Nairobi — The African Union Commission has discontinued Raila Odinga’s continental role as the High Representative for Infrastructure Development following the coming into force of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA).
AUDA marks a transition from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development program — NEPAD.
AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki gave AUDA the full mandate to implement the continental agenda on infrastructure.
“The transformation of the NEPAD Agency to African Union Development Agency: NEPAD has now been completed, with full mandate to implement the Continental agenda on infrastructure,” Faki wrote in a letter dated February 19.
He expressed gratitude to Odinga for his contribution to the continental infrastructure agenda.
“Your role in this journey, Excellency, has been invaluable,” Faki sated.
“Allow me to express my profound gratitude for accepting to serve in this role during the transition period, which has now come to a happy conclusion,” he stated in a letter copied to Kenya’s Embassay in Ethiopia which doubles up as the Permanent Mission to the AU.
Odinga took up the High Representative role in October 2018 months after ending an anti-government civil disobedience campaign.
Post-handshake appointment
His March 9, 2018 truce with then President Uhuru Kenyatta which came to be known as the handshake which unsettled then Deputy President William Ruto who was pushed to the margins of power becoming an outsider in government.
Kenyatta went on to declare Odinga as his choice in the 2022 presidential election but Ruto emerged as the winner.
Odinga has since dismissed Ruto’s presidency despite an unsuccessful petition at the Supreme Court dismissed unanimously by the court’s seven judges.
On Wednesday, days after his AU assignment came to an end, he gave a 14-day ultimatum for Ruto to respond to a raft of demands threatening mass action of government fails to do so.
Responding to Odinga ultimatum, Ruto vowed to crash impunity saying the rule of law will prevail.
IEBC Selection Panel
Key among Odinga’s demands is the suspension on the recruitment of a selection panel to pick new electoral commission members. Ruto has already set the process in motion.
The recruitment of the panel followed the declaration of seven vacancies in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
The slots became vacant after the tenure of three commissioners — Wafula Chebukati (Chairperson), Boya Molu and Yakub Guliye — came to and end.
Three others — Juliana Cherera (Vice Chairperson), Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyang’aya — resigned after Ruto appointed a tribunal to probe their conduct.
Cherera, Wanderi and Nyang’aya were part of a dissenting faction which included Irene Masit that disowned the outcome of the presidential election.
Witnessed who appeared before the tribunal led by Justice Aggrey Muchelule accused the Cherera faction of seeking to moderate election results to overturn Ruto’s victory.
Masit, the only commissioner who faced the tribunal, denied the allegations during a monthlong hearing concluded on Monday.