In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in spite of expectations to the contrary, a range of mechanisms for transitional justice were established - international criminal prosecutions, a limited amnesty regime, and a truth and reconciliation commission. What accounts for this? Theories that focus on coercion by international actors, processes of norm diffusion and the mode of transition offer some insights but fail adequately to account for the decision to engage in TJ in the DRC, in the absence of significant international pressure and in spite of the fact that successive peace agreements brought former rebels into power. Domestic rather than international actors defined the transitional justice agenda in the DRC, influenced by both structural factors and subjective preferences. These domestic actors were motivated by diverse and overlapping political and moral concerns about legitimacy, the desire to frame a particular historical narrative, the appeasement of intercommunal tensions, the denunciation of foreign aggression and pragmatic imperatives dictated by ongoing violence in the east. The outcome was the adoption of a range of uncoordinated and sometimes contradictory measures which reflected the various interests of key stakeholders in government and civil society in transitional justice and the complex political dynamics at play amongst these stakeholders and in their interaction with international actors. The DRC experience demonstrates that the particularised interests of these stakeholders, which were strongly conditioned by the social and political goals they pursued in the peace process and their understanding of the causes of the conflict, are as important to our understanding of motivations to engage in TJ as theories of coercion, norm diffusion and mode of transition in the theoretical repertoire of transitional justice.