Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya’s candidate for AUC chairmanship Raila Odinga has stepped up his cross-continent campaigns, meeting with three heads of states in the past five days.
Raila has been traversing North Africa ahead of the February polls. Yesterday, the former PM was in Chad, the home country of incumbent chairman Moussa Faki.
He also visited Eriteria and Morocco. “On Thursday, he will be Addis in readiness for Mjadala on Friday,” head of Raila’s campaigns Ambassador Helkanah Odembo told the Star.
On Friday, Raila met Asmara President Isaias Afwerki, drumming up support for the top continental job. “The PM emphasised the need to strengthen the bonds of
Pan-Africanism through the AU and the importance of Africans meeting the urgency of the moment by expanding the ladders of opportunity for African youth,” Raila’s secretariat said in a statement.
“He also emphasised the need for a united African front in
climate negotiations to safeguard the interests of African countries severely impacted by climate change-related disasters.” Raila will on Friday face his main opponents in a high
stakes Mjadala Afrika Leadership debate slotted for 7pm to 9pm. He will face Anil Gayan (Mauritius), Mahmoud Ali Youssouf (Djibouti) and Richard Randriamandrato (Madagascar).
The Africa Leadership Debate or Mjadala Afrika provides candidates an opportunity to outline their vision of how they would lead the transformation of Africa.
The debate allows African citizens and stakeholders to ask questions of the candidates. The engagement to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will be televised in all the six official working language of the AU – English, French,
Arabic, Portuguese, 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 indicates. Raila’s team has also lined up back-to-back campaigns after next week that will see the former Prime Minister visiting several countries
including Djibouti. Djibouti is the home country of his perceived main challenger, Youssouf. Kenya is keen to secure enough support amid strong opposition from Djibouti’s candidate.
“We are contemplating Djibouti as well. It is important that we develop goodwill with Djibouti,” Odembo told the Star last week. According to Raila’s campaign schedule, he has dedicated his
January to an extensive tour of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), boasting of 16 member states. Members of SADC include Angola, Botswana, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe
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