Kenya and its Eastern African neighbours have the first opportunity to produce the next chair of the African Union Commission, says Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
Speaking in Addis at the end of the 44th session of the AU Executive Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers, Musalia said Eastern Africa was the next in line for the AU leadership under AU’s election rules adopted as part of the AU institutional reforms.
“The Central Southern and Western Africa regions have had their share since 2002, so it is now time for the Eastern and Northern Africa regions,” he said. “Under the rotational rules Eastern Africa has the first opportunity when the term of the current chair expires end of this year.”
The term of the current chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, a former Chadian Prime Minister ends this year and elections for his successor are due early next year.
The AU election rules introduced in 2018 seeks to provide principles of regional rotation, inter-regional rotation, gender and merit in the election of the AU chair and commissioners. The rotational process is alphabetical, thus, ranking Eastern Africa ahead of the Northern Africa.
This agenda will be on the table during the two-day AU summit of African heads of state and government this weekend. President William Ruto will be among the leaders attending the summit that focuses on building the resilience of Africa’s education systems under the theme ‘Educate an African fit for the 21st Century.’
“Africa’s prosperity will require significant investments in education and skills revolution to develop human and social capital,” he said, underlining the importance of motivation and science as envisioned in the AU Agenda 2063.
Mudavadi also defended Kenya’s human rights record, including police accountability to the citizens. Responding to an assertion on police impunity in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights annual report, he affirmed the constitutional right of Kenyans to freely report any allegations of police brutality and use of excessive force to the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) established under the 2010 Constitution.
