Woman, disabled and born in a region of conflict, Hortense Kavuo Maliro, 43, fears neither challenges nor competition: she announced this week her candidacy for the presidential election next December in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“They say that the DRC is a geological scandal” so rich is its subsoil, “but the Congolese have a miserable life”, indignantly the forties, whose long flowered dress conceals the orthopedic devices with which she has lived since. very small.
So, “revolted”, she decided that her motor handicap and her crutches would not prevent her from going for it.
“As a woman, as a patriot, as a courageous, ambitious person… I think I have this skill,” she told an AFP team, who met her on Friday. in her office of the Association for the Social Integration of the Physically Handicapped (AISHP) in Goma, capital of North Kivu where she was born.
This border province of Rwanda and Uganda has been at the heart of ongoing armed violence for nearly 30 years in eastern Congo, with repeated rebellions and constant humanitarian tragedies.
“We only have war in our heads”, laments Hortense Kavuo.
A graduate in economics but a novice in politics, she announced Thursday to the press her candidacy for the supreme magistracy, facing opposition heavyweights and outgoing President Felix Tshisekedi, in power since 2019 and candidate for re-election.
“It is not because I am a woman, or that I am a disabled person, that I will let myself be done”, launches the activist, determined to show that “participation in the management of the nation concerns everyone” .
“I have always campaigned to carry the voice of the voiceless, to defend the rights of people with disabilities, for peace, for inclusion …”, lists the candidate, who presents herself as “independent”, from the civil society.
She has not yet refined her program but, she assures, “I am a woman of hope, and when the time comes I will explain to the population what I intend to bring to the nation”.
06/10/2023 11:48:06 – Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP