Raila Odinga receives a warm welcome by H.E Mohamed BEN AYED Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad on January 23, 2025. [Emmanuel Wanson, Standard]
In about 11 days, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga will know his fate in his bid to secure the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson position.
The continent’s heads of state are scheduled to vote for Moussa Faki Mahamat’s replacement during the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 15 and 16.
Foreign Affairs ministers will convene for the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council on February 12 and 13.
Raila has recently intensified his campaign, meeting several presidents from across Africa’s regions. Last week, the opposition veteran joined President William Ruto on a state visit to Egypt, where he met President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
On X, the former premier described the meeting as “a momentous diplomatic engagement,” part of Raila’s visit to North Africa late last month. He campaigned in Mauritania, Tunisia, and Algeria before meeting East African heads of state during the African Energy Summit held in Arusha.
In Egypt, Raila aimed to present himself as a Pan-Africanist, following in the footsteps of founding fathers like President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Djibouti’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mahamoud Youssouf, who is competing with Raila, also met the Egyptian president, with the Horn of Africa nation claiming it had secured Cairo’s support.
Raila faces Youssouf and former Madagascar Foreign Minister Richard Randriamandrato. He needs to secure at least two-thirds of the votes from the 49 AU member states to win in the first round.
So far, he can count on the support of East African Community nations, which rallied behind the former premier in August when he launched his bid at the State House in Nairobi.
Kenya’s former Ambassador to the United States, Elkanah Odembo, who co-chairs Raila’s secretariat alongside Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, said they estimated Raila’s bid had secured the support of “at least 28 of the 49 nations.”
“We still have work to do, especially given that we are determined to get the two-thirds in the first round,” said Odembo.
If the estimates are accurate, Raila only needs to win over five more nations to secure a first-round victory. Odembo said the campaign was “going well.”
“Candidate Raila Amollo Odinga has covered significant ground in the last six weeks.
‘‘He has gone door-to-door to various capitals and, in most places, been able to meet with the Head of State. His energy level is remarkable,” said Odembo, who revealed the campaign would now adopt a three-pronged strategy as the race enters the homestretch.
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The first will see Ruto and Raila visit more heads of state, while Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi is expected to step up his interactions with Foreign Affairs ministers.
“A number of us are now headed to Addis to support our ambassador and to engage the African ambassadors in Addis,” Odembo told The Standard yesterday about the third strand of the campaign strategy.
Other nations that have declared their support for Raila include Ghana and Seychelles.
The former premier’s campaign secretariat is confident of victory, with an insider, who spoke off the record, saying the former premier’s win would be “resounding.”
Belgut MP Nelson Koech, who chairs the National Assembly’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, said Raila’s victory “comes with tremendous benefits across social, political, and economic diplomatic spheres, not only to Kenya but to the East African Community.”
