By PATRICK ILUNGA

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Until recently, Vital Kamerhe was President Tshisekedi’s Chief of Cabinet, a plum position where he technically wrote the diary and meetings, if not decisions of the President.

On Monday, May 11, the very man will be answering questions on his role in the misappropriation of moneys allocated to complete certain projects last year.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance, or the Congolese High Court sitting in Gombe in Kinshasa will hear his case. But the events leading to the session have been punctuating national opinion this past week.

That graft case could also rope in other people. The EastAfrican learnt that John Ntumba, current Minister of Vocational Training and close ally of Vital Kamerhe was also being investigated for overreaching his hand in the kitty.

John Ntumba had been a member of the monitoring committee for the works of Félix Tshisekedi's first 100 days in office last year and was responsible for monitoring the execution of this work in the province of Central Kasai until he joined the central government in August 2019.

Now detectives suspect he embezzled public funds related to the emergency programme worth $32 million. The same accusation hangs over Vital Kamerhe.

Police were also looking for nephews of Kamerhe, said to have fled the country in the wake of investigations.

According to information from the Congolese justice system, the prosecutor-general at the court of cassation has already informed Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba of the opening of the investigation against a member of his government.

While these are only investigations and no guilt imposed yet, the cadre of the Kamerhe party may fear about the continuation of this investigation having potential political repercussions.

Last week, Martin Kabuya, current governor of the province of Central Kasai accused him of “doing nothing in central Kasai” where the projects were centred.

In the province, one of the electoral fiefs of President Félix Tshisekedi, the head of state's emergency programme provided for the rehabilitation of roads, bridges, construction of schools, social housing and the completion of construction of a hydroelectric dam.

According to the Congolese NGO Observatory of Public Spending, the 100-day emergency programme, in general, was characterised by "a certain overcharging".

In a report, the NGO said that under this emergency programme, the construction of a school was billed at $3 million. For the NGO, this amount is far above the value of the school built.