There was no love for Vital Kamerhe when he returned to take up a government position as deputy prime minister for economics.
Hundreds of government workers who witnessed Kamerhe’s return to public office in Kinshasa early this week booed the official chanting slogans, “thief! theif! thief!”
Kamerhe was recently appointed by President Felix Tshisekedi alongside Jean Pierre Bemba in a cabinet reshuffle.
But the appointments have received backlash from the ordinary population.
Kamerhe was President Felix Tshisekedi chief of staff when he took office in 2019.
The opposition leader was then fired for corruption and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Kamerhe was accused of embezzling around 50 million dollars and spent time prison before he appealed the conviction.
He was acquitted a year and a few months later alongside his co-accused, Lebanese businessman Sanoh Jammal.
The Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal said lack of evidence was the reason for its decision to acquit Kamerhe but the Congolese population believe it was politically engineered.
Since 2020 Kamerhe was accused of misappropriating an envelope allocated to the construction of houses for the military and police, which was part of a programme implemented by President Tshisekedi.
Kamerhe was the right-hand man of Tshisekedi between 2018 and 2019. His 20 year sentence was reduced to 13 years in prison on appeal in June 2021. In December 2021, he was granted provisional release.
Following the verdict, his political party the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) organised gatherings in Bukavu, his stronghold in the East. The 64 year-old now returns to mainstream politics.
