Julien Paluku, the songbird parrot singing the praises of kings

Julien Paluku Kahongya governed North Kivu province from 2007 to 2018 under the reign of former president Joseph Kabila Kabange. He was one of the heavyweights of the presidential majority, the MP, which later became the FCC.

In 2019, after the peaceful transfer of power at the head of the DRC, Julien Paluku Kahongya found himself at the Ministry of Industry on behalf of former president Joseph Kabila Kabange's FCC.

When the split came between Kabila and his successor Félix Tshisekedi, Paluku was among the first to jump ship, abandoning the former president, in whose shadow he had sheltered for years, to join the Sacred Union of the Nation, the new political platform created by Tshisekedi.

According to several accounts, during his time at the helm of North Kivu, Julien Paluku Kahongya forged covert ties with the FDLR, the former Rwandan génocidaires. Former Mai-Mai fighters who have since laid down their arms also say he personally maintained and bankrolled two armed groups, which helped him secure the illegal exploitation of gold and cocoa in North Kivu.

Today, Julien Paluku Kahongya has become one of the most vigilant critics of the former president. More Tshisekedi than those who campaigned alongside Tshisekedi in his years of opposition within the UDPS, he has gone as far as to repent of having worked with Kabila for so many years. His aim is plain: to flatter the current president, hold on to his ministerial post and, above all, secure political cover against the dirty files piling up in his closet.

Every time the former president speaks publicly, Paluku is among the first to respond, with criticism, lies, half-truths and defamation. He is a parrot who has mastered the art of flattery, and who knows that Tshisekedi is highly susceptible to it, just as a large part of Congolese public opinion admires flatterers and manipulators.

With the help of artificial intelligence, he has just published an opinion piece, dated 11 October 2026, in response to the former president's address to the nation on Friday 9 October 2026. It is titled "The Goma confession: the great mask finally falls".

In this document, true to his duplicity, Paluku piles up lies and half-truths about the former raïs, alongside a shower of praise and flattery for Tshisekedi. He accuses Kabila of betraying the nation and of being behind the armed groups for years, when it was Kabila who worked for the reunification and pacification of the country: he built a modern army and fought the illegal armed groups, which are now equipped and sponsored by Paluku's current boss, Tshisekedi.

From 2007 to 2018, Mr Paluku did not have the courage to resign in order to denounce the former president's supposed support for armed groups, nor any Rwandan interference in the DRC's governance, as he claims today.

On the contrary, he was one of the loudest champions of Kabila's achievements in the cause of peace, the consolidation of democracy and the development of the DRC.