Majorité Présidentielle" (Alliance of Presidential Majority), are
holed up at the Raïs' farm at Kingakati, a 2-hour drive east of
Kinshasa, for a weekend-long strategy session billed as the "Kingakati
Conclave."
The meeting is by no means a "distribution of positions" in
government, a senior member of the platform told reporters to allay
the anxiety of the rank and file of the Alliance who may feel left
out.
He added that this weekend conclave is simply a meeting between key
leaders of the platform's political committee and the Alliance's
"moral authority," i.e. the Raïs, to set up a strategy for the
upcoming elections. (The French language allowed him to state this
without clearly mentioning the word "elections," as the expression
"prochaines échéances politiques" perfectly conveyed the idea.)
At the end of the Kingakati Conclave, the leaders of the platform
would then share with their party members the strategy crafted over
the weekend.
As this conclave was being announced with much fanfare on Thursday,
newspapers aligned with the PPRD, the Raïs' party, were launching
coordinates personal attacks against Kudura Kasongo, former spokesman
of the President, and Vital Kamerhe, ex-Speaker of the National
Assembly, who are accused of forming an unholy "union to bring down
Kabila" (a claim made for instance by the newspaper "Le Réseau"). The
two men were derisively dubbed "the duo."
Appearing on TV last night, Kudura Kasongo blasted those reports and
accused people close to the current Speaker and national president of
PPRD, Evariste Boshab, of hatching the "cabal" against Kamerhe and
him.
It is odd to see Kudura Kasongo who not along ago was the darling of
the media close to the ruling majority being thus mercilessly savaged
by the same media he used as prop when he was one of the Raïs' chosen
few.
I still haven't heard or read the official account of Kudura Kasongo's
sudden downfall last year. But according to Radio-Trottoir, he was
dismissed by the Raïs who caught him red-handed in the act of stealing
the President's charitable donation to a Catholic school in
Lubumbashi.
According to this account, Kabila visited the school about two years
ago and wondered why a wing wasn't finished. The priests told him they
had launched a fund-raising drive to get the $100,000 needed to
complete the construction of the wing. The Raïs then pledged the full
amount to the priests.
Shortly afterward the Raïs handed $100,000 to Kudura Kasongo for those
priests. The President's spokesman gave half of the money to the
priests and pocketed the other half! In Congolese political lingo,
this kind of theft or unauthorized apportionment of funds is called
"Opération Retour."
About a year after Kudura Kasongo's theft, the Raïs went again on a
visit to that school where he was surprised to see that the
construction of the wing was still unfinished.
When he voiced his astonishment, the priests told him their
fund-raising was still ongoing as they only got $50,000 pledged by the
Raïs.
Furious, Kabila summoned Kudura Kasongo at the school where he was
confronted by the president in front of the priests.
As Kudura Kasongo was attempting to stammer improbable explanations,
the Raïs contemptuously told him: "I don't want to see you ever
again! Get out of my sight!"
Well... If this account is true, why don't Kudura Kasongo's political
enemies use it in their recent attacks?
(Sent via mobile phone)
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