Although the Kenya Defence Forces has seen a streak of successes in seeing withdrawal of various rebel groups in eastern DRC, the local population still views it with much suspicion.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has some 120 armed rebel groups that are against the Kinshasa administration.
M23 is the most known because of its meticulous organisation and the spate of attacks it has launched in the country for the long time it has existed.
The force has adopted an approach of coercive diplomacy, giving talks with the various armed groups a chance before resorting down the barrel of a gun.
East Africa Community member states have contributed forces to the region to stabilize it and save the country from collapse due to the pressure from the groups.
Kenya, however, remains in the driver’s seat for the initiative, with the overall force commander of the East African Community Regional Force being a Kenyan, Major General Jeff Nyagah.
Nyagah said his approach in steering the force is to restore calm, have the groups peacefully withdraw from areas they occupy and allow the displaced people to get back from their land and continue with their normal lives.
According to Nyagah, Kenya has adopted a neutral stance in the initiative, pushing a multi-pronged approach in pursuing peace in the country.
“Our approach is to get to a peaceful Easter DRC, and the entire country and it is a multi-track process,” he said.
Other than the military track that he leads, the other approach is the Inter-Congolese dialogue — known as the Nairobi process — that is being facilitated by retired Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The third complementary track is the political Luanda process championed by Angolan President João Lourenço.
“The military process is not in isolation. We are well apprised of what the two processes are yielding and so we must do our complementary task but some of the people wants to go kinetic,” he said.
But from the sentiments of the public sampled by the Star, the general population is not much enthusiastic by this approach.
They express disappointment for having not seen blood of rebel fighters spilled on the streets.
Danielle Michombero, an independent journalist in Goma, has followed the public sentiments closely.
He told the Star that although the Burundian forces got deployed recently, the public seem to be receptive to them because there have been reports of combative encounters with the rebel forces.
“They also let the news of their fight with the groups filter out and in the language the people understand — French and Kiswahili — not English as our Kenyan brothers,” he said.
Michombero says the expectation of the Congolese public in the area is to have the deployed regional force fire at the groups and annihilate them.
Felixe’ Muharaka, a trader in Goma, also expressed similar sentiments to the Star, saying he expected the rebel lots to suffer but the regional force seemed to be friendlier to them.
“They are not fighting at all. We are not happy.”
The perceived non-enthusiasm spilled to the fore early this year when members of the public staged demonstrations in Goma, blocking roads and pelting KDF vehicles with stones, marking their movement difficult.
But Nyagah dismissed the notion of disaffection, saying it was being championed by a few elements who do not want real peace in eastern DRC.
“You know war is very lucrative to a few. They want us to go kinetic against their groups, an approach that has been implemented for decades with no success. We are doing it differently this time,” he said.
The general said his approach of adopting a coercive talk with the leaders of the groups has yielded fruits as most of them have withdrawn from their occupied areas and let the public back to their homes.
“M23 has consistently withdrawn from various areas and the IDPs are going back to their farms and their businesses.”
He said his posture of neutrality has earned him respect with the fighters, making them obey his words and remain with an open channel of communication.
“If I hear any incidents, I can easily pick up a phone and call the leader of the groups and call him to order. Up to now, they have been cooperative and what we have achieved here has not been achieved even with MONUSCO.”
KDF was deployed in November last year and the troops from other EAC countries started being deployed from early this year.
Edited by E.Kibii