African Union Chairmanship (AUC) was concluded on Saturday, February 15, at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, where Djibouti candidate Mahmoud Ali Youssouf won with 33 votes in the seventh round.
Kenyan candidate for AUC Raila Odinga came in distant second, after dropping out in the six round, where he had 22 votes against 26 by Youssouf.
In the first two round, Kenyan Candidate had taken an early win against the Djibouti candidate with 20 against 19, and 22 against 18 respectively.
In the third round, things turned sour as the Djibouti candidate votes increased subsequently to the win, with 3 against 20, fourth round 25 against 21 and fifth round 26 against 21 for Kenyan candidate respectively.
Youssouf Ali won in the seventh round with 33 votes, making him the new AUC chairperson for the next four years, February 2029, taking over Moussa Faki, the former prime minister of Chad.
However back home, mixed reactions were experienced following Raila’s loss, from both leaders and Kenyans. A section of Kenyans said the country still needed Raila to fix the nation, before taking over continental duties.
The Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP0K) has however attributed Raila’s loss to a strained foreign relations of the country, which they said was further caused by President William Ruto, who is the current chairperson of the East Africa Community (EAC).
“The painful loss of H.E Raila Odinga to Mahmoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti in the AUC elections points down to Kenya’s strained foreign interactions with African countries by Zakayo regime and the worst internal affairs where abductions and abuse of human rights is rampant,” DAP-K stated.
However, some allies of the president have come out to call out celebrating the loss of Raila, according to Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, it was not right as the competition was between nations and not personal.
“I saw some people celebrating the loss of one of our own just because of personal hatred in a competition that was between our country vs another . It doesn’t beat logic, but time will tell,” Sudi stated.
After the elections, Raila accepted the defeat, and said he had other duties to accomplish waiting for him back home. He becomes the second Kenyan to lose the seat after Ambassador Amin Mohamed in 2020 who lost to Moussa Faki.
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