Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga arrived in Addis Ababa for Mjadala Africa that will take place on Friday evening, he was received by Deputy Head of Mission Petronila Were
Kenya’s candidate for African Union Commission chairperson Raila Odinga will tomorrow face his main opponents in a live debate to be televised across the continent.
The Africa Leadership Debate or Mjadala Afrika Leadership debate will start from 7pm to 9pm East Africa Time.
Raila will debate Mahmoud Ali Youssouf (Djibouti) and Richard Randriamandrato (Madagascar).
The former Prime Minister will be unpacking his manifesto during the two-hour debate.
“Candidate RAO is preparing and we are confident that Africa will see that he really does stand head and shoulders over the competitors,” head of Raila’s campaigns Elkanah Odembo said.
The debate provides candidates an opportunity to outline their vision of how they would lead the transformation of Africa.
The engagement to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will be televised in all the six official working languages of the AU – English, French, Arabic, Portugues, Spanish and Swahili.
“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 the same to the candidates.
DSTV Africa will avail two pop-up channels specific for the debate, and the same will also be available on the national channels of respective countries.
In his manifesto that has been translated into the six official Africa languages, Raila had pledged massive infrastructural transformation, enhancing intra-African trade as well as financial independence.
The former AU High Commission for Infrastructure Development also promised gender equity and equality as well as agricultural transformation. If elected in the February election, Raila promised to harness youth potential, continental integration, digital transformation, climate change and regional peace and security.
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 Chad’s Moussa Faki.
For the former premier to clinch the position he needs two-thirds of the 55 countries that will vote but issues of geopolitics, language and religion by the member states will play a key role in who wins.
However, six members have been suspended because of either war or hostile takeovers in government.
These are Sudan, Gabon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea. This means Raila needs at least 33 votes to succeed Faki.
