Exclusive: Africa CDC head's bizarre entanglement with Clinton initiative

It’s been an eventful few months for Dr. Jean Kaseya, a Congolese medical doctor who took office in April as the new director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. At the end of last year, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, or CHAI, decided not to renew his contract as senior country director in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In early February, Kaseya took the organization to his country’s labor court. But then Kaseya’s fortunes shifted dramatically. On Feb. 19, he was appointed as the surprise pick to the most prominent pan-African public health posting. In the midst of his rise in prominence, however, a series of bizarre entanglements between Kaseya and CHAI, an influential international health organization, have unfolded. They are reported here for the first time after a nearly two-month investigation based on confidential internal reports, emails, text messages, and interviews. The interactions reveal the complex and contentious nature of the relationship between Kaseya and his former employer and raise questions about the temperament of a man now charged with leading efforts to ensure the health of a continent of over 1 billion people. Nine days after his appointment to lead Africa CDC, Kaseya allegedly stormed into CHAI’s Kinshasa office, accompanied by an armed bodyguard, and it has been claimed that he berated former colleagues for not giving him a farewell party and internal documents that he had requested, according to an incident report obtained by Devex. The incident was deemed serious enough by CHAI that it was characterized as a “security breach.” But that was not the end of the entanglements with his former employer. Just over a month after that, in early April, Kaseya became involved in discussions around two CHAI staffers who had just been detained by Congolese authorities. Congolese authorities arrested them for allegedly lying about the whereabouts of a Rwandan colleague who is suspected of engaging in “suspicious” behavior, according to Kaseya. Rwanda and the DRC have had a long fraught relationship, and Congolese authorities have accused Rwandan citizens of spying in their country. The two CHAI staffers have been detained now for over two months. Families have had very limited contact with the detained individuals, one of whom was without medication for diabetes for at least six weeks, and despite repeated attempts at outreach, CHAI has little insight into the situation, a source familiar with the situation said. CHAI was told that military authorities purportedly asked it to pay a substantial sum as a deposit for the release of the two staff members — but that request hadn’t come formally from the government, according to the source. The delivery of this payment was to be made in cash, in U.S. dollars, with no indication of whether the organization would get a receipt for the payment, added the source, who asked to stay anonymous for fear of retribution. Kaseya said he was not involved in negotiations around payment and Devex has not seen any evidence to show he is linked to discussions around the specific demand for a substantial amount of cash. He said that he became involved in the case because he was asked to do so by a CHAI board member and because one of the detained individuals is a childhood friend whom he recruited to work for CHAI. This is the same individual he allegedly confronted over the lack of a farewell party. Kaseya vehemently rejects the characterization of his office visit, which he said was largely cordial. A lawyer’s warning Kaseya served for two years as CHAI senior country director in his home country until the end of 2022. In the DRC, the organization focuses on ensuring access to health care in areas such as diagnostics, reducing malaria deaths, reproductive health, and HIV care. CHAI operates in over 35 countries and had a budget of over $220 million in 2021. Kaseya has over two decades of public health experience working with both international organizations, such as UNICEF, the European Investment Bank, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and his own government’s ministry of health. Following the nonrenewal of his contract at the end of December, Kaseya took CHAI to the DRC labor court. Congolese lawyer Grégoire Bakandeja, a former DRC minister, initially served as CHAI’s lawyer in the labor dispute. Bakandeja at first advised CHAI their legal case involving Kaseya was strong, according to the source familiar with the situation. There was a hearing on the labor dispute just after Kaseya’s Feb. 19 Africa CDC appointment. Then, Bakandeja discussed the case with Kaseya’s counsel, including settlement options, but after that meeting Bakandeja changed his position, the source said. He then advised the organization to settle the case with Kaseya to maintain “CHAI's credibility with the Congolese authorities.” He wrote that these authorities “could disrupt your activities after the election of Dr. KASEYA as Director General,” according to a communication from Bakandeja that Devex viewed, translated from French. “I understand that intelligence services may initiate monitoring missions on CHAI's activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he added. Bakandeja no longer represents CHAI in this dispute and the case is ongoing. An office visit When Kaseya visited the CHAI office on Feb. 28, he allegedly came with an armed bodyguard and it has been claimed that he complained to one of his former colleagues — one of the individuals now detained — that the organization’s Congolese leadership hadn’t given him a farewell party and that he came to the office to do the farewell himself, and then “heavily slapped the door behind him,” according to the internal incident report Devex obtained. He allegedly “stopped to harass” another staff member, telling her she wasn’t a good person and he wanted everyone to know it, the report said. The organization considered this an “intrusion” and “security breach” — the three security guards who allowed his entry were replaced. Kaseya sharply disputed that account, explaining that the Congolese government provided him with a protocol officer to accompany him due to his newly elevated status with the African Union and to the best of his knowledge this person doesn’t carry a gun. He said he was only having a friendly discussion with one of his former colleagues about when the farewell party could happen, and not an argument. Kaseya said staff even contributed money for his farewell party. And while the incident report said he “heavily slapped” this person’s office door, he said that was simply because of the wind, the poor quality of the door, and his own haste. The staffer he is accused of harassing had upset him by breaking a previous promise to provide him with internal notes from an all-staff meeting held after his departure — suddenly changing her mind without providing a reason, he said. “I told her that she didn’t behave because she committed many times to send me the minutes of a[n] All Staff Meeting,” he wrote to Devex. He told Devex he wanted the meeting notes because there were “rumors and gossip” buzzing around his departure about whether he might have done something wrong to warrant the nonrenewal. He had been told that former colleagues praised him during this meeting and these meeting notes served as evidence his tenure as head of CHAI DRC’s office was successful. “With my appointment as director general, I need to have it. It’s proof, it's evidence,” he said. “It’s evidence that where I came from there was no issue. I did a great job.” The incident report also said the confrontation was over the meeting’s minutes and that this staffer told him that since he was no longer a member of CHAI staff, he could no longer access internal documents. ‘Suspicious’ activities By the end of March, events in the DRC took a turn for the worse. Congolese authorities entered CHAI’s office and took into custody the first CHAI worker. The next day, the other staff member went to the military detention site to deliver medicine to this colleague and was also taken into custody, according to the source familiar with the situation. The detained individuals have had very limited contact with family members and have gone for long stretches without critical medicine, the source said. This episode happened a little over one month after Bakandeja warned CHAI that Congolese authorities might disrupt the organization’s operations after Kaseya’s Africa CDC appointment. Kaseya said DRC security officials told him they arrested the Congolese employees for allegedly lying to them about the whereabouts of their Rwandan colleague who is accused of engaging in activities deemed “suspicious.” It remains unclear what Congolese authorities have accused the Rwandan national of doing. But the two nations are at loggerheads over longstanding conflict in the resource-rich eastern part of the DRC, where Rwanda has been accused of sending its own troops and supporting the armed insurgent group M23. Rwanda has also accused the DRC of violating its airspace and opening fire on a border post, among a slew of accusations between the two countries. Kaseya said he was summoned to speak with Congolese authorities about this “major security issue” because he is the former CHAI country leader. Congolese intelligence services alleged that one of the now-detained employees had conspired with two senior CHAI officials to protect and evacuate the Rwandan from the country, Kaseya said. These arrests could have been avoided if the organization had taken appropriate action and relocated the Rwandan employee, according to Kaseya. He flagged to CHAI management last year his concern about the safety of the Rwandan staff member because the person’s family members have served in some of the highest echelons of the Rwandan government. In May 2022, Kaseya wrote to CHAI leadership that given the “explosive” situation in eastern DRC, and that many observers have said there is a high risk of war between the two countries, this staff member could become a “political target.” Kaseya said he moved the employee temporarily to Cameroon, but CHAI moved the person back to the DRC upon the employee’s request. Kaseya told Devex he disagreed with this decision, calling it “politically immature.” “It’s like today, in the United Nations, you cannot hire someone from Pakistan to send into India,” he said, adding that after that, Congolese authorities were aware of this person’s return. The outreach Although he was no longer a CHAI employee, Kaseya became involved in discussions between the organization and military authorities around the two detained individuals. He sent an initial email to CHAI’s chief executive officer, Neil Buddy Shah, on April 5 to lay out what he said he heard from Congolese authorities about the detentions. The day after Kaseya sent the email, Shah replied: “we would greatly appreciate your insights as to how we may be able to secure their freedom.” Shah asked Kaseya to meet with Bakandeja, the lawyer who initially represented the organization in the labor dispute, “to provide him information about your understanding as to the demands of the DRC authorities.” He urged that the two “meet as soon as possible.” Kaseya said that CHAI board member Joy Phumaphi also asked for his involvement. Devex contacted her and she said she spoke with Kaseya on April 6, a day after his initial outreach to Shah. Shortly after, Kaseya and Bakandeja authored a briefing document they referred to as an “evaluation of the situation” — which Devex obtained a copy of — that was intended to guide CHAI leadership on the “ways to move forward.” It said the DRC's intelligence service had evidence the Rwandan employee was allegedly “protected and evacuated” by CHAI which allowed this person to “evade justice” with the organization’s support. “Lying [to] Justice and Security officials by protecting someone conducting activities against the country is considered as a crime and breach of state security,” they wrote. They advised that CHAI leadership “must apologize” to Congolese authorities, request the Rwandan employee meet with justice officials, and fire all employees involved in the alleged evacuation of the Rwandan staffer, both in the DRC and elsewhere. In the evaluation document, they alleged that military authorities have sent a letter to the minister of justice requesting the termination of CHAI’s agreement to operate in the DRC. The organization has operated in the country since 2016. Devex contacted the Rwandan employee, whose whereabouts are unclear, but this person declined to comment, referring the matter to CHAI. Those detained have been unavailable for comment. A deposit Kaseya told Devex he was “never involved in discussions” around the conditionalities to release the two detained individuals, including monetary negotiations. He sent, along with Bakandeja, the evaluation of the situation to CHAI in early April — and said this is where his involvement ended. After that, he said he “removed” himself to allow Bakandeja to directly negotiate with the DRC authorities about the temporary release of the two CHAI employees. But there are lingering questions. There was an April 18 communication to CHAI from an individual whom Devex is not naming for confidentiality purposes. This person told CHAI they had met with Kaseya that morning to continue discussions around the release of the detained employees. This individual then laid out a list of demands, which purportedly came from military authorities, including that the employees forfeit passports to authorities, submit authorization requests for domestic travel, one of them commit to locating the Rwandan employee, and a deposit be paid. According to the source familiar with the situation, this same person had another verbal conversation with CHAI, where they told the organization that military authorities are asking that CHAI make a deposit of a large sum of money in cash — in U.S. currency. This request hadn’t come formally from the government nor was there an indication of whether CHAI would get a receipt for the payment. Devex is not disclosing the amount that was demanded because of safety concerns for the detainees. This person told CHAI if these conditions were not quickly met, the detained individuals could soon be transferred to a military prison in a more remote location. The source familiar with the situation said the government had not identified Kaseya nor this other individual as its representative for these negotiations. Kaseya told Devex this person hadn’t spoken on his behalf in relaying information around requests for payment. “You will never see an email where I'm providing conditions for their temporary release,” he wrote. He told Devex it was Shah who told him about the specific requests made by Congolese authorities. He said he told Shah he didn’t want to be involved any longer and told him to work with Bakandeja to find a solution, "including paying DRC authorities if this is fine with CHAI." The source familiar with the situation suggested Kaseya’s involvement in the situation is “troubling and potentially dangerous,” given tensions with his former employer and the timing of the detentions. Kaseya told Devex that any suggestion his involvement in this situation is “troubling” or “potentially dangerous” is a misrepresentation of what happened and is not only “simply ridiculous but also an insult to a country.” He said CHAI’s success in the DRC is important to him because it's part of his legacy. "I’m a respected senior person and I still respect CHAI," he wrote to Devex. In response to questions from Devex, Kaseya looped in Shah to an email where he threatened to sue CHAI and sour the organization’s relationship with African leaders. “I strongly hope that CHAI leadership is not organizing and leading all of these misrepresentations. Just in case CHAI doesn’t manage to take appropriate internal actions to fix these misrepresentations, I will consider that as [a] personal attack, take appropriate legal action and disclose it to heads of State who elected me because this is an insult to African countries,” he wrote. CHAI, meanwhile, "remains ready to work with local authorities to address and resolve any misunderstanding that may have led to the detention of our colleagues,” according to a spokesperson for the organization. “These are committed public health workers, one of whom is a physician, who have worked for the health of the Congolese people for decades. We're also eager to continue our long-running health system strengthening work in the DRC, focused on increasing access to HIV diagnostics and care, reducing malaria deaths, and improving reproductive health,” the spokesperson added. Other accusations The document Kaseya and Bakandeja sent to CHAI, in which they made recommendations on how to free the detained staff, also contained several additional accusations of misconduct against CHAI, which the two said came from an investigation by Congolese authorities. This included allegations the organization previously committed “tax fraud” in the country and that there is evidence that the detained individuals were using fake documents. The allegation of “tax fraud” stemmed from an incident in which a third-party vendor contracted by CHAI failed to pay taxes on behalf of the organization, according to Kaseya. The case — which was initially brought to the authorities’ attention by CHAI — was resolved after Congolese authorities issued an assessment of what was owed, including penalties, which the organization paid and also stopped working with the third-party vendor. Kaseya said DRC authorities discovered CHAI had used the same third-party vendor in Nigeria, where the organization faced the same problem. He said the organization also “closed the chapter” in Nigeria by paying what was owed and stopped using that third-party vendor. When asked how this constituted fraud, Kaseya said this is what Congolese authorities classified it as because of concerns over due diligence, as this also happened to the organization in another country. The third-party vendor didn’t respond to Devex’s repeated requests for comment. But Kaseya said this tax situation prompted authorities to take a deeper look into the organization’s operations in the country, where they discovered other issues. “When DRC authorities got this information, they launched a massive investigation regarding CHAI to understand their modus operandi,” he texted to Devex. Kaseya said the authorities then found the two detained employees, both of whom he hired, allegedly used false documents to appear as international staff in the DRC — which allowed them to receive a better employment package. Kaseya sent a message to CHAI Executive Vice President Owens Wiwa about these allegations on Feb. 22. Kaseya and Bakandeja’s briefing document lists accusations against CHAI and the employees but does not present evidence supporting those accusations. The government of the DRC declined to provide comment or evidence despite Devex’s repeated attempts. One military general that Devex reached out to for more information replied: “It’s forbidden.” A new leader Africa CDC, which was launched in 2017, has been considered a global health success story and increasingly grown in prominence and responsibility in recent years partly due to its successful coordination of the continent’s pandemic response. In partnership with country governments and the World Health Organization, Africa CDC is responsible for coordinating outbreak responses for a range of diseases including Ebola, Lassa fever, and cholera. The continent deals with over 100 such outbreaks each year. Over a year ago, African leaders granted Africa CDC greater autonomy from the African Union to free it from some of the bureaucracy that weighed it down so it can respond to outbreaks more rapidly. With this, Kaseya is entrusted with greater powers than his predecessor and has the direct ear of African heads of state. Kaseya’s appointment sparked jubilation from top politicians in the Congolese government, which characterized it as a diplomatic victory. “This is the epilogue of a long, secret diplomatic battle waged for six months by President Félix Tshisekedi,” according to an announcement from the presidential office, translated from French. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame criticized the appointment as not transparent and said there was neither debate nor necessary participation of heads of state in the selection. Kaseya was chosen over the “first-ranked candidate,” he said, which was Magda Robalo, former minister of health of Guinea Bissau. Kagame was picked in 2016 to lead an AU-wide effort to reform the continental body’s internal procedures. AU reforms include ensuring hiring of staff is merit-based and transparent. In his inaugural press conference in the new role, Kaseya said the AU not only considered candidate résumés and their performances in the interviews but the strength of the manifesto they presented to the AU that outlined how they would lead Africa CDC. When asked about Kagame’s letter, Kaseya told Devex that all heads of state have the right to ask these types of questions. Long-brewing suspicion This chain of events with the detained CHAI employees is another twist in a fraught history between the DRC and Rwanda. Following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, millions of refugees entered eastern DRC. In 1996, Rwanda invaded the region, targeting perpetrators of the genocide who had entered the DRC alongside refugees. After the regional civil war ended, Congolese combatants, who had been backed by Rwanda, then entered the DRC’s army and Rwanda has since then played a significant role in the security services and army in the country, Richard Moncrieff, interim project director of the African Great Lakes region at the International Crisis Group, told Devex. “That has generated suspicion ever since that for the last 20 years Rwandans have networks of informants and support across the security services in the DRC. That suspicion is likely to be, at least to some degree, well-founded,” Moncrieff said. Tensions began to escalate between the two countries in late 2021 when M23 reemerged from relative dormancy as a prominent conflict group in eastern DRC, he said. The group has been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. While Rwanda denies this, a report submitted to the United Nations Security Council found “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces are supporting the M23 rebel group. Kagame has accused the DRC of arming the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, a faction of Rwandan rebels operating in eastern DRC that oppose his government, which includes fighters that have been accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide. This group is also accused of committing atrocities against civilians. Rwanda’s ambassador to the DRC was expelled last October and in January, Kagame threatened to evict Congolese refugees. A witch hunt? These tensions appear to be playing out in a McCarthyesque way with arrests of Rwandan nationals and their alleged supporters by Congolese authorities. CHAI isn’t the first to face accusations. Rwandan nationals and Congolese citizens working with the African Health Development Organization in the DRC were arrested for espionage last year, with Congolese authorities claiming one was a Rwandan soldier. In December, Jean-Claude Molipe Mandongo, DRC’s deputy minister of the interior, alleged the individuals, under the cover of their NGO, acquired land on the perimeter of an airport and military base and were preparing for a “Machiavellian plan.” “This parading of alleged 'spies' is straight from a playbook that we recognise all too well,” the Rwandan government wrote in a statement. “Leaders unable or unwilling to account for their own failures will seek to fuel ethnic divisions and point the finger at sinister outside forces.” There are many other cases of similar charges, said Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International’s researcher for the DRC. He said another international organization’s staff members were arrested and held in Kinshasa without trial over accusations they supported M23. “These people were simply being harassed” by authorities because they work in areas under M23 control, according to him. Senga had discussed the case with colleagues of those arrested, diplomats, and U.N. staff members. Generally, the merit of the accusations is unclear, Senga said, and “we cannot completely dismiss” that some of these cases may be built on a solid foundation of intelligence that these individuals are supporting Rwanda. Moncrieff said that although he doesn't have specific information on the cases cited, it’s not far-fetched “the Rwandan intelligence service may attempt to operate through NGOs operating in the DRC.” But Senga said there is also a strong chance in many cases that “Congolese authorities are just hunting for witches.” Devex reached out to a Rwandan government spokesperson who said that “out of concern for the safety of our nationals in the DRC,” she could not comment on the CHAI case nor any other accusations. In general, detention conditions in the DRC are “horrible,” Senga said, with instances of people detained incommunicado by intelligence services in small, filthy rooms, without adequate access to health services and food. The DRC constitution says authorities must inform a person about the reason for their arrest, an initial period of detention shouldn’t exceed 48 hours without charge, and they should be granted access to lawyers, families and health treatment. But Senga said due process procedures are frequently ignored. “Often, especially when they invoke issues around national security, they can detain people for weeks, even months, even years, without trial,” Senga said. Update, Aug. 11, 2023: Congolese authorities released the two CHAI staffers in July — after they had been held at a military detention site for three months. Have any news tips? Contact the reporter of this story, Sara Jerving, at sara.jerving@devex.com.