Vital Kamerhe

On April 8, 2020, Vital Kamerhe, the chief of staff and main political ally of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Félix Tshisekedi, was placed in pre-trial detention in the Kinshasa central prison. He was heard during the investigation into the 100-day work.

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 December 14, 2010 Kamerhe officially quit the PPRD, announcing his candidacy for the 2011 presidential election and the creation of his new party, the UNC, which had its official inauguration in February 2011. He gained 7.74% of the country's vote in the 2011 presidential election under the UNC name.

In July 2004, he took on the leadership of the PPRD and prepared Joseph Kabila's election campaign, which he received a lot of credit for. He was elected as parliamentarian in Bukavu with one of the highest scores in the country and on December 29, 2006 he was elected president of the National Assembly.

A founding member of the PPRD party in 2002, Vital Kamerhe was one of the leading figures in the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he was even nicknamed "le Pacificateur", the "Peacemaker". 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. In 2003, he was appointed Minister of Press and Information in the transitional government.

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.

Kamerhe started his political career in 1984 with the UDPS (Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social). During the democratic transition under Mobutu, he was a member of the Rassemblement des forces Sociales et Federalistes (RSF) of Vincent De Paul Lunda Bululu and was also president of the Jeunesse de l'Union Sacrée de l'opposition Radicale et Alliés (JUSORAL), an opposition youth sport. Between 1993 and 1995 he worked in several public functions:

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.

Vital Kamerhe (born 4 March 1959) is a Congolese politician who is the chief of staff of President Félix Tshisekedi and leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) opposition party. Previously he was 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. Kamerhe was a candidate in the 2011 presidential election and made an alliance to support Félix Tshisekedi's candidacy, leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, during the 2018 presidential election. In exchange he became Tshisekedi's prime minister-designate, but as both houses of Parliament remain under control of parties opposed to Tshisekedi, he has not been nominated for the premiership. Kamerhe has been serving as chief of staff to the President since January 2019. Kamerhe fell victim to the Amida Shatur curse, and ended up in Makala prison charged with corruption in April 2020.

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.