Diplomatic Affairs Analyst Ahmed Hashi has said that Raila Odinga stands no chance against Djibouti’s candidate Mahmoud Youssouf in the African Union Chairmanship race.
Speaking on Citizen TV, Hashi noted that Djibout is likely to influence other French-speaking countries to support Youssouf, a move that would edge Raila out of the African Union’s top job.
“What is important is to look at the context of the African continent and the states and how we expect they’re going to behave towards Kenya’s candidate, Mr Odinga. I think Raila Odinga will lose the AUC chair election in Addis Ababa. I’m the only one who thinks that. I will be shocked if he even gets a slim majority. The candidate from Djibouti is going to win a landslide,” he said.
Hashi’s sentiments come just hours after Raila was endorsed the East African candidate for the AUC chairmanship.
“The people in charge in these nations have fundamental influence from the metropol. The AU is divided based on these fundamental tectonic plates and one of the biggest influence of the AU is the French,” Hashi noted, referring to the 2017 African Union Chairmanship election where former Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed lost to Chad’s Moussa Faki.
He further said that; “I was spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we knew we were going to win and the French government intervened heavily in those elections and we lost. We even had the support of Djibouti, one of the people who stabbed us in the back in that elections. I think that is the same scenario that will happen in these elections. I think the French, Sahel areas and major states in Central Africa are going to stand up to candidature of Mr Odinga and say no.”
Hashi further faulted Raila’s decision to eye the sit when he is in his 80s.
“I think this is the wrong move for Raila. In a continent where 80 per cent of the people is under 25, whether it serves the interest of the continent for us to have a man retiring in his 80s and whether he will have the energy vitality and gusto and do the necessary issues to be done about our youth.”
Aside from Youssouf, Raila’s other opponents are Anil Gayan of Mauritius and Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar.
To clinch the cairmanship, the winner is required to garner votes of 32 countries.
