Tanzania may break pledge to back Kenya's candidate for AU job

Chadian President Idriss Deby (pictured) is courting Tanzania to break a regional pledge to support Kenya’s Amina Mohamed for the next African Union (AU) Commission chairmanship. PHOTO | AFP 

By CHRISTOPHER KIDANKA

Chadian President Idriss Deby Thursday courted Tanzania to break a regional pledge to support Kenya’s Amina Mohamed for the next African Union (AU) Commission chairmanship.

During an unprecedented visit to Dar es salaam, President Deby is said to have asked his counterpart and host John Pombe Magufuli to back Chad's Foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat for Africa’s top political job. Mr Mahamat was in the delegation.

Source told The EastAfrican that Presidents Deby and Magufuli discussed a range of issues including the AU Commission vacancy which is to be filled in two months by a vote of each of the 54 African Union member states.

Tanzania’s options are quite broad because apart from being a member of the East African Community which has endorsed Ms Mohamed, a Kenyan, for the job, it is also a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is fronting Botswana’s Foreign Affairs minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. The other candidate is Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily.

Mindi Kasiga, Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East Africa, Regional and International Cooperation spokesperson confirmed to The EastAfrican that the two presidents held confidential talks but could not reveal what they discussed.

President Deby, who is the current chairman of the AU, paid an official visit at the time when Tanzania is also hosting Zambian President Edgar Lungu – a visit that was announced just a day prior.

AU vote

Four candidates are vying to succeed South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is stepping down, in an election to be held during the 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government scheduled for January 30-31, 2017 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The election of the members of the AUC in Kigali, Rwanda, in July 2016 was suspended as none of the three contenders for the position of the chairperson of the Commission obtained the required two-thirds majority, after seven rounds of voting.

Kenya’s Amina Mohamed is likely to get backing from its East African peers with recent reports also indicating more support from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) member states.