Electoral campaigns are often inseparable from free healthcare campaigns by foundations of personalities from the Congolese Labor Party.
Another function of foundations, besides reputational laundering, would be to be a «bribery box» between personalities and companies, particularly in the oil sector.
The contribution to improving the health of Congolese citizens appears only as a pretext, as health programs are sporadic and indexed to the electoral calendar.
In 2015, amid the debate on the constitution change, the Caravane Santé pour tous program of the Perspective d’avenir Foundation traveled the country with the ambition of supporting the Chemin d’avenir, the political project of the President of the Republic.
This is the most recent of the three main national foundations. It is registered under receipt number 246 of May 13, 2015, to participate in sustainable development in the education, culture, and health sectors.
However, the local press has been reporting on the activities of this Foundation since 2014. This inconsistency could be explained by administrative slowness. However, the newspaper Les Dépêches
de Brazzaville assures that it was created in 2011 by the President’s son, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso.
The Foundation’s executive director is Mr. Okoko-Esseau, political advisor to the President of the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States and executive secretary general of the Episcopal Commission for Migrants and Refugees (CEMIR).
The Foundation’s flagship health program, launched in 2015, is directed by Doctor Florent-Aimé Bembé. The President of the Foundation, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, known as Kiki the Oilman, is a member of the political bureau of the Congolese Labor Party and a member of the National Assembly, where he no longer sits since his appointment as minister in his father’s government. Denis Christel is also a director of the National Petroleum Company of Congo.
Through its executive director, Abraham Roch Okoko-Esseau, the Foundation has Monsignor Daniel Minzonzo, President of the Conference of Bishops of Congo, in its sphere of influence. This influence is mainly reflected in the Church’s participation in the Foundation’s vocational education program.
Regarding the Foundation’s health program, there is no quantified report or explanation of the origin of the funds.
The program director, Doctor Florent Aimé Bembé, is a military pharmacist biologist trained at the Bordeaux Naval Military Medicine School in France and officially a scientist in the medical laboratory of the Brazzaville military hospital.
Like the President of the Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso Foundation, Doctor Bembé, AET number 979, is a graduate of the Leclerc General Military Preparatory School in Brazzaville. This military camaraderie perhaps results from Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso’s trust in him within the Foundation.
Curiously, the Foundation’s Brazzaville address is also the headquarters of EDS Pharma, a wholesaler, manufacturer, and distributor of pharmaceutical products. Doctor Bembé manages this pharmaceutical company. Doctor Bembé’s activities are even more varied. He appears as honorary President of political associations, notably the dynamic of the young people of Poto-Poto in support of the path of the future (the social project of President Sassou in 2009) and Les Messagers et défenseurs de la paix au Congo, an association for the change of the 2015 constitution.
In 2016, the Foundation spent the sum of 80,000 USD on lobbying fees with the firm Squire Patton Boggs. The portfolio lobbyists were Michael Driver, Meg Gilley, and Laura Klick. Lobbyist Laura Klick had served as a legal intern for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and Meg Gilley as a legal assistant and senior personal assistant to Congressman Jack Kingston, foundation chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia, the fundraising arm of the GOP, and senior adviser and spokesperson for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The lobbyists’ actions are not detailed. Their contract was to advocate for the Foundation and its President’s activities to members of the US Congress and organizations like NDI.
In 2017, at the invitation of Global Health Catalyst, a structure where Constituency for Africa leader Melvin P. Foote sits, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso’s Foundation participated in the World Health Summit in Boston. Dr Aimé Bembé led the delegation.
Showing Chevron as a partner of his Constituency for Africa think tank, Melvin P. Foote was, from the end of 2016, the principal conductor of the adventures of Kiki, the oilman in America.
Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso is the subject of a judicial investigation in France in the context of the affair of ill-gotten goods.
Several reports from Global Witness, in particular, have revealed the mechanisms of its illicit enrichment.
In 2021, his wife Nathalie Boumba pleaded guilty in a Florida court in the Miami penthouse case worth USD 2.8 million.
At the time of writing this report, the Foundation’s website, http://www.perspectivesavenir.ong, was out of service, and the official Facebook page had been inactive since 2021.
Therefore, the Foundation seems to be dormant today.
Collectif Sassoufit 