Moïse Katumbi Chapwe

The return of Moïse Katumbi to a hero's welcome in the mining city of Lubumbashi on 20 May after a three-year absence is also shaking up Congolese politics (AC Vol 60 No 11 A shake-up takes shape)...

Also missing was Moïse Katumbi who returned to Belgium earlier in the month after his plane was allegedly twice refused permission to land in Goma intended as the next leg of a planned tour of the country (AC Vol 60 No 11 A shake-up takes shape)...

The return to Congo-Kinshasa after three years in exile of Moïse Katumbi the former Governor of Katanga is set to shake up national politics even as ex-President Joseph Kabila retains a vice-like grip on state institutions and the military...

The deal with Tsishekedi outflanked Fayulu and his backers whom Kabila greatly feared Moïse Katumbi Jean-Pierre Bemba and Mbusa Nyamwisi...

Pierre Lumbi a prominent member of the Lamuka coalition backed by Fayulu Moïse Katumbi and Jean-Pierre Bemba said on television that Tshisekedi was 'mocking' the Congolese people...

Fayulu a former ExxonMobil executive is backed by former Katangan governor Moïse Katumbi former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba and ex-foreign minister Mbusa Nyamwisi the latter two of whom are also notorious former rebel leaders...

All seemed well on 12 November when seven leaders gathered in Geneva including heavyweights Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi who have been barred from pursuing their own presidential aspirations and announced they had united behind Martin Fayulu a courageous political fighter who was nearly killed by the police two years ago (AC Vol 59 No 23 Militias flex their muscles)...

The leader of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission (Monusco) Leila Zerrougui has endorsed the government's efforts to hold credible elections despite multiple concerns about electronic voting machines and the exclusion on dubious legal grounds of major opposition candidates notably former Katanga province governor Moïse Katumbi and former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba (AC Vol 59 No 20 Hanging on a click factor)...

This coupled with the absence of Moïse Katumbi from the country during the candidacy registration period has left the opposition weakened (AC Vol 59 No 5 Kabila's survival strategy Vol 59 No 16 Kabila names his dauphin & Vol 59 No 17 Kabila's two-front offensive)...

This impression is confirmed by the exclusion of two of the most important presidential challengers Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moïse Katumbi from the poll...