Vital Kamerhe

The chief executives of Glencore and Barrick – Ivan Glasenberg and Mark Bristow – met Tshisekedi and his chief of staff Vital Kamerhe in Kinshasa to try to push for changes to the mining code...

News soon circulated that Vital Kamerhe Tshisekedi's running mate in the campaign and a former Kabila supporter and president of the National Assembly had rushed to Tshisekedi's aid at the podium when he collapsed...

Tshisekedi and his ally Vital Kamerhe had stoked suspicion when they broke after only a day an agreement struck in Geneva in November for the entire opposition to unite behind Fayulu sparking a bitter war of words and suspicion between their supporters (AC Vol 59 No 25 The Twelve Fixes of Christmas)...

A day later Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe pulled out of the pact citing the furious reactions back home of the parties they lead – the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social  (UDPS) the largest opposition party which was founded in the early 1980s by Tshisekedi's father and the Union pour la nation congolaise (UNC) another major political player (AC Vol 58 No 11 Kabila thriving on chaos)...

They opted for Martin Fayulu an articulate national parliamentarian who can mobilise the Kinshasa street but the next day Félix Tshisekedi son of the late and perennial opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi pulled out quickly followed by former information minister Vital Kamerhe...

The Rassemblement a large coalition dominated by the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS) Congo's oldest opposition party and the G-7 alliance which supports the presidential aspirations of the exiled former Governor of Katanga Moïse Katumbi published a statement on 7 November identical to those issued by the Union pour la nation congolaise (UNC) led by Vital Kamerhe and the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba...

DisappointmentThe formation of the new government has been dispiriting for Vital Kamerhe who finished third behind Kabila and Tshisekedi in the 2011 presidential election and his Union pour la nation congolaise...

A big loser is former Information Minister Vital Kamerhe Lwa Kanyiginyi Nkingi a heavyweight from South Kivu who pulled his Union pour la nation congolaise and other opposition allies into the talks but was eventually rewarded with nothing...

Badibanga's promotion came as a shock since Vital Kamerhe President of the Union pour la nation congolaise had led the opposition group in the negotiations which yielded the agreement with the regime and was assumed to be the frontrunner for the premiership...

For example Vital Kamerhe was a confidant of Kabila's who left the President's Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la démocratie and finished well behind both him and Tshisekedi in the 2011 presidential election...