -Stellenbosch and Johannesburg, including several estates and houses in the wealthy suburbs of Dainfern and Sandton have left the DRC economy bleeding dry. DRC has given everything to this man, today he defends M23 to represent and voice loudly people demands in DRC – the same terrorist movement he was accusing of all evils in DRC yesterday. The moment chosen to speak out is not inopportune; Kanambe felt the noose tightening on him and on Kagame the day after the adoption of a resolution against Rwanda as well as sanctions already taken and to be taken by other countries and organizations against Rwanda and its leaders, including Nangaa, Kanyuka, Bisimua on M23-AFC side.

In February 2012, Katumba Mwake, then Special Advisor to this false Raïs, was tragically killed in a plane crash at Kavumu airport in Bukavu. Circumstances around his death are still not being elucidated, Rwanda and Kabila are said to have plotted to assassinate this son of Pueto who was becoming a nuisance in the eyes of two tyrants. Several political figures and government ministers were on board this flight, including Matata Ponyo. Curiously, the latter was appointed 12 days later as Prime Minister of the new government resulting from the 2011 elections. Having survived such an accident, it is customary for victims to be taken care of for psychic sessions because of the trauma. This was not the case – you are free to draw your own conclusions! Kabila is not in a position to make an electoral diagnosis if he resorts to his conscience; he was imposed by force as president,  supported by Kagame and the international community in 2006 and 2011. He knows these elections real winners even if he had been helped to rush Jean Pierre Bemba to the ICC. Jean Pierre Bemba has been for long a thorn in Kanambe’s flesh! Opposition muzzling, moreover ineffective and inefficient since Félix presidency, is an attribute of dishonesty. The opposition in its time was never comfortable in its expressions and its marches were often repressed in blood. The “Burns” in UDPS office in Limete are a magnified illustration of this tyranny. Mr Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba mortal remains’ repatriation so that he may be laid to rest in his native country in Kinshasa, had met with categorical refusal by Kanambe and his government. Etienne cadaver remained in a hospital refrigerated facilities in Belgium from February 2017 to May 31, 2019 to finally be buried on June 1, 2019 at the advent of his son as new DRC president. Gecoco Mulumba’s irritability is automatically triggered when he hears the names Kalev and Joseph Kabila; he urinated blood in ANR jails because of kidney failure caused by unsanitary conditions therein. Kabila regime refused him a medical trip abroad for proper care, his tearful father went on television and pleaded his son’s case, but in vain.

Hippolyte Kanambe alias Joseph Kabila should have remained silent until further notice. It ought to be recalled that the very Kanambe once said that speaking is only allowed when words are stronger than silence. The strange scenario whereby Hippolyte has spoken out in less unenhanced phraseology, much defines the ambivalently uncertainty of his rule.  Having rushed into incongruous statements following the resolution by the Security Council and sanctions against Rwanda, M23 and some of their leaders, no longer casts doubt on his dubious origins. His presence in Uvira to hand life supply  to Rwandan troops and corrupt FARDC officers who had deserted, was scrupulously reported. No one has benefited from DRC as much as Kabila and his family; no member of this family has been so far moved to express compassion for what is happening in the East. He has neither sent his condolences to families of those who have been mowed down fortuitously by M23 and RDF nor condemned the entry of these troops into Goma and Bukavu. Instead, he paid tribute to the family of the former Namibian president Sam Nujoma, who passed away on February 8^th, 2025 in Windhoek, where Kabila has invested massively. Time has finally trued rumours that Hippolyte and M23 do form a non-dissociable set. It is incredibly hard to believe that a former head of state has not comforted the people he once led, rather he went to comfort a family in a foreign land that he has never ruled. Has Kanambe, as president of DRC, really defeated M23 in 2013 as he does so claim, signing of agreements with a militarily defeated movement could not have taken place, the winner takes all! The winner does not sign agreements with the vanquished, the balance of power being to his advantage. But the grumbling is elsewhere – the military programming law initiated by President Tshisekedi and the expected revision or change of the constitution, have roared in Kanambe Kabange and Kagame ears; it is the final nail on the coffin for them.  Kagame could no longer support Félix Antoine initiatives whom he has repeatedly accused of never comply with commitments he does enter into. Kanambe Kazembere is fighting Felix who seeks peace for his people while the power re-conquest is for him a gem to get at all cost, irrespective of human life consideration. Agreements cancellation entered into by Kabila and Kagame that DRC should not arm itself or train new soldiers, has put Kagame and Kanambe out of an alternative perspective. The deal was that in the event of a security concern experienced by DRC, Rwanda will come to its aid to ensure its security. Tshisekedi went further by cancelling authorizations and permits for mining quarries that once belonged to Kagame in Katanga. It was just one too many for them! Article 217 of the constitution which grants the partial abandonment of sovereignty in order to promote African unity, is bound to be amended and abolished. Kagame was counting on such a constitutional provision to get some lands in DRC and make his country bigger.  The Father and Mother’s Tshiani law likely to be adopted in the revised or changed constitution, pleases neither Kagame nor Kabila, Katumbi included. In order to delay these deadlines, the war was inevitable to stop such evolutionary whiffs by the current regime where the internet connection (contrary to Kazembere reign) has never been cut since  Felix Antoine Tshisekedi came to power, despite the opposing camp which went from political stammering to stuttering without proving the people wrong. They have found it hard to accept power relinquishment, it is about the price to pay since political truth has been twisted historically by a despot of his calibre. Hyppolite Kanambe Kazembere alias Joseph Kabila has betrayed a country that made him to be the man who he is today!