Former President Uhuru Kenyatta now says the next Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) peace talks will be held in the wartorn Goma region.

Speaking in Nairobi on Tuesday, December 6, Uhuru said he was happy about the progress of the peace talks.

“Because we believe we shall have progressed, we are going to have two meetings in Goma and Bunia.

“We do not want you to come back to Nairobi. There is no reason why we should not meet at home. We shall meet at the grassroots to check if we can succeed in our peace effort.

“You don’t have to flee anymore because we shall be your visitors,” he said.

On Monday, Uhuru, who was supposed to close the peace talks in Nairobi, walked out after accusing organisers of the Nairobi Three Process on DRC of making underhand dealings and shortchanging the participants.

“What does not have good planning cannot end well. We had Nairobi One, Two and finished well. But I am sorry to say that those who planned Nairobi Three have goofed.

“We cannot be here talking about peace with people from the jungle, who have walked to come here and whose welfare is not catered for,” he said.

He immediately suspended the meeting and announced that he would close it on Tuesday, December 6 after everything had been taken care of.

“Our people who we know and are the organisers, know that we have enough funds because I was part of the people who were raising it.

“The funds do not belong to them but it is to bring peace in Congo,” he stated.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who is also the chairperson of the EAC summit, officiated the opening session held at Safari Park on November 28.

The Nairobi meeting brought together armed groups from eastern DRC, representatives of the local communities, civil society groups, and government officials.

Uhuru’s role

Retired President Uhuru is the East Africa Community peace facilitator in the talks aimed to restore peace in the eastern DR Congo.

Nairobi III comes after the official visit of Uhuru to Kinshasa and Goma, DRC, for the Mini-Summit on Peace and Security in DRC.

It is a follow-up to the inaugural peace Nairobi meeting held in April and the second one held at Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu in DRC.

This culminated in the 22nd ordinary session of the EAC where Uhuru was picked to lead the process.

Even though EAC is pushing for a peaceful means of resolving the conflict in Congo, the regional block will not hesitate to use military action to achieve the goal as it has already deployed forces in DRC.

President William Ruto on September 24, 2022, maintained that the government would deploy KDF troops to the eastern part of the DRC to ease conflict in the region.

Chief of Defence Forces Robert Kibochi on November 12, 2022, flagged off the first batch of KDF soldiers who were deployed for the peace-keeping mission.

The second batch comprising 200 KDF soldiers left for DRC on November 16.

KDF soldiers are deployed in Goma in the eastern part of DRC where the M23 rebels have been intensifying their attacks in recent days.

Thousands of people have been displaced in the volatile eastern region of DRC as fighting between the country’s military and M23 rebels moved close to the key city of Goma.

Clashes picked up again in North Kivu province on Friday, November 11, 2022, even as Uhuru was in Kinshasa pushing for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The M23 was formed in 2012 claiming to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, a group sharing the ethnicity of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, against Hutu militias.

DRC has accused Rwanda of supporting M23 leading to a diplomatic tiff between the two countries.