Vital Kamerhe

Vital Kamerhe Lwa Kanyiginyi Nkingi (born 4 March 1959) is a Congolese economist and politician, currently serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Economy and the leader of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) party. He served as the President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2006 to 2009. After resigning from that office, he went into the opposition and founded the UNC. He ran in the 2011 presidential election. He supported Félix Tshisekedi as a coalition partner in the 2018 presidential election, and became chief of staff when Tshisekedi took office.

In 2020, Kamerhe was charged with and convicted of the embezzlement of US$50 million. Kamerhe was temporarily replaced as chief of staff when his trial began, and permanently replaced half a year after he was convicted. Kamerhe appealed his conviction, and a second appeal led to his acquittal in 2022. Between 1993 and 1995, he worked in several public functions. 1993: Director of the Cabinet of the Ministry of the Environment, Tourism and Directeur de Cabinet au Ministère de l’Environnement, Tourisme et Conservation de la Nature 1994: Coordinator of the Prime Minister's Cabinet 1994–1995: Director of the Cabinet for the Minister of Higher Education and University, :fr:Mushobekwa Kalimba wa Katana; member of Lunda Bululu's RSF

Under Laurent Kabila . He then held the following positions.

From 2000: Deputy commissioner-general at the General Commission for MONUC affairs.

Under Félix Tshisekedi

Role in the 2018 election campaign In the 2018 presidential election, Kamerhe supported the candidacy of UDPS leader Félix Tshisekedi. The UDPS allied with the UNC to form the Heading for Change coalition, and Tshisekedi agreed that if he won, he would make Kamerhe his prime minister.

Corruption trial On 8 April 2020, Kamerhe was arrested and detained in Makala Central Prison, facing charges of having embezzled up to $57 million from an infrastructure project. Commenting on his arrest, the Congo Research Group wrote: "Never in Congo's political history over the past two decades has such an important player on the political scene been put behind bars." He was sentenced to twenty years of forced labour and ten years of ineligibility to vote or hold public office. One of his co-defendants, the Lebanese businessman Samih Jammal, was sentenced to twenty years of forced labour, to be followed by expulsion from the DRC.

Kamerhe appealed his conviction. expressed confidence that Kamerhe's prosecution had been politically motivated. Kamerhe was conditionally released from prison in December 2021, on the grounds that his health had deteriorated and he needed medical care outside of prison while awaiting a second appeal. On 23 June 2022, in its second appeal decision, the Kinshasa/Gombe Court of Appeals acquitted Kamerhe and Jammal, saying there had not been enough evidence for a prosecution. In its 2022 country report on the DRC, the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor took Kamerhe's acquittal as evidence that "officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity," presenting it as an example of how "ack of enforcement of court decisions in corruption cases contributed to impunity, as rulings were often overturned in appellate proceedings or dismissed due to procedural errors." On 22 May 2024, he was again elected as Speaker of the National Assembly and assumed office on May 24. He resigned as speaker on 22 September 2025 on the eve of a vote to remove him.

Family Kamerhe is the brother-in-law of Aimé Boji.