By Thomas Fessy<\/p>\n
On July 18, Jacky Ndala, youth leader for the political party Together for the Republic (Ensemble pour la R\u00e9publique), noticed unusual activity outside his house in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a>. In a message widely circulated on social media, he described seeing jeeps and men in civilian clothes with radios in hand.<\/p>\n The men, officers in Congo\u2019s National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR), picked him up<\/a> around 9 a.m. Ndala spent the following night at \u201c3Z,\u201d a notorious<\/a> ANR jail, before being handed over to a prosecutor. Two days after his arrest, on July 20, a court sentenced<\/a> him to two years\u2019 imprisonment for \u201cincitement to civil disobedience\u201d and transferred him to Kinshasa\u2019s central prison. His lawyer said Ndala would appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n The arrest and summary trial came after Ndala told <\/a>party members last week in the Lingala language to stand ready to \u201cgo protest at the People\u2019s Palace [parliament]\u201d in case a controversial draft law was debated. Known as the Tshiani or \u201ccongolit\u00e9\u201d bill, the law, if passed, would exclude from presidential office and senior institutional positions any Congolese with one parent of non-Congolese origin. This draft nationality law would discriminate against many Congolese citizens because of their parents\u2019 nationality, further undermining human rights in the country.<\/p>\n The bill is widely seen<\/a> as an attempt to sideline Moise Katumbi<\/a>, who heads the Together for the Republic party. Although the party is currently part of President Felix Tshisekedi\u2019s government, Katumbi himself is considered to be one of Tshisekedi\u2019s potential opponents for the next general election in 2023.<\/p>\n