Radio-Trottoir feed: The "Third Way" conspiracy or why Kengo was assaulted in Paris

The grapevine of Radio-Trottoir has been feeding like crazy strands of rumors boiling down to variations on the same theme: a conspiracy called "La Troisième Voie" (the Third Way). A conspiracy allegedly hatched by Senate President Léon Kengo wa Dondo and Laurent Cardinal Monsengwo! A conspiracy that unfolds like a back-to-the-future plot line...

During the transitional period of the early 1990s that followed hard on the heels of the National Sovereign Conference (CNS) headed by Mgr. Laurent Monsengwo (then archbishop of Kisangani), Etienne Tshisekedi was appointed prime minister. But the next day, Mobutu fired him and his entire cabinet over a constitutional breach: before signing his oath of office, Tshisekedi had redacted the phrase "under the Constitution," which, according to Mobutu and his lawyers, rendered therefore "moot" his oath as well as that of his entire cabinet. A political crisis ensued, with Tshisekedi still claiming to be the prime minister.

In order to resolve the crisis, Mgr. Monsengwo is alleged to have come up with a solution he dubbed "the third way": that is neither Mobutu nor Tshisekedi, but a third man who would be an acceptable alternative to both men. He thought that man was his own buddy, Léon Kengo wa Dondo... Well, Monsengwo "third way" had little chance of being accepted by Mobutu who'd never ever deemed himself expendable...

Now fast forward to today. According to Radio-Trottoir, the current activism of Laurent Cardinal Monsengwo isn't deployed in behalf of Tshisekedi, but of his longtime friend and political ally Kengo. In fact, way before the election, the pair had hatched (or re-hatched) the conspiracy of the "third way"--though it has a more nefarious element this time around: murder!

According to one strand of the storyline, while speaking at a campaign stop in Bas-Congo Province, Kabila used a mike that had been laced with deadly poison. As his wife and his daughter spoke from the same mike, they were all poisoned and have since fled to China where they are being treated right now! In the event of Kabila's death, Kengo, who, as Senate president is next in line to step in, would assume the presidency.

According to another strand, the conspiracy allows for a Plan B. Hitmen disguised in uniforms of Kabila's Presidential Guards would assassinate Tshisekedi in broad daylight. The domestic and international outrage subsequent to the assassination would be so untenable that Kabila would flee to China. Once again, Kengo would step in as pro tem president.

This conspiracy thus "uncovered," "combatants" (as Tshisekedi's supporters call themselves) are resolved to have at the masterminds of the "third way." That's why Kengo, one of those masterminds, was so thoroughly trounced at the Gare du Nord in Paris...