Baende unsuccessfully ran for president during the 2023 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election.

[1] Baende wanted to become a Catholic priest, and studied in the Grand Séminaire Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Bamanya in Mbandaka between 1982 and 1985, receiving a diploma with distinction.

[citation needed] Between 1985 and 1988, Baende studied at the University of Kinshasa's seminary, receiving a graduate degree in theology.

Between 1988 and 1990, he received diaconal training in the diocese of Lisala, and subsequently was ordained as priest of the archdiocese of Mbandaka-Bikoro by Cardinal Frédéric Etsou in November 1990.

[3] He was elected as the national deputy for Mbandaka in 2011, but was dismissed from his position by President Joseph Kabila and encouraged to keep serving as governor of Équateur.