Raila Is Now On Home-Stretch To Bag AUC Chairperson

By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Worth Noting:

• At a joint press conference, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who had been accorded a heroic welcome including a 21-Gun salute, disclosed that he supports the candidature of Raila Odinga for Africa Union Commission (AUC) chairperson.
• Raila has the best credentials compared to other candidates.
• I have discussed this matter with President Ruto and I have assured him that my vote will go to Raila Odinga.
• Besides Raila’s candidature, the talks centered on matters of peace and security in Africa and finalization of priority reforms of continental body.
• President Ruto reiterated the commitment of Kenya to ending conflicts in the region.

I have all along been reiterating that ODM leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is poised to win the Africa Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson.

This has not been going down well with Raila’s haters.

I have not changed my position.

We are now counting hours before this poll is held this coming Saturday.

Only heads of state and government of Africa continent are eligible to vote. The voting will be through secret ballot.

Of 55 nations, 48 will participate. The countries left out are those that have had military coups in the recent past.

I have previously listed a number of reasons why Raila is poised to win this poll.

One of them is that President William Ruto is leading his campaign.

Dr Ruto have met all Africa leaders to seek their respective vote for him.

The latest was the President of Guinea Bissau.

At a joint press conference, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who had been accorded a heroic welcome including a 21-Gun salute, disclosed that he supports the candidature of Raila Odinga for Africa Union Commission (AUC) chairperson.

Raila has the best credentials compared to other candidates.

I have discussed this matter with President Ruto and I have assured him that my vote will go to Raila Odinga.

Besides Raila’s candidature, the talks centered on matters of peace and security in Africa and finalization of priority reforms of continental body.

President Ruto reiterated the commitment of Kenya to ending conflicts in the region.

Two days later, Dr Ruto hosted five African heads of state and senior officials of Africa Union (AU) including the outgoing AU chairman Faki Mahamat Moussa to discuss and accelerate priority reforms.

When he attended the swearing-in of newly elected President of Ghana Dramani Mahama, President Ruto took this opportunity to showcase Raila’s credentials and convince a number of African leaders he met in Acra, Ghana’s capital city, that Raila is the most suitable candidate.

President of Togo and Equatorial Guinea counterpart Nguema were among them.

Dr Ruto had earlier in the eve of last year’s Christmas Day hosted Ghananian leader at his expansive home in Kilgoris, Narok county, during which Mahama officially invited him to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

Besides Raila’s candidature, Ruto’ talks with Togo leader Faure Gnassingbe centered on African Union reforms and integration.

Two days earlier Odinga had held talks with former Prime Minister of Mauritius who reaffirmed his support for him.

I have spoken with the President about this and I want to assure you Mauritius vote will go to your bag, he assured him.

Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni had a week earlier reiterated that he will vote for Raila.

He spoke during the celebrations of grand finale of Piny Luo Cultural Festival in Siaya county.

During this event, President Ruto while being flanked by Museveni once again reiterated that Raila is poised to clinch Africa Union (AU) Commission chairperson. The two Presidents were hosted by Raila Odinga.

Raila faces Djibouti and Madagascar candidates in this contest.

In the eve of Christmas, Dr Ruto had also hosted the outgoing chairperson of Africa Union Commission (AUC) Faki Moussa Mahamat at the same venue, Kilgoris

Sources indicated the duo’s meeting also focussed on upcoming elections of AUC chairman.

In my earlier opinion piece, I disagreed strongly with the narrative of President William Ruto’s critics that Raila’s collaboration with him was his undoing.

I stated that these claims were borne out of malice and bad faith.

Undoubtedly, President Ruto’s style of leadership was being admired by many leaders in the continent of Africa.

This is because while comparing him with other Presidents in Africa he was far much ahead in terms of tackling and resolving myriad of challenges facing his people, the Kenyan population.

Secondly, he had curved a niche of being a true Pan-Africanist.

In AU forums and international stage, he had been demonstrating a high level of boldness, consistency and focus in championing the African course.

This informed the decision of eight heads of state of East Africa community (EAC) who had earlier appointed Dr Ruto as the chairperson of EAC.

This happened at a time when former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kenya’s candidate for Africa Union (AU) seat, was concluding his door-to-door campaign in West Africa.

Before this campaign tour, Kenyans opposed to his candidature had already come to a conclusion that Raila cannot penetrate this regional bloc. Reason? Having been colonized by France, these nations had been clustered as Francophone. It means these people were speaking different language to that of Raila.

Noting that Kenya was a colony of Britain, Raila belongs to Anglophone, English speaking nations.

But these language barriers would not stop Raila from breaking the ceiling.

After sharing his vision and agenda for Africa with Presidents of this bloc, he managed to convince majority of them to support his candidature. This left Raila’s opponents with an egg on their face.

Former Prime Minister had earlier made similar forays to some other regions of Africa and received similar backing.

The EAC heads of state had earlier honored President Ruto’s invitation to attend the official inauguration of Raila as Kenya’s candidate and official launch of his campaign.

During this meeting at State House Nairobi, the President Ruto successfully lobbied each to support Raila’s candidature.

Initially, five countries were eyeing the AU top job. The two candidates fronted by Mauritius and Seychelles respectively have since stepped aside and each and their country’s thrown its full weight behind Raila Odinga.

Besides Ruto’s backing, Raila’s candidature is enjoying the support of many countries in Africa continent because of his  credentials.

Putting aside his academic qualifications, his grasp of the needs and aspirations of the black African people is immeasurable.

Sometimes back, an opinion poll conducted by AU Think- Tank showed that Raila was ahead of his perceived close rival, Djibouti candidate.

It is worth to recall Raila curved a niche of being a leading light in African when he served as African High Representative for Infrastructure Development.

Apart from initiating mega projects, he espoused the ideals of being a true pan-Africanist. He has since been championing the course of a United State of Africa under the the banner of One Africa One People.

While articulating the virtues of democracy, good governance and development in Africa, Raila has been mincing no word in reiterating that Africa is the richest continent because of its vast resources.

Africa, however, lags behind because of lack of unity.

If I win, I will strive to ensure that Africa speaks in one voice.

During China-Africa summit held in Beijing China, Dr Ruto took that opportunity to drum up support for Raila and later during a similar gathering of African leaders in Germany and USA.

Dr Ruto’s talks with these leaders would take place on the sidelines of these summits.

The President always returned back with bagful of goodies.

In his recent trip to Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Dr Ruto managed to rally more leaders to support Kenyan candidate.

Raila, who accompanied him in this trip, took this opportunity to showcase his credentials.

Joseph Mutua Ndonga Is A Writer And Social Commentator