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Viewing cable 07KINSHASA530, DRC SENATE GIVES VOICE TO POLITICAL OPPOSITION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07KINSHASA530 2007-05-15 08:31 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kinshasa
VZCZCXRO5273
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0530/01 1350831
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 150831Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6123
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000530 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM CG
SUBJECT: DRC SENATE GIVES VOICE TO POLITICAL OPPOSITION 
 
REF: KINSHASA 528 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: The DRC's Senate May 11 elected former 
Mobutu Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo as its president, 
making him the highest-ranking opposition politician in the 
GDRC. Senators also voted in the six other members of its 
leadership body, giving it a 4-3 split between members of the 
pro-Kabila Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) and 
the pro-Bemba political opposition. The results were somewhat 
unexpected as the AMP holds a majority in the Senate. Kengo's 
election changes the political character of the Senate, with 
somewhat unpredictable results. Kengo's election will 
presumably decrease prospects for lifting immunity from 
prosecution of opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, but Kengo 
could also share an interest in eventually marginalizing 
Bemba's influence. The election also clearly exposes the 
fragility of Kabila's supposed 70-plus member AMP majority in 
the Senate. End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Senators elected Mobutu-era Prime Minister and 
Foreign Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo to the Senate presidency 
May 11 in a 55-49 vote over President Joseph Kabila's former 
chief of staff Leonard She Okitundu (reftel). Kengo's 
election comes a something of political shock, as the 
pro-Kabila AMP coalition claims a substantial majority of 
seats in the 108-member Senate. She Okitundu had been favored 
going into the vote, particularly as an AMP rival, former 
Transitional Senate president Monsignor Pierre Marini, 
withdrew his candidacy May 10. A few days earlier, Okitundu 
had however expressed some concern to the Ambassador about 
being able to preserve AMP solidarity. The victory puts Kengo 
as next-in-line for the DRC presidency on an interim basis 
should the post be vacated. 
 
3. (U) Kengo's election makes him the highest-ranking 
opposition figure in the GDRC. Though clearly associated with 
the political opposition, Kengo is officially an independent 
and did not run as a candidate of Bemba's Union for the 
Nation (UpN) alliance. In remarks to the press after his 
election, Kengo distanced himself from both the AMP and the 
UpN, saying he wanted to remain independent and listen to the 
arguments of both sides. He repeated this theme in his first 
remarks to the Senate as he took office May 14, asserting 
that he wishes to bridge the gap between government and 
opposition forces. 
 
4. (SBU) Initial reaction to Kengo's victory has been mixed. 
Kinshasa newspapers, including the staunchly pro-Kabila 
"L'Avenir," have largely heralded Kengo's election as a sign 
of "balanced" government between the majority and opposition. 
Others within the AMP, however, have alleged Kengo bought 
votes, though such rumors -- targeting both Kengo and She 
Okitundu -- have been rampant. One AMP-aligned senator told 
us May 11 there was "a lot of corruption, but the UpN did it 
better than the AMP." While some disappointed government 
supporters have blamed the international community, other 
acknowledge that other factors were in play as well, 
including Okitundu's relative weak political base, ethnic and 
regional factors, and a government coalition that is far from 
united. 
 
5. (U) The Senate voted in six other executive officers, 
including two from the political opposition: 
 
-- 1st Vice President, Edouard Mokolo wa Pombo (Independent, 
aligned with AMP) 
-- 2nd Vice President, Mario Losembe (Forces of Renewal, 
aligned with AMP) 
-- Rapporteur, Modeste Mutinga (Independent, aligned with AMP) 
-- Deputy Rapporteur, Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga (Independent, 
elected from RCD, aligned with opposition) 
-- Questeur (administrative/financial officer), Jean Fulbert 
Mabaya (Independent, aligned with opposition) 
-- Deputy Questeur, Ignace Ndebo Akanda (PPRD, aligned with 
AMP) 
 
6. (U) The seven officers were sworn in May 14. The Senate 
will be the first governmental body to include the opposition 
in its leadership. All 59 ministers and vice ministers, plus 
the entire leadership of the National Assembly, are members 
of the AMP. Some opposition members have been appointed to 
head four of the Assembly's eight permanent commissions. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: Kengo's victory gives him a more elevated 
profile than fellow Senator -- and opposition leader -- 
Bemba. Kengo is a savvy political operator, with many years 
 
KINSHASA 00000530  002 OF 002 
 
 
of experience working in the upper levels of the former 
Mobutu regime. Widely unpopular and chased out of the country 
at the time of the ADFL 1997 assumption of power, Kengo now 
retains some political base in northern Equateur province, 
although his popular standing in the rest of the country is 
open to question. He is nothing if not a pragmatist, however, 
and how political alignments will change depends on his own 
agenda and ambitions, how the presidency and government 
choose to deal with him, and how the opposition ranks in 
parliament react to the new situation. End comment. 
 
8. (U) Biographical information on Leon Kengo wa Dondo: 
 
Leon Kengo wa Dondo, 71, was the longest-serving Prime 
Minister under Mobutu. Born Joseph-Leon Lubicz to a Polish 
father and Tutsi mother, he was appointed Prime Minister from 
1982-1986, and moved to the post of Foreign Minister from 
1986-1987. Mobutu again appointed him Prime Minister in 1988, 
where he served until the creation of the Sovereign National 
Conference (CNS) in 1990. The post-CNS transitional 
parliament selected him as Prime Minister in 1994. He 
remained in the post until the Congo's civil war began in 
late 1996, when Mobutu selected him to head a crisis cabinet 
focused on defeating Laurent Kabila. In April 1997 he 
resigned his position, one month before Kabila's army arrived 
in Kinshasa, and went into exile in Europe, during which he 
was charged in 2003 with money laundering in Belgium. He 
returned to the DRC in 2005. Born May 22, 1935, in Libenge, 
Equateur province, Kengo holds a law degree from the Free 
University of Brussels, after having studied business 
administration in Mbandaka. He was elected to the DRC Senate 
as an independent in January 2007 from Equateur. 
MEECE