President Paul Kagame has said he will endorse Kenyan politician Raila Odinga, one of two candidates who have announced their bid for the chairmanship of the African Union Commission.
Elections for the new AU Commission chairperson to replace the current head, Chadian politician Moussa Faki Mahamat, are scheduled for February 2025.
The 78-year-old politician who leads Kenya’s opposition coalition Azimio, announced his candidacy for the AU top job in February.
On March 8, Kagame received him in his office for a discussion on issues of regional and continental interest, Village Urugwiro said then.
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"I respect Raila Odinga; I know his struggles,” Kagame said in an interview with Kenyan broadcaster NTV, aired on Tuesday, March 12.
Kagame commended the performance of the Kenyan politician when he was AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development, a position he held from 2018 to 2023.
"He did a good job of that, [and had] full grasp of it. We will give him our support, and wish him well,” the President said.
"And not only the support to be there, but even when he is there, we’ll give him support for Africa to succeed.”
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In late February, Odinga, who is a mechanical engineer by training, said he had already secured the support of Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir.
He also had the backing of Kenya’s William Ruto and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni.
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The African Union Commission is the AU's secretariat which undertakes the day-to-day activities of the Union.
The chairman of the AU Commission is elected by the continental body’s general assembly, for a four-year term that is renewed once.
Mahamat, its current head, who is serving a second term he won in 2021, was first elected in 2017.
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Under the rotational rules drawn in 2018, the Eastern Africa region should be the next to produce the AU Commission Chairperson. But the rules of elections allow as many candidates to come from the region
Somalia’s former foreign minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam has also announced she will contest for the AU Commission Chairmanship, seeking to become the second woman to head the continental body after South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
So far, Odinga and Adam are the only who have announced their bids to head the continental body.
Odinga has been active in Kenyan politics since the 1970s. He served as Kenya’s prime minister from 2008 to 2013.
The son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the first vice president of independent Kenya, lost his fifth bid at the presidency in 2022, after William Ruto won.
Odinga has run for president in 1997, 2007, 2013 and 2017.