Kinshasa, February 22nd, 2026 (CPA) – The Ministry of Sports of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced, during an interview, the death in Kinshasa of the honorary Secretary-General of Sports, Barthélémy Okito, without providing further details. “On behalf of the Minister of Sports and all athletes, we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the honorary Secretary-General of this ministry, Barthélémy Okito, whose death we learned of early this Saturday morning in Kinshasa,” said Attorney Alain Makengo, Advisor for Elite Sports at the Ministry of Sports and Leisure in the DRC. Attorney Alain Makengo spoke during the final tributes held Saturday at the Protestant Cathedral of the Cinquantenaire in the Lingwala commune to Joseph Mukeba Mulamba, former National Technical Director of Fecofa, who passed away on January 23rd in Kinshasa. “He was a national library of sports knowledge who has left this world today. Certainly, he has passed on, but his works will forever be engraved in the collective memory of athletes,” he recalled, adding that more details on this difficult loss would be available in the coming hours. “Barthélémy Okito: a brain of sports administration in the DRC” – Fecofa Secretary-General
During the same tributes to Joseph Mukeba, the Secretary-General of Fecofa, the DRC’s technical football body, stated that Barthélémy Okito’s death symbolizes the loss of a true mind in the country’s sports administration. “For Fecofa, which we represented here at the Cinquantenaire Cathedral, the sudden death of Barthélémy Okito represents the disappearance of a true brain and thinking force in the administration of sports in our country,” said Lily Tshimpumpu Wabidia, Fecofa Secretary-General. She said she learned the sad news of Barthélémy Okito Oleka’s death, the eminent Secretary-General of the Ministry of Sports, shortly before attending the final tributes to Joseph Mukeba. According to her, Okito’s passing is another moral blow that has saddened the DRC sports community. “We deeply regret his loss. He was a giant, a baobab that has fallen and left us, causing an enormous loss in the sports world.”
Okito: The National Sports Library
Among those paying tribute was former Secretary-General of Fecofa and the National League, Attorney Innocent Kibundulu.
According to him, Barthélémy Okito’s experience made him the custodian of sports administration in the DRC during his lifetime. In this regard, he was like a burned library, after 13 years in this position and nearly two decades of service to the Congolese State, making him the dean of all secretaries-general in the public service. Beyond his political titles, Okito also practiced judo. In a way, he echoed Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ, who in a 1960 UNESCO speech said that in Africa, the death of an elder is like a library burning down.