A prolific political writer, Jean Thierry Monsenepwo has published more than twenty-six op-eds in the Congolese and pan-African press. Each defends a simple idea: the Republic is built through the battle of ideas, not through arms. Selected highlights.
"Constitutional revision or change: the sovereignty of the people above the texts"
26th op-ed — December 2024
In this widely discussed op-ed, he approaches the Congolese constitutional debate through law and history. Drawing on Article 5 of the Constitution — "All power emanates from the people" — on the theory of original constituent power and on the French precedent of 1958 and the Senegalese experience, he argues that no textual lock can prevent the sovereign people from adopting a new fundamental law if they democratically express the will to do so. He sketches his vision of a "Fourth Republic" with more effective institutions better adapted to Congolese realities.
"Félix Tshisekedi, Peacemaker of Central Africa"
ACP op-ed — March 2024
Published by the Congolese Press Agency, this op-ed responds to those who criticized the Head of State's restraint in the face of Rwandan aggression. Quoting Marcus Aurelius and recalling the Kishishe massacres and the bombing of Saké, he demonstrates that choosing diplomacy is not weakness but strength: while the DRC raised its armed forces to eighth place in Africa, it also won the battle for international legitimacy, isolating the Kigali regime on the diplomatic stage.
The pen in the service of truth
Whether responding point by point to opposition criticism, defending the administration's social record — free education, universal health coverage, free maternity care — or advocating for the moralization of public life, his op-eds share the same method: facts, figures, legal and historical references. It is this argumentative rigor that has made him one of the most listened-to communicators of the Union sacrée de la Nation.
"I am not a mole: I am a soldier of the Republic." Jean Thierry Monsenepwo — 2025