PREVIEW
Tshisekedi says the peace process for eastern Congo is ‘almost dead’ and has accused Ruto of taking up Rwanda’s cause in the ongoing conflict
There was no mistaking the icy chill when Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi accused his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto of being a Rwandan stooge who had ‘mismanaged’ the peace process in eastern Congo.
‘There are two processes. There was the Nairobi Process driven by Uhuru Kenyatta which, unfortunately, was subsequently managed by the new president William Ruto. He managed it very badly. The process is almost dead, apart from the fact that the designated facilitator, Uhuru Kenyatta, has stayed on. President Ruto has taken up Rwanda's cause,’ said President Tshisekedi at a panel discussion organised by the United States-based think-tank, the Brookings Institution.
The antipathy between Tshisekedi and Ruto has grown since May when the Congolese leader expelled a Kenya-led East African Community intervention force, launched as part of the Nairobi Process, that was supposed to tackle fighting between militia groups in eastern Congo.
Kinshasa then recalled its ambassador to Kenya in protest after Congolese oppositionists launched a political party in Nairobi supporting the rebel group M23 which is supported by Rwanda (AC Vol 64 No 22, Kagame tests his security playbook to the limit).
In April, two Kenya Airways employees were detained in Kinshasa over claims about inadequate documentation for valuable cargo, rumoured to be several million US dollars in cash (AC Vol 65 No 11, Tshisekedi unruffled in his labyrinth). The row saw Kenya Airways briefly suspend its flights to Kinshasa, though a diplomatic mission by Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi in May appeared to have repaired that damage.
However, weeks later Ruto questioned the links between M23 and the Rwandan state and described the militia group, which is made up of Congolese, as a problem for Kinshasa rather than Rwanda. Tshisekedi then boycotted a heads of state summit of the East African Community last month and is yet to give accreditation to Kenya’s ambassador to Kinshasa.
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