Former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila has re-emerged in the political spotlight, convening a gathering of Congolese opposition leaders in Kenya to launch a new political movement aimed at "saving" the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The meeting took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Nairobi, where Kabila, who led the DRC from 2001 to 2019, rallied opponents of President Felix Tshisekedi. Prominent figures at the conclave included former Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo, who was sentenced in May to 10 years of hard labor.

The newly announced movement, Save the DRC, issued a statement condemning what it described as Tshisekedi’s "inability" to manage multiple national crises. The opposition leaders urged citizens to "stand up and resist the dictatorship".

In their joint statement, the opposition coalition denounced the "arbitrary detention of political leaders" and criticized what they called "unfair judgments" against opposition members by Congolese courts and tribunals.

Kabila himself was sentenced to death in absentia last month by a military court in Kinshasa. He was convicted of treason and accused of complicity with the M23 armed group, which has taken control of areas in the resource-rich eastern regions of the country with the backing of Rwanda.

Some have described the ruling as politically motivated, aimed at preventing Kabila from unifying the opposition and staging a political comeback.

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DRC government dismisses movement as nostalgic

Speaking from Washington, DRC Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya dismissed the Nairobi meeting as a gathering of "fugitives and convicts", driven by "nostalgia for lost privileges".

He also criticized Kenya, calling Nairobi the new "capital of conspiracy against the DRC".

Kabila, 54, was neither present at nor represented during the trial in Kinshasa. He left the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023 and briefly resurfaced in May in Goma, which was then under M23 control, an appearance that sparked concern within the Tshisekedi administration.

The Nairobi opposition meeting coincided with a significant development on the conflict front, as the Congolese government signed an agreement with the M23 movement in Doha, establishing a ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

This comes amid ongoing efforts to stabilize the eastern provinces, which have been plagued by repeated waves of armed conflict and foreign interference.

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