Kinshasa, September 17th, 2025 (CPA).- The leaders of the parliamentary groups of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo were invited, during a plenary session on Wednesday, by the bureau of this institution, to propose the members of parliament who will sit on the special committee responsible for examining, within seventy-two hours, the petitions targeting certain members of the said bureau. ‘We call on the leaders of the parliamentary groups to submit the names of the members who will sit on this special and temporary committee to examine the petitions against the five members of the bureau. This committee will work within 72 hours and will present its report to the plenary session,’ has declared Jean-Claude Tshilumbayi, first vice-president of the lower house of Parliament. Within this timeframe, the special committee will hear separately from the petitioners and the accused members of the bureau, before drawing up a final report to be presented to the plenary, which will vote on whether to maintain or dismiss the current bureau. According to Mr Tshilumbayi, chair of the plenary session, the committee has already been set up. The practical details will be finalised with the parliamentary groups, and the bureau will then proceed to sign the decision officially appointing the members, who are due to begin their work on Thursday. National MP Adele Kanyinda, elected representative for Sandoa, has emphasised the urgency of providing the committee with sufficient resources to ensure high-quality work. ‘We are pressed for time. A special committee must receive five petitions, examine them, conduct adversarial debates, prepare a report and present it in plenary. That is why I propose that each member be able to study one case, so that we can save time and produce high-quality work. It is important that the defendants also have sufficient time to prepare their defence,’ she has said.
Some national MPs during Wednesday’s plenary session
National MP Peter Kazadi said that this approach is legal, i.e. in accordance with the rules of procedure of the National Assembly. « The rules of procedure provide that a group of MPs may initiate a petition against one or more members of the bureau. We are acting within the law. I have no criticism of the bureau, I am not a petitioner, I did not sign, but I respect the views of my colleagues who initiated it for their own reasons. And we are waiting to hear these reasons during the committee meeting that will decide on the matter and report back to us, » he has said. For his part, Mr Daniel Aselo, a national deputy, has considered that several committees should be set up depending on the cases to be examined. ‘For me, the logical thing would be to have as many committees as there are members under attack. (…) The first step would be to put all these petitions together to justify the establishment of a single committee,’ he has argued. Five of the seven members of the National Assembly’s bureau are concerned by these petitions. They are President Vital Kamerhe, Rapporteur Jacques Djoli and Deputy Rapporteur Dominique Munongo, as well as Quaestor Chimène Poli Poli and Deputy Quaestor Grace Neema. First Vice-President Tshilumbayi and Second Vice-President Christophe Mboso, for their part, are not concerned. CPA/