Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s tenure as the African Union envoy for infrastructure has come to an end.
The move comes less than a week after President William Ruto’s visit to Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the AU for bilateral talks. It was, however, unclear whether the end of Raila’s tenure was related to the President’s visit.

In an announcement made by the chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, the union wished Raila well.

“Your role in this journey, Excellency, has been invaluable. 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,” Faki said in the letter.

Raila in his acknowledgment statement said that during the second African Infrastructure Financing Summit in Dakar, Senegal three weeks ago, he had indicated that he was experiencing challenges to his continued availability for the AU role.

“In this regard, I welcome your quick action that will free me to pursue other pressing and urgent matters,” Raila said in his letter to Mahamat. “I will be indicating when I might be available for deployment on continental assignment as circumstances change.”

A retired senior diplomat yesterday told People Daily that envoys serve at the pleasure of the President.
“You are nominated as an envoy as a member of a State party to the African Union which is represented by the Head of State,” said Prof David Kikaya, a former Kenyan ambassador to UN-habitat, who is now an international relations scholar.

“You are seconded as a representative of government,”
Raila was nominated to the role in 2018 by the then President Uhuru Kenyatta.
When Ruto became President after the August election, he immediately appointed Uhuru as a special envoy in the DRC and Ethiopia peace process.

“Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta is in Nigeria as an election observer from an AU State whose representative is President Ruto. He won’t be there without the blessing of the President,” said Prof Kikaya.

Raila’s appointment as the High Representative for Infrastructure in Africa on October 20, 2018, gave him the mandate of building on the work and leadership of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative.

His appointment was meant to speed up Africa’s integration through infrastructure to promote economic growth and sustainable development.

Yesterday, Mahamat said the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) will take over the role formerly held by Raila.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa attributed the end of Raila’s tenure to the huge budget spent in running the office.

“The move is welcome as it removes the burden of paying Sh600 million annually to the AU to run the office; the money was never factored for in the Budget,” said Ichung’wa, who was chairman of the Budget and Appropriation Committee of the National Assembly.

Weekly rallies

According to him, Parliament was never involved in approving the expenditure and could not tell where the money to support the role came from.
“It was not tenable. The Kenya Kwanza administration cannot bear such,” said Ichung’wa, who is also the Kikuyu MP.
“In any case, the former prime minister has attained the retirement age; its good the AU also realised this. We wish him well as he continues with his endeavours of planning protests.”
Foreign Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said the ending of Raila’s tenure gives him time to focus on other things.
“As a country we thank him for his service to the continent, it frees him to concentrate on other things, including demonstrations,” said Mutua.

Raila has been holding weekly political rallies to push the government to reduce the cost of living and suspend the selection of electoral commissioners. The next one will be held in Kakamega tomorrow.

As the AU envoy, his mandate included mobilising political support and development assistance from member States and regional economic blocs to support infrastructure development across the continent. This was in addition to encouraging increased commitment from development partners to fund such programmes.

In March 2018, Uhuru and Raila ended their political differences through a handshake, a move that saw the two work closely, culminating in Uhuru endorsing Raila to be his successor.

However, he finished second after Ruto but has since rejected the outcome, demanding that the electoral commission opens its servers for independent audit.

The termination of his contract after four years comes as his differences with the new administration deepen. Raila has publicly declared that he does not recognize Ruto as President. This week, he gave the government two weeks to act on a raft of demands failure to which he will call for mass action.

In his letter to Faki yesterday, he said: “It has been a great pleasure and honour serving our continent and our people and addressing infrastructure development. I am proud to have made a contribution to the transformation of the NEPAD Agency to African Union Development Agency NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), among other contributions during my tenure.”

In his earlier letter, Faki had noted that Raila will remain valuable to the AU.

“The African Union hopes to continue counting on your support for other possible assignments,” he said.