Online quarrel reveals Swiss life of luxury of Cameroon’s ruling family

Paul Biya is the oldest sitting head of state in the world. His daughter Brenda is an influencer. Montage: Wikimedia Commons / KingNasty aka Brenda Biya / Instagram

The daughter of the president of Cameroon has been convicted in Geneva. The case sheds new light on the presidential family’s unofficial second home in a Geneva hotel.

When Brenda Biya, the daughter of the Cameroonian president, was taken to court, the trial was held in Geneva. She had insulted the Cameroonian-Nigerian singer Dencia on social media, calling her a “scammer”, a “dope dealer” and a “lil coke whore”. The background to all this was a dispute over the authorisation of beauty products. The singer sued the president’s daughter, who was found guilty of defamation, slander and insult.

The journalist François Pilet, who also works for SWI swissinfo.ch, revealedExternal link the penal order on the online portal Gotham City. “The case is more than a dispute between two public figures. It proves that the daughter of the Cameroonian president lives part-time in Geneva,” Pilet says. 

Who foots the hotel bill?

The public prosecutor’s office was able to prove that Brenda Biya was staying in Geneva when she posted the messages on social media. It concluded from its questioning that the accused had long been a regular guest at the luxury InterContinental hotel, where a room is reserved for her all year round. Biya herself admitted, according to the penal order, that she had been travelling back and forth between Cameroon and Switzerland since the age of 12.

Brenda Biya gives an insight into the life of a president’s daughter on social media – among other things, she discusses her homosexuality, which is forbidden by law in Cameroon. Screenshot: Brenda Biya / TikTok

“This was long suspected to be the case and has now been confirmed,” says Pilet, calling it a scandal. “It can be assumed that the hotel stays are paid for from the Cameroonian state coffers; just like the Geneva visits of President Paul Biya, which have long been publicly known.”

Pilet was the co-author of a documentary by Swiss public television, RTS, in 2018 entitledGeneva, A Dictator’s ParadiseExternal link, which traced Paul Biya’s visits to Geneva. According to the report, the Cameroonian president travels to Geneva by private jet at least twice a year to stay at the InterContinental hotel for several months. He does not travel alone – but with an entourage of around 60 people, who occupy an entire floor.

Paul Biya has been in power for over 40 years, and human rights organisations point to growing repressionExternal link in the country. According to research by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)External link, between taking office in 1982 and 2018 he has spent around four-and-a-half years on private visits abroad, mainly in Geneva. In the process, he is reckoned to have spent at least CHF150 million ($177 million), with hotel stays amounting to some CHF40,000 a night. According to former employees of the hotel, he always pays for everything in cash and gives out generous tips. “Given these sums, the state treasury is very unlikely to be spared,” says Pilet. 

The president’s luxurious stays in Switzerland have long been a thorn in the side of many Cameroonians. A Cameroonian journalist, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, said on enquiry: “It is unacceptable for the majority of the population that their president lives in the lap of luxury abroad, while his country is battered by economic crises, food shortages and internal conflict.”

In the journalist’s mind there is no doubt that the funds for Brenda Biya’s hotel stays in Geneva also come from state coffers. “It is unclear where the president’s daughter is working at the moment,” the journalist said. She refused to disclose any of her finances to the Geneva public prosecutor’s office. But, although many Cameroonians suspect misuse of public money, precise information is hard to obtain, the journalist said. Press freedom in the country is severely curtailed. Several investigative journalists have been tortured or murderedExternal link in custody in recent years.

At 92, Paul Biya is the oldest president in the world; he plans to stand for re-election in October. He has ruled Cameroon since 1982, amid accusations of electoral fraud, clientelism and embezzlement. The country ranked 140th out of 180 in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Political tensions have been escalating for several years. In the west of the country, separatists are demanding the independence of two mainly English-speaking regions. The conflict has claimed more than 6,500 lives so far, and the national army is accused of massive human rights violations and war crimes. Protest movements against the long-time ruler have been growing, although public criticism in Cameroon is suppressed.

Conflicts at home, luxury in Geneva 

The Cameroonian diaspora, meanwhile, stage regular protests. Whenever Cameroonian exiles learn that the president has arrived in Geneva, they organise demonstrations in front of the InterContinental hotel. Among them is Francis Awudu, president of the English-speaking Cameroonian Society of Switzerland, who supports the separatists’ demands for independence. He accuses Switzerland of protecting a “genocidal dictator”. “We demonstrators have repeatedly been intimidated and attacked by Biya’s security detail,” he says. “Switzerland should denounce this.”

It is not the first time that the Biyas have run into trouble with the law in Geneva. In 2019, six of the president’s bodyguards were convicted of physically assaulting a journalist from Swiss public broadcaster, RTS.

In response, a group led by Awudu and Sylvain Thévoz, Social Democrat member of the Geneva cantonal parliament, launched a petitionExternal link calling on the cantonal legislature to declare Paul Biya “persona non grata” in Geneva. In other words, the city should ban him from visiting and call on the federal government to do likewise countrywide.

The petition was rejected by the centre-right majority in the cantonal parliament. “One member of parliament openly stated that Geneva could not afford to lose the Biyas,” Awubu says. He is convinced that the authorities are “part of the problem”.

Meanwhile, Thévoz says: “The regular presence of the Cameroonian president is a slap in the face for human rights defenders and an embarrassment for Geneva. Why do we continue to roll out the carpet for a dictator who breaks the law?”

Since the 1970s, Cameroon has been characterised by tensions between the francophone central state and the smaller anglophone parts of the country, some of which have been fought out in bloodshed. This demonstration in 2017 called for unity in the country. Joel Kouam / Reuters

When contacted on the matter, the Swiss foreign ministry stated that it does not comment on private visits by foreign heads of state to Switzerland. However, “a head of state and their family members sojourning in Switzerland are subject to the same regulations as all other foreigners.”

The ministry further noted that “international law grants heads of state immunity from jurisdiction, even during private visits”, but this does not generally apply to their family members.

Presidential children thick on the ground 

The president’s daughter seems not to have reckoned with all this. The penalty order quotes an exchange of messages between the two women. In it, Brenda Biya claims she is not afraid of being sued and that her father has “connections in Switzerland”.

In this case at least, this did not help: Brenda Biya was sentenced to a monetary penalty of 60 daily units of CHF200 each, suspended for three years, and a CHF2,400 fine. The defence lawyers for the plaintiff, Dencia, spoke positively to Gotham City: “We welcome the fact that the Swiss judiciary did not hesitate to punish the defendant, despite her status as the daughter of the president of the Republic of Cameroon.”

Paul Biya is not the only foreign ruler who enjoys prolonged stays in Geneva. In recent years, cases have repeatedly emerged in which potentates have purchased entire villas on Lake Geneva. These include the clans of the former presidents of KazakhstanExternal link and Uzbekistan, whose respective daughters have been the subject of investigationsExternal link.

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl. Adapted from German by Julia Bassam/ts