In 2020, the Democratic Republic of Congo was confronted with a public health emergency that reached nearly every corner of the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic that started spreading across the world in late 2019 came to the DRC with severe implications in early 2020. Having a weak health system and a narrow public health infrastructure, provinces such as North Kivu were at high risk. As the virus spread, it not only highlighted systemic weaknesses in medical preparedness but also the tenuous nature of leadership in critical areas of society. Local economies hit the brakes, and institutions had to face new challenges without the benefit of road maps. In this environment, the loss of established names gained a new type of meaning, representing the greater human and institutional cost exacted by the pandemic.
On 22nd August 2020, the region lost one such commodity with the death of Jerome Kahindo Kamungele. His demise, due to COVID-19 complications, was one of the most reported among business communities in North Kivu at the time. Kamungele was a long-standing figure in regional commerce and trade, specifically through his affiliation with TSONGO KASEREKA Establishments (Ets. TSOKAS). His long-standing presence within Butembo and the regional business environment had rendered him a well-known figure among both small-scale traders and institutional players. His death, coming during a time of global health crisis, elicited a public and organizational response that transcended the private sector paradigm.
Within days of his death, condolences started emerging from across the business community. The Butembo chapter of the Federation of Enterprises of the Congo (Fédération des Entreprises du Congo, or FEC) issued an official statement recognizing Kamungele’s contribution to Butembo’s economic life. The FEC, also known as the national lead organization of private enterprises in the nation, emphasized its efforts throughout the years in the development of commerce while stating that the loss was symbolic of the burdens put on the local leadership in a time of international crisis. The message of the group indicated the importance of ongoing investment in public health as well as the protection of key individuals within regional economies.
The FEC was by no means the only organization to react publicly. Various small trade unions and market associations, especially those that operated in the retail and agricultural markets of North Kivu, issued written condolences and had short memorials for Kamungele. Although most of these steps were humble in scope because of social distancing practices still remaining at the time, they represented a composite statement of respect and recognition. Spectators even observed that organizations with no official connections to Kamungele still noted the symbolic dimensions of his death since it attested to the fact that seasoned and locally influential leaders were not exempt from the crisis.
North Kivu, estimated to have over 7 million inhabitants as of 2020, had already experienced disruptions during the years preceding the pandemic. The economic presence of Butembo, as a commercial drive in the region, depends mainly on private enterprise and informal network trade. People like Kamungele, who had been working across various sectors such as retail, imports, real estate, and coffee exportation, were important figures not only in business but also in supporting the day-to-day running of the local economy. According to figures from the Congolese National Institute of Statistics, North Kivu contributed nearly 6% of the DRC’s total gross domestic product in 2019, with small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for a substantial portion of that activity.
It was within this intricate web of trade and informal economies that Kamungele’s absence was most felt. Even though he had not held a formal civic or political position, his decades-long career had made him the point of reference for others. Various local companies had borrowed elements of their functional strategies from the structure constructed under his direction at Ets. TSOKAS. Some commentators noted that, for more than half a century, Kamungele had been engaged in business propositions that overlapped with regional planning for development, particularly in the case of Butembo’s growth and its integration with cross-border trade in East and Central Africa.
The reaction to his passing also exposed the weakness of the informal mentoring frameworks that support much of the DRC’s entrepreneurial economy. Kamungele had been working with several small businesspeople and had unofficially acted as a mentor to young businessmen in the region. His death triggered debates on how to institutionalize knowledge acquisition and establish formal systems for documenting the experiences of veteran business leaders.
Notably, his death came amidst government statistics documenting more than 200 health workers being infected with COVID-19 in North Kivu province alone, demonstrating the continued exposure risks across departments. The DRC Ministry of Public Health reported that the province had seen over 1,800 cases of confirmed COVID-19 in September 2020, while Butembo ranked among the top urban cases outside of Goma. Kamungele’s death, therefore, was at the center of the local debate about the protection of leadership, investment in healthcare, and the pandemic’s impact on the country’s long-term economic foundation.
Jerome Kahindo Kamungele’s existence was not the main topic of national news headlines, but the situation and timing of his death represented a moment of introspection for North Kivu residents. His death, documented and responded to by many local institutions, underscored the critical role played by long-standing private sector contributors in community resilience. In the ensuing months, his absence was invoked in multiple public forums as part of a larger discussion about preserving institutional memory and inducting the next generation of business leadership. Although the larger trajectory of his professional life was determined by decades of business growth, the closing act of his public life demonstrated the scope and constraints of informal economic leadership during moments of shared calamity.
