Kenyan President William Ruto has called upon the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to recognise that the M23 rebellion is a Congolese problem that needs a Congolese solution.

Speaking in an interview with Jeune Afrique on Tuesday, May 21, where he answered questions about the conflict in eastern DR Congo between the M23 and government forces, Ruto said: "As Heads of State, in a meeting, we asked; M23, the people in there, are they Rwandese or they are Congolese? And DRC said, these are Congolese. End of question!

"So, if these are Congolese, how does it become a Rwanda problem? How does it become a Kagame problem?”

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Ruto thus reasoned that since the question is settled that M23 are Congolese and a Congolese problem, there is a need for a Congolese solution.

And "in our opinion,” he indicated, listening to all the sides, whether it is using the Luanda process or the Nairobi peace process, was the right way to find a lasting solution to the conflict.

"[For] the Nairobi peace process, I can speak authoritatively because I have attended some of the meetings. M23 wants to be involved in the dialogue. They are saying, ‘why are you locking us out, we are Congolese, we have issues, we want to talk to our government,’” he noted.

He reasoned that there is no better outcome than when aggrieved citizens are willing to engage their government in a discussion to sort out their issues.

"I do that all the time, when the opposition for example, in Kenya raised issues about an election that I won fair and square, six months later...... I told them, okay, let’s talk. We sat down, we talked, it didn’t take anything away from me. We engaged in a conversation, we settled the issues, we took the matters to parliament, there is now a process,” he said.

Ruto also commented on the exit of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) from DR Congo.

In early 2023, the East African Community deployed troops to the conflict-hit eastern DR Congo region, a development that led to a ceasefire from March to September 2023. However, in December of the same year, the Congolese government expelled EACRF and replaced it with a SADC mission which is operating under an offensive mandate.

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"Kenya participated in the East African force that was in eastern DRC. We did what I consider a very commendable job. We pacified the area, we got the M23 to move away from the areas that we had agreed. In fact, we were remaining with the cantonment question. The M23 asked the question: ‘do we go into the camps, surrender our arms before we have a conversation, or do we have a conversation so that as we go into the camps, we know what the conversation is all about? Can we put our grievances on the table?’ And it made sense to all of us,” Ruto said.

He noted that EAC leaders asked the government in DR Congo to "consider a conversation with their own citizens so that we can resolve” the issues. He pointed out that he believes that is the only solution.

"[As] EAC, we believe that the challenge in eastern DRC cannot be solved using military force, especially if those in contention are willing to have a conversation. That is why we asked the government of DRC to consider seriously using the instruments that are available in the Nairobi Peace Process which is a dialogue process or in the Luanda Peace Process which is also a dialogue process or even a combination of both,” he said.

"The sooner we use the instruments of dialogue, consultation that are in place, the sooner we will solve that problem,” he added.

The Kenyan president also said he had a conversation with the leadership of SADC and warned them that a military solution cannot work.

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"I think [that] slowly, after several months, they now agree with us that there needs to be a rethink of whether we should be deploying more troops or we should be deploying more people to engage in dialogue, in consultation, in a conversation, because these are citizens who are ready and willing to engage their government,” he noted.

"If you asked me, I would go along and say, let us forget about complicating this problem. This is not about Rwanda and DRC. This is not about Kagame and Tshisekedi. This is about citizens and their government and if we understood it in that context, the sooner we will solve the problem,” he added.