- The African Union has adopted the right of the Eastern Africa region to produce next Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
- Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi described it as a major breakthrough for the East African region to present candidates for the post.
Image: HANDOUT
Opposition leader Raila Odinga will be from April begin traversing Africa to lobby heads of state to back his bid for the African Union Commisison chairperson job.
An insider calendar seen by the Star shows that the former prime minister will heighten his campaigns in the coming months ahead of the AUC elections slated for February 2025.
It has also emerged that President William Ruto, who has endorsed Raila’s AUC bid, will mobilise the country’s foremost diplomats to pitch the tent for the opposition leader.
Raila has declared his bid for the job and insisted that he is ready to face his opponents at the ballot even as the AU’s top panel of ministers cleared the path for his candidature.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi lauded AU’s endorsement of a rotational candidature that will see the East African region produce the next AUC boss.
“It is now clear that Rtd Hon Raila Odinga will be in the race for the AU Commission chairperson,” Mudavadi said on Friday in Addis Ababa.
He stated that this would remove any technical or legal hurdles in Odinga’s race for the AU Commission chairman post
The former premier has since crafted a detailed cross-Africa campaign that starts with visiting South Sudan to hold a meeting with President Salva Kiir in Juba next month.
In the same month, Raila will return to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, to hold a meeting with President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Raila who met Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni alongside Ruto two weeks ago, is keen to solidify the East Africa voting bloc.
Last week Raila was in Kigali, Rwanda, where he met President Paul Kagame accompanied by two of his close allies.
He has also scheduled meetings in the Horn of Africa in April with visits to Djibouti and Ethiopia.
In May, Raila will head South with scheduled visits to Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola, Zambia and Botswana.
However, his visit to South Africa will wait for a new president given that the country will hold elections on May 29.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, Raila’s key ally is facing a challenge from EFF candidate Julius Malema as campaigns enter the homestretch.
Raila is set to visit Vape Town in June for a meeting with the new president.
The insider calendar shows that President Ruto will also beef up Raila’s continental campaigns with State visits to Ghana on April 2 and 3.
During the visit, the president is expected to hold talks with President Nana Akufo-Addo regarding Kenya's AU Commission bid.
On the 15th and 16th of April, President Ruto will make a State visit to Egypt hosted by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
At the end of April, President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe will host President Ruto for a two-day State visit in Harare.
The president will use the opportunity to lobby Mnangagwa to support Raila’s AU bid.