Museveni Urges Raila Odinga to Champion Africa’s Development as AU Chair Aspirant

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has challenged Kenya’s African Union Commission chairperson hopeful Raila Odinga to help African leaders mobilise support for development purposes, should he land the position.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of the Piny Luo Cultural Festival 2024 in Siaya County on January 2, Museveni revealed Uganda will fully support the candidature of Odinga for the AUC position.

He further challenged the opposition veteran to ensure that he helped the regional leaders brainstorm on how they could best transform Africa.

“We’re supporting the candidature of Raila for AUC chairmanship. He will help us to do mobilisation and brainstorming, but the real power is with us here,” Museveni explained. 

Museveni, however, cautioned that Raila’s success in the upcoming elections will be entirely dependent on how the government supports him.

His sentiments, however, are likely to raise debates as to whether the support Raila is getting from the government has dwindled. 

“Those in power (senators, governors, MPs) can decide whether to move or not. For him, he can talk he’s like a preacher, like John the Baptist,” he added.

Speaking at the same event, President William Ruto, however, maintained that Kenya is hopeful that Raila will land the seat when the elections will be conducted in February. 

Ruto revealed that before Kenya flouted the idea of supporting Raila, they jointly sought the advice of the Ugandan leader, who helped them reach a consensus with other East African heads to support him. 

“Raila is not a candidate for Kenya, he is a candidate for East Africa. Before we rolled out his candidature, we went to Mzee Museveni and spoke to all East African heads of state and confirmed we have the right candidate with the right credentials to champion the unity, progress, and success of Africa,” Ruto stated.

“So far, we’ve seen enormous support for his candidature. We’re confident that his credentials traverse many areas. His proven track record as a pan-African is going to be of immense value to our region in matters of ensuring our region is peaceful, managing conflicts in our continent, and building investments into the market of 1.4 billion people,” he added. 

The AUC chairpersonship election will take place during the 38th AU Summit in Addis Ababa in February. The Chairperson will be elected by the Assembly for a four-year term, renewable once. 

The process will involve a secret ballot among member states, adhering to the AU’s principles of regional rotation and merit-based selection.