Kenya breaks silence on Sunday’s coup attempt in DRC » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 — Kenya has condemned Sunday’s coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) terming it a violation of established norms.
Nairobi voiced its condemnation while endorsing a statement by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a twelve-member peace and security league including most of EAC Member States.
“We join ICGLR in condemning the coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Kenya’s Foreign Office said on Wednesday.
“Any action aimed at the forceful removal of a democratically elected government [is] flagrant contravention of the norms ascribed to by all peace-loving Nations under the framework of the Constitutive Act of the African Union,” Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, accompanying President William Ruto on a State Visit to the US, stated.
ICGLR had commended DRC forces in its statement earlier on Wednesday, praising them for defending the rule of law.
“ICGLR commends the defence forces and the people of DRC for standing up for democracy and the rule of law,” the bloc stated.
“As ICGLR, we strongly believe that the people of the DRC deserve to live in
peace and have their democratic institutions respected,” ICGLR Executive Secretary, Amb. João Samuel Caholo, said in a statement issued from Bujumbura.
Christian Malanga
The coup attempt unfolded a day after President Felix Tshisekedi postponed a scheduled election for DR Congo’s Speaker of Parliament.
The Congolese army, which took credit for foiling the coup, said it had killed the coup leader and made about fifty arrests. Those detained included three US citizens.
Congo named Christian Malanga, a US-based Congolese politician, as the leader of the attempted coup.
News agencies reported gunfire in the early hours of Sunday as armed groups targeted Palais de la Nation, Tshisekedi’s official residence, in Kinshasa.
Another group launched a parallel attack at the home of Vital Kamerhe, a lawmaker tipped to become Speaker.
Malanga, who DRC accused of a similar coup attempt in 2017, had accused Tshisekedi of derailing the country in live-streamed remarks on Sunday calling for a “New Zaire”.
“We, the militants, are tired. We cannot drag on with Tshisekedi and Kamerhe, they have done too many stupid things in this country,” he stated.
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