Construction began on October 14, 1988, a date chosen to coincide with Mobutu Sese Seko's birthday. The project took exactly five years, concluding on October 14, 1993. Originally called Stade Kamanyola, after a groupement in the Walungu Territory of South Kivu Province, the name carried military associations from conflicts where Donatien Mahele Lieko Bokungu first distinguished himself as a young warrant officer. The stadium was inaugurated on September 14, 1994, with a friendly match between the Leopards of Zaire and the Flames of Malawi. In 1997, when Laurent-Desire Kabila's forces toppled Mobutu, the stadium was renamed to honor the Pentecost martyrs. A place built to celebrate a dictator's birth now memorializes his victims.

Under Laurent-Desire Kabila's rule, the Stade des Martyrs became something darker than a sports venue. Human rights organizations reported that it was used as a detention facility for dignitaries of the former Mobutu regime and anyone suspected of collaboration. Journaliste en danger, a Congolese press freedom organization affiliated with Reporters Without Borders, documented the stadium's use as a military camp where people were held for extended periods in dungeon-like conditions. In 1998, during the Second Congo War, government troops opened fire during a football match between AS Vita Club and Daring Club Motema Pembe, killing four people. A stadium named for martyrs was creating new ones.

By the early 2000s, the stadium had deteriorated severely. Radio Okapi described it in 2006 as "slowly dying," with conditions so unsanitary that spectators could barely tolerate sections of the facility. Street children, known locally as shegues, had taken up residence in parts of the complex. FIFA threatened to strip the venue of its eligibility for international matches, granting only a one-month reprieve for renovations. The government scrambled, launching a $3.5 million project in April 2008 involving ten contractors and eventually military engineers to meet the deadline. FIFA reinstated the stadium in May 2008, but the cycle of decay and emergency repair repeated itself. A second renovation wave began in March 2020, only to be delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Confederation of African Football excluded the stadium from its approved list in May 2021 and again deemed it unsuitable in February 2023, citing inadequate media facilities, unreliable internet, and under-equipped medical services.

The stadium hosts far more than football. Pope Francis addressed Congolese youth there in February 2023. Political rallies regularly fill its seats. Concerts by Congolese music stars draw enormous crowds, sometimes with devastating consequences. On October 29, 2022, a mega-concert by the singer Fally Ipupa ended in a crowd crush that killed eleven people, including two police officers. Le Monde reported that the stadium had reached capacity by 3 p.m., with thousands still trying to enter. Some victims died of suffocation; others were crushed in overcrowded corridors and stands. A fatality was recorded before the concert even began, one person succumbing to asphyxiation in the press of bodies. The tragedy underscored how the stadium's massive capacity can become a liability when crowd management fails.

From the air, the Stade des Martyrs dominates the Lingwala commune of Kinshasa, its oval form unmistakable against the dense urban fabric. It is the fourth-largest stadium in Africa by capacity, home ground for the Congolese national football team, AS Vita Club, and Daring Club Motema Pembe. In 2023, it hosted the Jeux de la Francophonie, welcoming 3,000 athletes from over 40 countries, the first time the games were held in the DRC. By July 2024, after yet another round of renovations, CAF finally approved it for the 2024-2025 season alongside Stade TP Mazembe. The stadium endures as Kinshasa does: battered, patched, renamed, repurposed, and still standing.