Vital Kamerhe

Vital Kamerhe Lwa Kanyiginyi Nkingi (born 4 March 1959) is a Congolese politician, currently serving as the minister of economy and the leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) opposition party.

Born in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu, on March 4, 1959, Vital Kamerhe Lwa Kanyiginyi Nkingi is the son of Constantin Kamerhe Kanyginyi and Alphonsine Mwa Nkingi.

Originally from the Shi community of the Walungu territory, he is married and father of 9 children.

He began his primary school in Bukavu and then in Goma.

He then continued in the Kasai-Oriental, in Gandajika, where he finishes his primary school.

School years 1975-1976 and 1976–1977, he attended the Institut Sadisana (former College St. Francois-Xavier) in Kikwit Sacré-Coeur, Bandundu province.

He then moved to Kananga (Kasai-Occidental Province) and finally, after one year, to Mbuji-Mayi where he obtained his State degree in 1980 (Institut Mulemba).

This experience led him to learn all four national languages of Congo namely Kikongo, Lingala, Kiswahili and Tshiluba.

He also speaks fluent French.

Kamerhe started his political career in 1984 with the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).

During the democratic transition under Mobutu Sese Seko, he was a member of the Rassemblement des forces Sociales et Federalistes (RSF) of fr:Vincent de Paul Lunda Bululu, and he was president of the youth wing of the Sacred Union of the Radical Opposition and Allies (French: Jeunesse de l'Union Sacrée de l'opposition Radicale et Alliés; JUSORAL).

From there he completed his studies at the University of Kinshasa, where he received his degree in Economics in 1987 with distinction.

There he stayed as teaching assistant.

Between 1993 and 1995, he worked in several public functions.

. He then held the following positions.

As Commissioner General of the Government responsible for monitoring the peace process in the Great Lakes region he was one of the principal negotiators of the 2002 peace deal.

On 1 July 2004, he began leading the PPRD and directing Joseph Kabila's 2006 campaign for president.

He served as the President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2006 to 2009.

After resigning from that office, he went into the opposition and founded the UNC.

He was elected deputy for South Kivu in the National Assembly in 2006, and he served as president of the National Assembly until 26 March 2009.

In 2009, as President of the National Assembly, he questioned Kabila and his own party over the Umoja Wetu operations that allowed several thousand Rwandan troops to deploy into the Congo without informing the parliament.

On January 21, 2009, he released a statement to Radio Okapi expressing his disappointment for the joint military operations between the Congolese and Rwandan army in the Kivu, conducted without informing the National Assembly and the Senate and thus violating the article 213 of the constitution.

On March 25, 2009, he delivered a speech resigning as President of the National Assembly.

On 14 December 2010, Kamerhe officially quit the PPRD, announcing his candidacy for the 2011 presidential election and the creation of his new party, the UNC.

He ran in the 2011 presidential election.

The UNC had its official inauguration in February 2011, and Kamerhe got 7.74% of the vote in the 2011 presidential election under its name.

He supported Félix Tshisekedi as a coalition partner in the 2018 presidential election, and became chief of staff when Tshisekedi took office.

In the 2018 presidential election, Kamerhe supported the candidacy of UDPS leader Félix Tshisekedi.

The UDPS allied with the UNC to form the Heading for Change coalition, and Tshisekedi agreed that if he won, he would make Kamerhe his prime minister.

After the elections, Tshisekedi did become president, but the composition of parliament made it politically infeasible for him to name Kamerhe as prime minister.

He instead made Kamerhe his chief of staff—one of the first senior positions he filled upon taking office.

In 2020, Kamerhe was charged with and convicted of embezzlement and other corruption offenses.

The Congo Research Group described his arrest as unprecedented in recent DRC history.

Kamerhe was temporarily replaced as chief of staff when his trial began, and permanently replaced half a year after he was convicted.

Kamerhe appealed his conviction, and a second appeal led to his acquittal in 2022.

In 2023, he rejoined the government as Félix Tshisekedi's deputy prime minister in charge of the economy.

On 8 April 2020, Kamerhe was arrested and detained in Makala prison, facing charges of having embezzled up to $57 million from an infrastructure project.

Commenting on his arrest, the Congo Research Group wrote: "Never in Congo's political history over the past two decades has such an important player on the political scene been put behind bars."

On 20 June 2020, Kamerhe was found guilty of aggravated corruption, money laundering, and embezzling $48 million.

He was sentenced to twenty years of forced labour and ten years of ineligibility to vote or hold public office.