By Frank Kamuntu
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Tuesday justified his decision to support Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s quest to become the next African Union Commission’s Chairperson.
Addressing a delegation in Nairobi after a meeting with Ruto and Odinga at Kenya’s State House where they launched Raila’s AUC job, Museveni admitted to meeting with Raila’s competitor from Djibouti, Mr. Mahmoud Youssouf, who he hinted was soliciting for his support. Youssouf doubles up as the foreign affairs minister for his country.
In his confession, Museveni graded himself as an excellent host to Youssouf but noted that he denied him the endorsement point black.
Decrying the existence of bureaucratic red tape in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Museveni argued that he was not looking to support another CV-improving application.
“Raila is a pan-africanist,. he is not just mtafuta-kazi (jobseeker). This is not career progression,” Museveni told the congregation.
“The young man from Djibouti came and told me he was the candidate for Djibouti. Of course, I greeted him well, we took photographs and had a cup of tea but I told him no. I told him I was coming here (Nairobi) to support Raila because he is the right fit for this job.”
He further noted that he was not impressed by the speed of execution of affairs in the Ethiopian capital, a void that he vouched Raila was prepared to fill.
Museveni further argued that AU is where Africa negotiates with the world in one voice and as such, the job required someone who believed in African unity by deed and passion rather than theoretically.
Terming himself a wealth creator and producer rather than a consumer, the Head of State declared that he valued someone who understood the dynamics of value generation rather than someone who did not.
Highlighting excerpts from Raila’s speech at the same venue, he reiterated the former Prime Minister’s commitment to the prosperity of African markets, strategic peace, and integration as a clear marker for his qualification.
He recalled Raila’s evident patriotism for Kenya as a clear vision of his passion for the motherland.
The outgoing chairman Moussa Faki defeated Kenya’s Amina Mohammed in January 2017 to take over from the then-outgoing chairman Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa.
Mr. Odinga previously served as an infrastructure envoy of the AU.
