Reagan Miviri a Congolese conflict analyst, researcher, and lawyer specialising in armed conflicts and political dynamics of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has scrutinised the issues raised by former President Joseph Kabila.
On October 9, Kabila broke his silence with a video message criticizing the administration of his successor, Félix Tshisekedi.
Kabila accused President Félix Tshisekedi of presiding over a regime as though a head of a clan.
The fire spitting Kabila accused the Tshisekedi regime for propping up insecurity, systemic tribalism, nepotism, patrimonial management of public goods, and the worsening poverty of ordinary citizens alongside the wealth of a ruling caste.
Reagan Miviri while appearing before Space Live event organized by Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, said that Kabila retains real political weight.
“Even when he doesn’t say much.” Congolese people, he said, want to know what he’s saying and what his next move will be: “his word still matters,” Mviri says.
Miviri noted that Kabila’s human rights record is not “the most commendable.”
He emphasized that the criticisms leveled at his successor Tshisekedi today were already directed at his predecessor, suggesting a review of Amnesty International reports from that period, which “often use the same words.”
“I don’t see any significant differences in terms of actions,” Mviri said.
Meanwhile, Mviri criticizes the former president for blaming all the country’s ills on the new authorities, when many of the problems had existed for a long time.
He cites the army: the equipment and training deficiencies are nothing new.
He acknowledges, however, that certain practices have “worsened” under the current administration, such as the use of mercenaries or the outsourcing of security to armed groups.
For him, the essential point lies elsewhere: defining the path forward and building national cohesion, without assuming “that there is a devil on one side and saints on the other.”
He also noted a profound division, both in the understanding of the problem and in the proposed solutions.
Kabila’s Silence on AFC/M23 and Rwanda
Much as everyone expected Kabila to make pronouncements on AFC/M23 rebels , the allegations against Rwanda’s involvement in the conflict in Eastern DRC, Mviri Miviri sees it as a deliberate choice by Kabila to remain noncommittal.
“If the problem is Tshisekedi, then Kabila cannot point the finger at someone else.
“However, he reminds us, there are two sides to the conflict, both engaged in fighting and accused of human rights violations.
“If he chooses to focus on certain facts and ignores others, that’s his choice,” Mviri said, adding that the public “is not fooled.”
Kabila’s message on the Washington agreement, Mviri was struck by the reference to “the continuity of the State.”
He noted that the Constitution stipulates a change of power in 2028 and that “there will have to be a new president” if it is respected.
The survival of the agreement through this change of power is, in his view, “a legitimate question.”
He also interprets it as a sign of Joseph Kabila’s desire to position himself as not being an enemy of the DRC’s international commitments.
