Rise and fall of Africa strongmen: Case of DRC Kabila and dos Santos

Joseph Kabila’s sentencing two weeks ago felt like a shock to many in East Africa and beyond, though the signs were always there. Once hailed as the quiet, reluctant leader who took the reins of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after his father’s assassination in 2001, Kabila spent nearly two decades projecting calm authority while presiding over one of Africa’s most resource-rich but deeply troubled nations. Now, handed a death sentence and leaked investigative files lay bare a former president deeply enmeshed in corruption, state capture, and the systematic plunder of public wealth.

President Kabila’s downfall mirrors the long shadow of another former strongman, Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled for 38 years until 2017.

Once celebrated as the man who ended Angola’s brutal civil war and rebuilt the country on its oil wealth, dos Santos carefully nurtured the image of a fatherly statesman. But by the time of his death in 2022, that image had collapsed. Court records, investigative leaks, and global asset freezes instead revealed a ruler who presided over one of Africa’s most entrenched systems of cronyism and loot, where state oil revenues became the private piggy bank of a ruling family and its allies.

Both men led resource-rich nations, presided over spiraling inequality, and left behind legacies scarred by corruption that courts, investigative journalists, and anti-graft agencies are now unearthing. Kabila, after 18 years in power, stepped down following a contested election that marked the DRC’s first peaceful transfer of power in January 2019. Dos Santos, on other hand after nearly four decades in Angola, handpicked his successor and retired.

Yet neither enjoyed a quiet and blissful retirement they expected. Instead, they remain at the center of sprawling international scandals, with their families and inner circles facing relentless legal scrutiny over one core charge – the systematic looting of their nations’ wealth.

Together, Kabila and dos Santos embody the spectacular downfall of Africa’s “strongmen turned oligarchs,” a chilling example of how power, oil, and minerals became weapons of state capture that enriched elites while leaving ordinary citizens in crushing poverty.

When Joseph Kabila assumed the presidency in 2001 at just 29 years old, he was seen as a cautious leader, uninterested in the pomp of power. His early tenure focused on ending Congo’s civil war, earning cautious international praise. Yet over time, corruption and crony capitalism became synonymous with his rule.

This week on September 30, 2025, a Congolese military tribunal sentenced him to death in absentia for “war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity.” The tribunal accused him of “murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection,” allegedly committed under his watch and which is linked to his alleged support of the M23 rebel movement – an outfit that left over 3,000 dead and nearly one million displaced, according to United Nations reports.

Presiding judge Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi said Kabila was guilty on multiple counts and ordered him to pay around $50 billion (Sh7.5 trillion) in reparations to the state and victims, a penalty so large that many observers say dwarfs the country’s annual GDP. The tribunal also demanded $29 billion (Sh4.35 trillion) in damages to the Congolese government, and $2 billion (Sh300 billion) each to North Kivu and South Kivu, his native province.

According to Congo Hold-up project, which exposed over $138 million (Sh20.7 billion) in questionable payments through accounts linked to the Kabila family and close associates between 2013 and 2018.

Human Rights Watch report also noted in 2022: “The Kabila years entrenched a culture of impunity where state assets were treated as private reserves of the ruling elite.”

Further evidence from the Sentry, a Washington-based watchdog, mapped a vast network of companies linked to the Kabila family spanning mining, banking, and aviation. In its 2019 investigation Covert Capital, The Sentry documented how a company linked to Kabila’s family, Kwanza Capital, circulated “as much as $140 million (roughly Sh18 billion) through these accounts…functioning as a ready source of cash for family members and friends of former President Kabila.” A follow-up report in 2021, The Backchannel: State Capture and Bribery in Congo’s Deal of the Century, further detailed how shell companies and intermediaries collaborated with political elites under the Sicomines agreements, revealing how state resources were systematically diverted through opaque financial networks to enrich those close to power.

Even Gécamines, Congo’s state-owned mining giant, was implicated. Global Witness reported in 2017 that as much as $750 million (Sh112.5 billion) in copper and cobalt revenues between 2013 and 2015 could not be accounted for, funds that Congolese say deprived the state of resources for public infrastructure such as health, school, hospitals and roads.

Kabila, now 54, skipped his trial and is believed to be in South Africa. Prosecutors relied on testimony from Eric Nkuba, a former aide to rebel leader Corneille Nangaa, who said Kabila “regularly communicated with Nangaa by phone about how to overthrow the government of President Félix Tshisekedi”.

For the locals and East Africa, Kabila’s sentencing was not just about crimes of the past but about the collapse of a long-standing shield of impunity. For years, DRC’s Senate protected him through political immunity.

However, in May 2025, that shield cracked when lawmakers voted to lift his immunity, opening the door for prosecution.

While Kabila’s case is explosive and current, Eduardo dos Santos’ downfall has been more like a slow-motion implosion. Ruling Angola from 1979 to 2017, he oversaw the country’s rise into one of Africa’s top oil producers. Yet billions from its oilfields scarcely touched ordinary citizens.

Transparency International in 2013 called Angola “a textbook case of state capture.” While most Angolans lived on less than $2 a day, dos Santos’ family amassed vast fortunes. His daughter Isabel became the most notorious symbol: Once lauded by Forbes as Africa’s richest woman with a fortune of $3.5 billion (Sh450 billion), but later investigative leaks exposed how her riches were built.

The Luanda Leaks of 2020, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), examined over 700,000 documents showing how the dos Santos family built a globe-spanning empire through oil and diamonds. They exposed more than 400 companies in 41 countries, including secrecy havens like Malta and Mauritius, used to siphon billions. Isabel, who called the leaks a “witch hunt,” faced asset freezes in Portugal, court cases in Angola, and accusations of embezzlement and money laundering.

João Lourenço, who succeeded dos Santos in 2017, turned against the family in a bid to rebrand himself as a reformer. By 2019, Isabel’s assets were frozen across Europe, and Angolan prosecutors declared: “There is strong evidence of illegal enrichment at the expense of the Angolan people.”

Eduardo dos Santos died in Barcelona in July 2022, far from Luanda, amid bitter disputes between his children and the Angolan state. To many, his death marked the symbolic end of an era of impunity.

The anatomy of capture: oil, minerals, and militarized states
The twin downfalls of ex-presidents, Kabila and dos Santos highlight a larger African tragedy of resource wealth that promised prosperity instead fueled patronage and corruption. Congo’s cobalt and Angola’s oil, which could have transformed both countries, became lifelines for elite enrichment.

In Congo, mining revenues vanished through opaque accounts tied to political networks. In Angola, oil revenues were funneled through Sonangol to build a family empire. In both, weak institutions, militarised politics, and compromised courts delayed accountability for decades, critics observe.

Human Rights Watch observed in 2019: “Both Angola and the DRC showcase how entrenched elites have captured state institutions and natural resources to serve private interests while silencing dissent.”

Taken together, the stories of Joseph Kabila and José Eduardo dos Santos reflect the continent’s wider struggle with resource-fueled state capture. In Kinshasa, Kabila’s charge sheet tied him to rebel violence and illicit financial networks. The Luanda leaks exposed how dos Santos built a globe-spanning financial empire through oil and diamonds.

Both cases, critics say demonstrate how leaders turned natural resources into private wealth while leaving citizens in poverty. Meanwhile, international leak investigations are equipping civil society and prosecutors with tools to unravel the webs of illicit enrichment.

- Robert  Wanjala Kituyi is University of York (CAHR), 2023/24 Fellow