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- Kenya is on a regional offensive to have opposition leader Raila Odinga elected to the AU Commission chairpersonship next year.
- The executive council of the African Union Commission met on Friday to discuss the election of commissioners.
- Odinga once served as the AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development.
Kenya has chosen opposition leader Raila Odinga to challenge for the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson's job, which will be vacant in February next year.
Current chair, former prime minister of Chad, Moussa Faki Mahamat, his deputy, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, a former deputy governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, and the six AU Commissioners are each in the last year of their terms.
The AUC chairpersonship this year will come from the East African Community (EAC).
The executive council of the AUC met in Addis Ababa for its 22nd extraordinary session on Friday.
It's where a resolution was passed that the next chairperson would not necessarily have to be a woman, clearing the way for Kenya's Odinga push.
"Effectively, there are no more technical or legal hurdles preventing Kenya from submitting its candidate," Kenya's prime cabinet secretary, Musalia Mudavadi, told the East African.
The last woman to take up the job was South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whom Mahamat succeeded.
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The assembly elects the AU Commission chairperson and deputy chairperson using a secret ballot, with a two-thirds majority of member states.
Voting is in February next year.
No other EAC country has disclosed their choice for the top job.
But for now, Kenya has been sending envoys to other EAC countries.
With the AUC chair going to East Africa, North Africa can only put forward candidates for the deputy chairperson, then the six commission jobs will be shared by Central, South and West Africa.
In late February, President William Ruto and Odinga were in Uganda to meet Yoweri Museveni.
After the meeting, Ruto said the agenda was to "bring all seven East African Community nations closer in their ultimate goal to form the East African Political Federation".
In early March, Odinga was in Kigali to meet President Paul Kagame.
According to Kagame, the two exchanged "various issues of regional and continental interest".
It will be Odinga's second time to take up an AU job, if successful.
In 2018, he was the inaugural AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development, a post created by Mahamat.
He was relieved of his duties in February 2023. Since then, the post has been vacant.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
