Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga is no longer the High Representative for Infrastructure Development at the African Union.
This week, the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said Mr Odinga’s job has come to a “happy conclusion.”
Mr Odinga’s role will now be handled by the African Union Development Agency – Nepad (Auda-Nepad) which now has the “full mandate to implement the continental agenda on infrastructure” and is headed by Ethiopian economist Nardos Bekele-Thomas.
It is the second time since 2011 that his assignment at the continental body has come to abrupt end.
Mr Odinga, an enthusiastic pan-Africanist, was always going to go against the grain of most African leaders at some point, a great sin in the continent.
Pressure from Nairobi
This week, sources told reporters that pressure from Nairobi forced the hand of Mr Mahamat to drop Odinga due to “continued politicking.” Odinga has said he does not recognise the presidency of William Ruto. But he also claimed he asked to leave job, something sources refuted, however.
Under the AU’s age-old tradition, however, special envoys or senior government officials at the African Union serve with blessings of their home government. Mr Odinga has both profited and been punished based on this before. In 2017, then President Uhuru Kenyatta endorsed his nomination as High Representative saying it “means well for the country.”
But in 2011, Odinga faced Nairobi’s objections to his role as a mediator. The then African Union Commission Chairperson Jean Ping named Odinga as a mediator in the Ivory Coast, where a post-election violence was threatening to tear apart the country.
By the time Odinga arrived on scene, some 200 people had died and more than 14,000 displaced.
Spirited resistance
Allasane Ouattara had won the elections, and endorsed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). His rival Laurent Gbagbo, however, refused to leave office, leading to a bloodbath.
Soon after he landed in Abidjan, however, Odinga was met with resistance. Gbagbo’s team refused him. But that only added fuel as Nairobi did not endorse his nomination.
A senior diplomat who served at the time indicated Nairobi was not backing Odinga because he supported Ouattara.
“Kenya had said it was not taking sides in the conflict. We agreed with the AU position to have a peaceful solution. We didn’t agree with taking sides,” the official who is now posted abroad indicated.
Odinga would fail his mediation role three days later.
“I regret to announce that the breakthrough that was needed, did not materialise,” Odinga told reporters at the airport in Abidjan. During his brief stay, he threatened Gbagbo with sanctions “which would require additional punishing financial sanctions, and possibly the use of force.”
Leaked emails from former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had revealed that Americans offered to ferry Mr Odinga to the Ivorian capital, as long as the continental body accepted.
Airlifted from Nigeria
Mr Odinga was airlifted from Nigeria to the Ivorian capital but the information on the owner or type of aircraft is redacted from the emails published by the State Department.
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