Uhuru Congratulates President Tshisekedi After His Re-election

Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Sunday sent a congratulatory message to President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on his re election. 

In his message, Kenyatta urged the president-elect to embrace peace and unify the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Peace and unity are the foundations of a prosperous country,” he said.

President Tshisekedi garnered around 72 percent of the votes during elections held December 20, 2023 amid protests of rigging.

Out of 40 million registered voters only 15.9 million were able to vote.

Kenyatta is the first one to send a congratulatory message to his friend and president Tshisekedi.

He is the only one who attended his inauguration when he was first elected as the president of DRC.

Many people have protested the polls.

Moise Katumbi, one of the main opposition candidates in Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential election has added his voice to calls for the December 20 vote to be annulled because of “massive fraud,” a statement from his campaign said.

Katumbi’s campaign said the head of Congo’s national election commission should resign because the commission had participated in a planned “electoral fraud.”

“In this face of this unacceptable situation, we are calling for the immediate annulment of this chaotic election tainted by massive fraud,” the statement said.

Katumbi’s statement came as another group of opposition candidates who had called for a rerun of the election, wrote to the governor of the capital Kinshasa to say they will hold a joint protest next week over the election.

Katumbi said they support any constitutional initiative aimed at resisting another electoral robbery in Congo.

Election disputes often fuel unrest in Democratic Republic of Congo and risk further destabilising a country with globally important reserves of cobalt and copper, and which is battling widespread poverty and an eastern security crisis.

In a sign of growing concern over the aftermath of the election, 13 embassies in Kinshasa, including those of Germany and France, released a joint statement calling for restraint.

Delays during the election led to an extension of voting, which some opposition candidates and independent observers said compromises the credibility of the vote.

Congo’s election commission known as CENI, has acknowledged there were delays on December 20 that meant some polling stations failed to open, but denied the credibility of the election was compromised by extending some voting.

Full provisional election results are expected by December 31.

The chaotic election day capped a fraught campaign in which at least 19 people were killed in election-related violence and the opposition and observers warned of widespread issues they said would enable fraud.