Monday, December 9, 2024 - Former United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi has dimmed former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s hope of clinching the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairmanship.
This is after he poked holes in
Raila's campaign strategy, saying it won’t help him.
Bankrolled by the Kenyan
government, the veteran opposition politician has been traversing Africa to
court support from African heads of state.
Raila needs support either by
consensus or at least a two-thirds majority vote by the AU member states
represented by their heads.
Assessing the race, Kituyi
observed that the Francophone bloc would create a bulwark against Raila's bid.
He said the Djibouti candidate,
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, will capitalize on the French-speaking and Islamic
countries to get the seat.
Kituyi further observed that
Raila's continent-wide overtures are deficient in strategy and thus would not
deliver him the win in the vote scheduled for February 2025.
There are other external factors
that the Kenyan candidate's campaign secretariat has not explored, thus the
loophole for the loss.
"I don't know if it is
campaigning that gets you that seat. There are certain things that are
strategically very important in consideration. The Israeli-Gaza genocide is one
of them.”
“I have worked at the highest
level in international diplomacy; I have sat in fora where major elective and
appointment decisions are made. One thing I know for sure is that Francophone
Africa will always vote as a bloc on any issues concerning Africa," he
said.
According to Kituyi, the
French-speaking and Islamic countries will always marshal support amongst
themselves for the benefit of one of their natives.
"You have two candidates
for a position to represent Africa, if one is from Francophone and the other is
not, the Francophone candidate starts with 29 votes. If you have Djibouti and
Kenyan candidates, the Djibouti one starts with 29 votes, then add those from
Islamic countries, and SADC issues a statement that its countries are
supporting Djibouti, where are you going to start campaigning for Raila?"
Kituyi posed.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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