Kenya’s candidate for the African Union Commission chairperson, Raila Odinga, will on Wednesday face his main opponents in a high-stakes debate beamed live across Africa.
The race for the continental top job enters the homestretch and Kenya is going flat out to bag the seat in the February election.
Mjadala Afrika Leadership debate will run from 1900 to 2100hrs East Africa Time.
Raila will face Anil Gayan (Mauritius), Mahmoud Ali Youssouf (Djibouti) and Richard Randriamandrato (Madagascar).
This is the first time the AUC candidates will be sharing a platform since declaring interest to succeed Chad’s Moussa Faki.
The Africa Leadership Debate, or Mjadala Afrika, provides candidates an opportunity to outline their vision of how they would lead the transformation of Africa.
The debate allows African citizens and stakeholders to ask questions of the candidates.
The engagement to be held in Adds Ababa, Ethiopia, will be televised in all the six official working languages of the AU: English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and Kiswahili.
“The debate will be conducted by the two moderators who will address questions to the candidates in French and English,” a communication from AU says.
Moderators will then collate questions from the public and relay them to the candidates.Dstv Africa will provide two pop-up channels specific for the debate, and the same will be available on the national channels of respective countries.Raila’s head of campaigns, Elkanah Odembo, told the Star the former Prime Minister is getting prepared for the engagement before hitting the ground for the second phase of campaigns.
“Candidate RAO is preparing and we are confident that Africa will see that he really does stand head and shoulders over the competitors,” Odembo said.
The candidates will outline their approach to policies for the continent as well as present their visions and ideas on the implementation of the mandates of African Union, especially Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The first ‘mjadala’ was held in 2016, where five candidates debated each other.
In 2020, there was no ‘mjadala’ as there was no candidate challenging the re-election of Faki.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has reiterated that Kenya’s candidate is ripe for the continental assignment.
"Indeed, Kenya's commitment to strengthen this leadership role is demonstrated by its candidature for the AUC," Mudavadi said during the 60 Years of Kenya’s Diplomatic Journey celebrations in Nairobi on December 3.
"Kenya has fronted one of its sons, Raila Odinga. We thank him for graciously joining us in this historic celebration of our 60 years diplomatic journey."
Raila’s team has also lined up back-to-back campaigns after next week that will see the veteran opposition candidate visiting several countries including Djibouti, the home country of his perceived main challenger, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Kenya is keen to secure enough support for its candidate amid strong opposition from Djibouti's candidate ahead of next year's polls.
“We are contemplating Djibouti as well. It is important that we develop goodwill with Djibouti,” Odembo told the Star last week.
Raila will be heading to the western part of the Arab world (Maghreb region) that
has five countries located in the Northern part of Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania.
According to Raila’s campaign schedule, the Kenya candidate has dedicated January to an extensive tour of the Southern African Development Community boasting16 member states.
The members of SADC include Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
For Raila to clinch the coveted position, he needs two-thirds of the 55 countries that will vote but geopolitics, language and religion of the member states will play a key role in who wins next year’s elections.
However, six members have been suspended because of either war or hostile takeovers of government.
These are Sudan, Gabon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea. This means Raila needs at least 33 votes to succeed Chad’s Moussa Faki.
Several factors are expected to shape the race including religion, age, the Anglophone-Francophone divide, Western influence and the emerging forces in the continent such as Russia and China.
Raila’s AUC campaign secretariat is working on multiple strategies to enhance his chances of victory. His CV has been translated into six languages.
He has also bagged support from a number of countries who have agreed to support his candidature.
The nations that have agreed to back Raila’s bid include DRC, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Burundi, Seychelles, South Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Algeria and the Republic of the Congo have also pledged to support the former Prime Minister.
The campaign will test to the limit Kenya’s diplomatic prowess as the government mounts a continent-wide campaign.
The continental vote could also be seen as a referendum on President William Ruto’s influence in the region as he pushes for Raila — his former rival and newfound political partner.
Ruto’s administration is believed to have unleashed considerable resources and is not taking any chances.
