Jean-Marc Kabund had surely imagined a less tumultuous start to the year. Since the announcement on the networks of his resignation from the post of 1st vice-president of the National Assembly, the boss of the UDPS seems to be slowly but surely moving towards a sidelining of power.
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It all started with a clash between the police responsible for his security and an element of the Republican Guard driving in the wrong direction in a vehicle belonging to a member of the family of Félix Tshisekedi, on January 11. In response to the arrest of this member of the unit responsible for ensuring the protection of the Head of State, the “red berets” of the Republican Guard carried out a “punitive expedition” to Kabund’s home.
To read DRC: Jean-Marc Kabund announces his resignation from the post of 1st Vice-President of the Assembly
Since then, not a day goes by without Jean-Marc Kabund being publicly repudiated by a section of the presidential majority. In turn, spokespersons for the parliamentary groups of the Sacred Union, national and provincial deputies of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) took note of his resignation from the Assembly, inviting in passing the presidential party to turn the Kabund page.
Many enemies
A shadow architect of the Sacred Union, particularly active in poaching deputies from Joseph Kabila’s Common Front for the Congo – whose interests he protected during the job sharing – Kabund was also criticized internally.
Within Félix Tshisekedi’s cabinet, the Head of State’s closest advisers accuse him in particular of behaving as a “vice-president”. Within the presidential party, his legitimacy as interim president is regularly questioned, while his omnipotence within the parliamentary majority earned him many enemies. From now on pushed out by the Head of State, Jean-Marc Kabund is struggling today to find the slightest ally…