President William Ruto was on Wednesday at pains to explain his double speak regarding his position on African leaders being summoned for conferences in developed countries.
In an interview on BBC’s Focus on Africa on the sidelines of the two-day South Korea- Africa summit, President Ruto was asked why he attended, despite stating last year that he would not honour invitations to summits between Africa and one other country.
Ruto said, “I can confirm to you that 54 African heads of state are not here. We are less than 20. We are very clear on the agenda we want to discuss. This was not a photo OP, it was a serious engagement with concrete outcomes. The world is listening to us”.
He had in April last year said summits such US-Africa, Japan-Africa, Turkey-Africa, Russia-Africa and China’s FOCAC offered limited time for engagement and he would prefer that the Africa Union represent the continent in such meetings.
He further noted that it was disrespectful, and that African leaders should be respected on the global stage and not be treated as children by world leaders.
“We have made the decision that it is not intelligent for 54 of us to go and sit before one gentleman from another place. And sometimes we are mistreated. We are loaded into buses like school kids. It’s not right.
“So the decision we have made as AU is that going forward, if there is going to be a discussion between Africa and any other country, we are going to be represented by the chair (of the African Union Commission),” President Ruto said on April 29 at the 2023 IGW African Leadership Ceremony in Nairobi with Mo Ibrahim.
When pushed on his previous remarks, Ruto said there is a minimum for there to be a representation of the [African Union] Bureau, which needs at the minimum, 13 heads of state[ and government].
“So, at the minimum, it is not only the chair who can represent, but the bureau,” he said, adding that there are plans to annual African Economic and Investment Summit, in which countries such as Korea, the US and Germany, as well as the EU, will attend in Africa, rather than African leaders travelling abroad.
When Waihiga Mwaura of BBC pressed harder, a visibly irritated President Ruto told him to ask another question as he had answered it five times, and didn’t have another response.
THE AU DECISION
The mechanism the President referred to is based on the AU Assembly’s Decision 762 of February 2020.
AU parties decided that while all African had the right to attend such meetings, the AU shall be represented by members of the Bureau of the Assembly of the Union, as well as chairpersons of Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Chairperson of the Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) of AUDA-NEPAD and the Chairperson of the AU Commission.
The current Bureau is chaired by Mauritania President Mohamed Ghazouani .
Angola, Congo, Ghana serve as the first, second and third vice presidents respectively, with Comoros as the rapporteur. Additionally, through Egypt, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi joins the Bureau as the Chairperson of the AUDA-NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee.
Kenya does not chair any of the Regional Economic Communities on the continent and while President Ruto chairs the Committee of the African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change, that role is not captured as a Bureau member.
It is in fact President Ruto who at the Mo Ibrahim forum who said a meeting of six or seven was enough to represent Africa in such forums, maintaining that was the position he would take as Kenya’s President “for any other meeting that we are going to have between Africa and any other country”.
And in what appeared to keep to his word, the President in July 2023 skipped the Russia-Africa Summit, saying he would be represented by the African Union in line with the aforementioned decision.
“President William Ruto will not be personally attending the Russia-Africa summit; instead, he will be represented by organs of the Africa Union. This decision aligns with the stance of African Heads of State and Government, who believe that for Africa to engage in meaningful discussions with global partners, partnership summits organised by external parties need to be reviewed to establish an effective framework for African Union partnerships,” State Houses spokesman Hussein Mohamed said on July 26, 2023.
But in November, Ruto was back in the skies for the Saudi- Africa Summit, and in January for the Italy-Africa Summit.
In Italy, Ruto said he and about 19 other heads of state and government were present because of the “pragmatic approach” by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
2022 OFFICIAL VISIT
Ruto returned to Korea for the summit after an official visit from November 22-24, 2022 at the invitation of President Yoon Suk Yeol, which was among the initial of the over 50 international trips he has made since coming to office.
It was the first visit to Korea by a Kenyan head of state in 32 years since President Daniel Moi in 1990 at the invitation of President Roh Tae-woo.
Following the talks, the two sides agreed to support Kenya’s development by committing Sh120 billion towards agriculture, ICT, health, energy, infrastructure, education, affordable housing and urban transport.
“Kenya will work with South Korea to develop manufacturing plants in the Konza Technopolis, an export promotion zone dedicated to pharmaceutical manufacturing, vaccines production and value addition in Agriculture,” President Ruto said at the time.
Additionally, Kenya and South Korea Business organisations signed partnership deals to enhance trade and investment, promoting effective public-private partnerships and addressing youth unemployment.Â
On Tuesday, President Ruto said the Korea Exim Bank had signed a $238 million (KSh31 billion) financing agreement with Kenya for the implementation of the Konza Digital Media City at the Konza Technopolis.
He said the deal would provide an excellent digital media and entertainment platform for research and training at Kenya’s Silicon Savannah, the dualling of the 78km Machakos Junction-Emali Road, water supply infrastructure to Konza and a vaccine production project.
