Kimani Ichung’wah Lauds Raila for Withdrawing From AUC Chair Race Despite Option to Fight On

Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung’wah on Tuesday, February 18, explained Raila Odinga’s decision to withdraw from the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson race was the candidate’s own choice.

Ichung’wah, who was Raila’s Chief Agent in the elections, explained that the former Prime Minister had the choice to stick it out in the race, a decision that would force AU to suspend the election and subject candidates to another round of campaigns.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, the Kikuyu MP credited Raila for his decision to withdraw from the race during the sixth round of voting that led to Djibouti’s candidate Mohamoud Youssouf clinching victory in the seventh round after garnering 33 votes.

“I cannot fail to note with immense gratitude to Raila Odinga that even as he was leading in the first and second rounds of voting and despite having a fighting chance in the latter rounds, he opted out in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, not to take that assembly through another round of campaigning and elections,” Ichung’wah expressed.

“The right honourable Raila Odinga had the choice to fight on and because there were many people who were supporting him, then our brother Mohamoud Youssouf probably would not have gotten the two-thirds (threshold),” he added.  

The closely contested elections saw Raila battle it out with Youssouf for six consecutive rounds. Raila managed to win the first two rounds before narrowly losing the succeeding four rounds. In the final round that Raila contested, he managed to get 22 votes as opposed to Youssouf’s 26.

The tight nature of the contest would have seemingly resulted in a rigorous back and forth of the AUC elections where neither Raila nor Youssouf would have garnered the two-thirds threshold required to win. 

Consequently, the outgoing chair Moussa Faki would have been left with no choice but to suspend the elections which would have triggered a fresh round of campaigns for the top AU seat with elections set for mid-2025.

This would have been a repeat of the 2012 election between South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Gabon’s Jean Ping which was suspended after seven rounds of voting ending in a stalemate. Zuma finally won six months later unseating, Ping, who was the incumbent.

In the event the elections were suspended, the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission would have taken over the Chairmanship of the Commission on an interim basis until new elections were held.

By bowing out of the race, Raila cleared the way for Djibouti’s Youssouf to be voted in as the seventh African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson since its establishment in 2002. The other candidate, Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar, finished last. 

Youssouf replaced Moussa Faki who served for two terms. Youssouf will serve for a term of four years, with the possibility of re-election for one additional term for a maximum of two terms or eight years in total.

Backed by President William Ruto, Raila campaigned through the continent and accompanied the head of state on various foreign trips where other African leaders were invited to drum up support. Before the elections, Raila’s campaign team had indicated he had support from at least 21 countries.