DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) CENI confers with presidential candidates in the presence of Gov Bill Richardson and SRSG Roger Meece; 2) Kabila launches electoral campaign in Kindu; 3) UDPS kicks off presidential and legislative campaigns in Kinshasa; 4) From South Africa Tshisekedi quashes rumor of failing health; and 5) CENI takes pro-Tshisekedi opposition leaders around and around in circles

1) CENI confers with presidential candidates in the presence of Bill Richardson and SRSG Roger MeeceGovernor Bill RichardsonKinshasa, Sunday, October 30CENI Headquarters(Credits)On Sunday, October 30, CENI board members, led by Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, conferred with 5 presidential candidates and the representatives of the remaining 6 other candidates at CENI headquarters in the presence of Governor Bill Richardson, who was in Kinshasa at the “invitation...

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To y'all: Help me unlock a BB 8310

This is urgent. I need the code (maybe instructions as well, though I am quite certain of having mastered the necessary steps) for unlocking a Blackberry 8310. The IMEI number is the following: 359316.01.031396.0Please send the correspondance including the code to my email: alexengwete@gmail.com I got a Samsung Infuse android I was able to unlock while still in DC.  But the problem with it is that it's bleeding me dry down here, depleting my prepaid phone credits by updating apps. I don't want Kinois "unlocking" services to touch my phone...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: CENI Chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda holds a live televised press briefing in Lingala

In the evening of Thursday, October 20, Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, chair of the national independent electoral commission, held a live televised press briefing in Lingala in the conference hall of CENI headquarters on Boulevard du 30 Juin--a stone's throw from the US Kinshasa Embassy and Consulate. Among the members of the press corps who interviewed Rev Mulunda was reporter Jules "Zulu" Bulembi of Jean-Pierre Bemba's "Canal Congo TV" (CCTV).The questions included, besides a short autobiography Rev Mulunda was asked to sketch for the viewers, precise...

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Former Kabila's sposkeman Kudura Kasongo: Deputy Premier Adolphe Lumanu "has ordered security services to bump me off"

In a telephone interview with Radio Top-Congo, Kudura Kasongo, erstwhile Kabila's spokesman and currently one of presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe's spokespeople, claimed today that Deputy Premier Adolphe Lumanu "has ordered security forces to bump me off." Contacted by phone by Radio Top-Congo, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister in charge of security Lumanu said he was being driven from N'Djili Airport where he'd just landed after a trip with the president to Kananga for the ground breaking ceremony of the Katende dam, he was therefore...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: CENI Chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda holds a live televised press briefing in Lingala

In the evening of Thursday, October 20, Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, chair of the national independent electoral commission, held a live televised press briefing in Lingala in the conference hall of CENI headquarters on Boulevard du 30 Juin--a stone's throw from the US Kinshasa Embassy and Consulate. Among the members of the press corps who interviewed Rev Mulunda was reporter Jules "Zulu" Bulembi of Jean-Pierre Bemba's "Canal Congo TV" (CCTV).The questions included, besides a short autobiography Rev Mulunda was asked to sketch for the viewers, precise...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: A Western diplomat's lowdown

1) UDPS change of tactics on Thursdays' demos and 2 police forces with 2 different behaviorsI met this Thursday morning a Western diplomat at a Kinshasa downtown coffee shop catering to expats and moneyed Congolese. (A tiny cup of coffee, without refill, fetches $6,00! As I can't possibly afford such an expense on my limited budget, the diplomat paid for my coffee. I mention this trivial detail because a pro-Tshisekedi reader of this blog accused me of being a member of the pro-Kabila "elite"--people who normally wouldn't flinch at coughing up...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Radio-Trottoir newsfeed; and 2) Kabila's bilingual press briefing

1) Radio-Trottoir newsfeedKinshasa grapevine (Radio-Trottoir) is on overdrive these days. As a matter-of-fact, it has left its natural venue of street corners and has found a new niche on TV. One  TV station is Radio Lisanga TV (RLTV) owned by controversial erstwhile warlord Roger Lumbala, chair of the RCDN (Rassemblement Congolais des Démocrates Nationalistes). During Africa's World War, MP Lumbala used to be a member of Azarias Ruberwa's Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) before breaking away and setting up his own outfit...

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Now blogging from Kinshasa...

Three months after my last one-year stint in Kin, I'm once again in the Congolese capital--where I arrived via Brussels on Saturday, October 15.Being at ground zero has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the former, the flavor of authenticity when blogging about the momentous events that elections represent. Having arrived before the beginning of the electoral campain set to begin on October 29 is an added bonus. The drawback of blogging mostly from a mobile phone is the narrowing of perspective and  formatting difficulties (no possibility...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Kin braces for another UDPS demo on Thursday; and 2) MP Roger Lumbala: “Kengo is not a Congolese by a long shot, either on his father’s or his mother’s side”

1) Kin is bracing for yet another UDPS demo on Thursday Jacquemain Shabani LukooUDPS Secretary General(Credits)UDPS secretary general Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo has written to Kinshasa Governor André Kimbuta (PPRD) to inform him about a mass rally UDPS will hold on Thursday, October 13, at the Square of the Post Office Hotel in downtown Kinshasa. In a strange reversal to of its usual anti-UDPS editorial line, the daily L’Avenir condemned...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: Rift widens within opposition: Léon Kengo wa Dondo appoints himself opposition’s common candidate

Angèle Makombo-EboumChair, Ligue des Démocrates Congolais (LIDEC)Founding member and spokesperson of pro-Kengo platform Forces de l’Opposition Réunies au Congo (FORECO)(Credits)Just days after meeting Etienne Tshisekedi in Brussels, Léon Kengo wa Dondo launched Saturday at the Memling Hotel in downtown Kinshasa a new political "platform" tosupport his presidential bid. The new group is called Forces de l’Opposition Réunies au Congo (FORECO) and brings...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) Kabila picks up major endorsement of former Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga; 2) Jean-Pierre Bemba non-committal on Tshisekedi’s solo bid; and 3) Rumors rife in Kinshasa about postponement of elections

1) Kabila picks up major endorsement of former Prime Minister Antoine GizengaFormer Prime Minister Antoine GizengaChairman, Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU)Photo : John Bompengo/Radio Okapi(Credits)On Friday, October 7, Kabila picked up a major endorsement for his presidential bid by former Prime Minister, PALU chairman and formerpresidential candidate Antoine Gizenga, 86, a veteran politician. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his party, the...

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Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero just concluded a 2-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo

Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria OteroCENI headquartersKinshasa, Thursday, October 6, 2011Photo: Yassa/L’Avenir(Credits)I missed this one, though State’s Press Relations office released six days ago the following “Media Note”:“Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs María Otero will travel to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from October 2 to 6 to discuss the promotion of democratic...

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) UDPS demo dispersed by riot cops; 2) Supreme Court of Justice dismisses UDPS petition against PPRD over a technicality; 3) ZETES rejects Jason Stearns’s fraud allegations but move shouldn’t cower observers into silence; and 4) US Kinshasa Embassy funds civil society’s website for phone tracking polls of presidential candidates

1) UDPS demo dispersed by riot copsAnother UDPS demo was dispersed with tear gas today—Thursday, October 6—by the riot police of the eastern precinct of Kinshasa. As per usual, UDPS members intended to march to CENI headquarters where their leaders intended to submit another memo on the still controversial subject of the access to CENI server and the audit of the electoral register. 2) Supreme Court of Justice dismisses UDPS petition against PPRD over a technicality.In a controversial ruling rendered last night—Wednesday, October 5—the Supreme...

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Amanda Knox's murder conviction overturned on appeal but has to pay €20K in defamation damages to her former Congolese boss Diya Patrick Lumumba

Diya Patrick LumumbaOwner of Le Chic, the bar where Amanda Knox worked in PerugiaFranco Origlia/Getty Images(Credits)Though her murder conviction has been overturned, Amanda Knox has still to pay €20K in defamation damages for falsely implicating her then Congolese boss, Diya Patrick Lumumba. (Details of the sordid affair appeared on this blog here.)Last month, Time magazine published a Who’s Who of characters in the murder case of Meredith Kercher....

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DRC Elections 2011 Watch: 1) CENI starts publication of electoral registers amid controversy stirred by Jason Stearns; and 2) Media watchdog enacts stringent rules

1) CENI starts publication of electoral register amid controversy stirred by Jason StearnsJason StearnsStirring controversy in KinshasaPhoto: Alex EngweteAt the weekly press briefing of the electoral commission held on Friday, September 30, CENI Rapporteur Matthieu Mpita announced that the publication of the electoral register has started on Wednesday, September 28, as mandated by law. But so far, CENI web portal has published the register of two...

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American Indignados: “We are the 99%”: The “Occupy” cities movement attempts to wrest back democracy hijacked by corporations and their political stooges

“We are the 99%”Sign held by an American “indignado”New York City, October 2, 2011twitpic Photo posted by @jopauca(Credits)Yesterday I was following with fascination on Twitter the American “Occupy” cities movement in action in New York City.  There’s definitely something major happening in America—a “revolution” that would ultimately dwarf the Tea Party rise, if it maintains its current momentum.And this revolution has nothing to do with the...

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