Lévi Mbuta : President of the Kinshasa Provincial Assembly (APK)
During the September 2024 ordinary session of the Provincial Assembly of Kinshasa (DRC), held on September 30 in the Congolese capital, the President of the Provincial Assembly of Kinshasa (APK), Mr. Lévi Mbuta, appealed for effective decentralization in the country. Elected in April 2024, the president of the APK is calling for the constitution to be respected.
“I urge the central government to make decentralization effective, as set out in the cumulative provisions of articles 3, 175, 197, 203 and 204 of our constitution. This involves transferring recognized expertise to the provinces in the fields of agriculture and rural development, primary and secondary education, health and public hygiene, provincial and local administration and civil service, sports, culture and the arts, and above all the 40% withholding tax due to the provinces”, he declared before his fellow MPs and other leading figures.
Like his predecessors and other provincial leaders, Levi Mbuta pointed out that the absence of decentralization is undermining the proper functioning of provincial institutions. He took the opportunity to remind the Prime Minister of the commitments she made to the presidents of the provincial assemblies. “It’s no secret that the work of the provincial assemblies is undermined by the central government’s failure to allocate their operating costs. We therefore call on the central government to take account of this issue, which needs to be dealt with swiftly. I would like to take this opportunity to remind Her Excellency the Prime Minister, Head of Government Judith Suminwa Tuluka of the firm commitment she made to the delegation of Presidents of the Provincial Assemblies of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which I had the opportunity to lead to the Primature a few days ago”.
The constitution of February 18, 2006, opted for decentralization as a means of managing certain territorial entities of the Republic. It was in this context that organic law no. 08/016 of October 07, 2008 on the composition, organization and operation of the Decentralized Territorial Entities and their relationship with the State and the Provinces was put in place. Nearly 15 years after the implementation of decentralization in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the provinces are still slow to take off.
When he was elected to head the APK, Mr. Lévi Mbuta promised the people of Kinshasa that the deliberative body would become a provincial institution open to all, to listen to the wishes of the Kinshasa electorate.
This vision drove his plea in September to the central government for effective decentralization in the DRC.