Kabila ties the knot ahead of polls

KINSHASA – Congo’s President Joseph Kabila married his long-term girlfriend on Saturday in the gardens of his riverside palace, a move seen by many Congolese as a bid to win hearts ahead of historic elections weeks away.

After a civil marriage on Friday, the very private 34-year-old president was blessed by Catholic and Protestant clergymen during a ceremony attended by nearly 2 000 of Congo’s elite and televised live across the vast country. “The first lady has been long awaited in this country,” she looks fantastic,” a presenter on state television told viewers as a white-robed Olive Lembe, Kabila’s partner for six years and mother to his five-year-old daughter, appeared on TV.Diplomats, businessmen and members of Kabila’s fragile government attended the ceremony.A notable exception was Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader during the war and now a bitter election rival.Kabila became president of Congo in 2001 after his father, Laurent, was assassinated by a bodyguard.Laurent Kabila had overthrown the former Zaire’s dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.After coming to power in the middle of Congo’s last war, a 1998-2003 conflict that has killed some four million people mostly from war-related hunger and disease, Joseph Kabila is now one of 33 contenders for the presidency in elections on July 30 meant to offer his country a fresh start.Television presenters said the marriage should put an end to speculation about the reclusive president’s private life.As the presidential couple hosted guests in the gardens of Kabila’s mansion, parties would be thrown in over 2 000 bars across the capital, television presenters announced.But many in the run-down city, which is home to 8-9 million people, were sceptical about the wedding.”It is important for him to get married before he can try and be elected as president,” said Jean Pierre, a newspaper seller at Kintambo Magasin, a hectic crossroads in Kinshasa.”That’s the only reason he got married today, so soon before the elections,” he added as horns blared, street kids sold sachets of water and people scrambled for seats in cars heading out to the suburbs.The international community has invested vast amounts of money in the peace process and is hoping the poll will draw a line under decades of dictatorship and mismanagement.Campaigning officially begins at the end of the month for the first polls of their kind in over 40 years but the run-up has already been marked by personal insults between politicians, intimidation of opposition candidates and attacks on the press.Kabila’s reluctance to speak about himself and his past, much of it spent in neighbouring countries, has led opponents to question his qualifications to run the chaotic country.- Nampa-Reuters”The first lady has been long awaited in this country,” she looks fantastic,” a presenter on state television told viewers as a white-robed Olive Lembe, Kabila’s partner for six years and mother to his five-year-old daughter, appeared on TV.Diplomats, businessmen and members of Kabila’s fragile government attended the ceremony.A notable exception was Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader during the war and now a bitter election rival.Kabila became president of Congo in 2001 after his father, Laurent, was assassinated by a bodyguard.Laurent Kabila had overthrown the former Zaire’s dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.After coming to power in the middle of Congo’s last war, a 1998-2003 conflict that has killed some four million people mostly from war-related hunger and disease, Joseph Kabila is now one of 33 contenders for the presidency in elections on July 30 meant to offer his country a fresh start.Television presenters said the marriage should put an end to speculation about the reclusive president’s private life.As the presidential couple hosted guests in the gardens of Kabila’s mansion, parties would be thrown in over 2 000 bars across the capital, television presenters announced.But many in the run-down city, which is home to 8-9 million people, were sceptical about the wedding.”It is important for him to get married before he can try and be elected as president,” said Jean Pierre, a newspaper seller at Kintambo Magasin, a hectic crossroads in Kinshasa.”That’s the only reason he got married today, so soon before the elections,” he added as horns blared, street kids sold sachets of water and people scrambled for seats in cars heading out to the suburbs.The international community has invested vast amounts of money in the peace process and is hoping the poll will draw a line under decades of dictatorship and mismanagement.Campaigning officially begins at the end of the month for the first polls of their kind in over 40 years but the run-up has already been marked by personal insults between politicians, intimidation of opposition candidates and attacks on the press.Kabila’s reluctance to speak about himself and his past, much of it spent in neighbouring countries, has led opponents to question his qualifications to run the chaotic country.- Nampa-Reuters