Leaving behind politically stable DR Congo will cement Uhuru's legacy

President Uhuru Kenyatta receives his DR Congo counterpart Felix Antoine Tshisekedi before the Signing Ceremony of Treaty of Accession by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the East African Community at State House, Nairobi on April 08, 2022. [PSCU, Standard]

As a source of regional instability, Democratic Republic of Congo affects Kenya greatly. It seemingly is geographically far and close at the same time, bordering some of Kenya’s neighbours. It is the reason white powers met in Berlin in 1884 to agree on how to claim territories in Africa without killing each other.

Since Congo was given to Belgian King Leopold as personal property, it was known as Leopold’s Congo. He later sold it to his country to avoid possible big power dispossession, and it became Belgium Congo. Its minerals such as uranium that was used in making the Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bombs raised its strategic value in post-World War 2 Cold War. The Congolese remained pawns in geopolitical rivalries and still are.