Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Four vying for AU top post

Four vying for AU top post

NAIROBI – Four senior African politicians from Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar and Mauritius have thrown their hats into the ring to take over the African Union’s top post.

The pan-continental body, which has 55-member states, will hold elections to choose the successor to Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission.

This year, the role to replace Faki, a veteran politician from Chad who has served since 2017, is reserved for a candidate from East Africa.

The African Union issued a statement listing the four candidates as Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti, Raila Odinga of Kenya, Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar, and Anil Gayan of Mauritius.

“I am the only candidate capable of bridging the gap between the different regions of Africa, being French-speaking, but also English-speaking and Arabic-speaking,” said Djibouti’s Youssouf.

The 58-year-old has been foreign minister of the tiny but strategic Horn of Africa nation since 2005.

“My primary objective, if I am elected, is to silence the guns on the continent”, he told AFP in an interview last month.

His main rival is veteran Kenyan opposition leader Odinga, who at 79 has tried and failed five times to become president, most recently losing the 2022 election to William Ruto.

Odinga spent his early years in politics either in jail or in exile, fighting for democracy during the autocratic rule of president Daniel arap Moi.

“We are focused on bringing the seat home for Kenya and serving the African people,” Odinga said on X last month, announcing his formal candidacy.

Gayan (76) served as foreign minister of the Indian Ocean Island nation of Mauritius between 1983 and 1986, and again from 2000 to 2003, and has since held other posts, including at the tourism and health ministries.

Randriamandrato was Madagascar’s foreign minister from March to October 2022 but was fired after voting at the United Nations to condemn Russia’s annexations of four Ukrainian regions.

Madagascar has followed a non-aligned position on the war in Ukraine.

The election is conducted by secret ballot, and the winner must secure a majority of two-thirds of the vote among eligible member states.

The AU commission chair, effectively the body’s chief executive, serves a four-year term, renewable once. -Nampa/AFP

Leadership… Moussa Faki Mahamat, the current chairperson of the African Union.

Photo: Nampa/AFP