49 Facts About Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Desire Kabila in the context of the Second Congo War.

Joseph Kabila founded the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy in 2002 and was allowed to remain in power after the 2003 Pretoria Accord ended the war as the president of the country's new transitional government.

Joseph Kabila was elected as president in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for a second term.

Joseph Kabila is credited with ending the Second Congo War and restoring relative stability to most of the country, though conflict continued in eastern DR Congo against rebel forces supported by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Joseph Kabila encouraged foreign investment in the mining industry and improved the infrastructure.

Joseph Kabila helped organize electoral institutions and in 2006 presided over the DRC's first multi-party election in decades, though both that and his victory in 2011 faced accusations of electoral fraud and saw protests.

Joseph Kabila led an authoritarian government that was known for embezzlement, corruption, and human rights violations, including security forces killing protestors.

Joseph Kabila's term was due to expire on 20 December 2016, according to the terms of the constitution adopted in 2006.

Joseph Kabila's popularity declined and he faced growing pressure from the international community to give up power.

Joseph Kabila was succeeded by Felix Tshisekedi in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence.

Independent observers concluded that Tshisikedi lost heavily to another candidate, Martin Fayulu, and that Joseph Kabila had fixed the official result for the candidate most likely to be most helpful to him in the latter's post-presidency period.

Joseph Kabila Kabange and his twin sister Jaynet Kabila were born on 4 June 1971.

Rumors have abounded that Joseph Kabila was actually born in Tanzania, which would make him a citizen of that country.

Joseph Kabila is the son of long time rebel, former AFDL leader and president of the DRC Laurent-Desire Kabila and Sifa Mahanya.

Joseph Kabila's childhood coincided with the low point of his father's political and military career.

Joseph Kabila was raised in relative remoteness, with few records of his early days.

Joseph Kabila attended a primary school organized by his father's rebel forces, before moving to Tanzania where he completed primary and secondary school.

In October 1996, Laurent-Desire Joseph Kabila launched the campaign in Zaire to oust the Mobutu regime with his newly formed army, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire.

Joseph Kabila became the commander of an AFDL unit that included "kadogos" and likely played a key role in major battles on the road to Kinshasa, but his exact whereabouts during the war have been difficult to establish.

Joseph Kabila appears to have been present at the liberation of Kisangani where media reports identified him as commander of the rebel force that took the city after four days of intense fighting.

When he returned from China, Joseph Kabila was awarded the rank of major-general, and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Congolese Armed Forces, in 1998.

Joseph Kabila was later, in 2000, appointed Chief of Staff of the Land Forces, a position he held until the elder President Kabila's assassination in January 2001.

Joseph Kabila rose to the presidency on 26 January 2001 after the assassination of Laurent-Desire Kabila, becoming the world's first head of government born in the 1970s.

Joseph Kabila subsequently attempted to end the ongoing civil war by negotiating peace agreements with rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda, the same regional armies who had brought Laurent-Desire Kabila's rebel group to power three years before.

Joseph Kabila established a separate "military household" outside of the FARDC general staff, which had been founded in 2003, and his own presidential guard that received better pay and equipment than the regular army.

In October 2004 Joseph Kabila visited the eastern part of the DRC for the first time since the end of the war.

Joseph Kabila ran for the presidency as an independent, though the Alliance of the Presidential Majority was formed to support his campaign, which included his People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy and about 30 other parties.

Joseph Kabila was still seen as the frontrunner in the election by Western observers, due to the political opposition being divided and lacking resources, while the former rebel leaders were widely hated.

The new constitution lowered the minimum age of presidential candidates from 35 to 30; Joseph Kabila turned 35 shortly before the election.

The deal was reportedly negotiated after Joseph Kabila's government was unable to secure funding for his Cinq Chantiers program from Western countries.

Joseph Kabila was criticized by the Congolese opposition and civil society groups for the deal, including for the lack of transparency during negotiations, which were done mostly by one of Joseph Kabila's advisors, and for the terms disproportionately favoring China.

In December 2011, Joseph Kabila was re-elected for a second term as president.

The protests began following the announcement of a proposed law that would allow Joseph Kabila to remain in power until a national census could be conducted.

Joseph Kabila is vastly unpopular, partly because of the conflicts in the Congo, but because of the widespread belief that he has enriched himself and his family while ignoring millions of poor Congolese.

Elections to determine a successor to Joseph Kabila were scheduled to be held on 27 November 2016.

Joseph Kabila subsequently installed a new cabinet led by prime minister Samy Badibanga, resulting in protests in which at least 40 people were killed.

Since leaving the presidency, Joseph Kabila has made Kingakati farm his main residence.

In February 2025, Joseph Kabila criticised President Tshisekedi for mishandling the M23 campaign through poor governance and accused him of seeking to become "absolute ruler of the country" by suppressing political opposition.

Tshisekedi accused Joseph Kabila of supporting the M23 rebels at the Munich Security Conference that same month.

In early March 2025, a cabinet member in the Tshisekedi administration, Jean-Pierre Bemba, accused Joseph Kabila of supporting M23 and the Congo River Alliance, as well as the Mobondo militia in the western DR Congo clashes.

Also that month, Joseph Kabila reportedly met with Moise Katumbi and other opposition leaders to discuss the political future of the country.

Joseph Kabila attended the funeral of Namibian president of Sam Nujoma, where he spoke to foreign leaders.

Joseph Kabila married Olive Lembe di Sita, on 1 June 2006.

Joseph Kabila and his wife have a daughter, born in 2001, named Sifa, after Joseph Kabila's mother, and a son born in 2008 named Laurent-Desire Jr.

Joseph Kabila owns property outside of Kinshasa, including 71,000 hectares of farmland, and his family fully or partially owns 80 companies across almost every industry in the DRC, including in mining.

Joseph Kabila's hobbies include watching the NBA, reading, playing PlayStation 4, and driving his motorcycles.

Joseph Kabila, having been raised outside the country, only spoke English and Swahili fluently when he became president, and was not fluent in either French, the DRC's official language, or Lingala, a common language in the capital Kinshasa.

In July 2021, Joseph Kabila finished his master's degree, getting the certification from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

Joseph Kabila completed Master's programme in Political Science and International Relations through distance learning.