Former Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s bid for the African Union Commission chairship now hangs in the balance following a proposal that blocks male candidates from the race.
The report of the Commission on the Preparation for the Election of Senior Leadership of the African Union Commission in February 2025, which will be considered by the AU Executive Council on March 16, proposes that in order to uphold the principle of rotational gender parity, the next Chairperson of the Commission, though from the Eastern region, should be a female.
The next Deputy Chairperson should be a male.
The report, in its draft resolution for consideration by the Executive Council, proposes that it decides, “Based on the principle of rotational gender parity, eligible regions shall submit female candidate(s) for the role of Chairperson and male candidate(s) for the role of Deputy Chairperson”.
If approved, this automatically rocks Raila out of the race.
The report notes that in addition to the requirement set out in Article 14(1)(a) of the revised statute of the commission, there is a further requirement under Article 14(2) for the application of the principle of rotational gender parity to the posts of commission chairperson and the deputy, specifically, this means that if the outgoing CP is male, the next CP should be female, and vice versa.
“Consequently, in accordance with the aforementioned guiding principle, the CP for the upcoming 2025 election must be female. Therefore, only female candidates will be considered for the position of CP, while only male candidates are eligible for the position of DCP,” AUC proposes.
The current chairperson is Moussa Faki of Chad, and is deputised by Monique Nsanzabaganwa, of Rwanda.
By her being deputy and being eligible for a second term complicates Raila’s bid, even if he was to vie, as the two cannot be from the same region.
Also, going by the proposal that the deputy must be a man and from the North region, Nsanzabaganwa will not be eligible to defend her position.
The only woman who has served as Commission Chairperson is Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of South Africa, between 2012-17.
Former Somalia Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fawzia Adam, a woman, has been fronted by Mogadishu.
The report, a product of Institutional Reform of the African Union, proposes that only the Eastern Region is eligible to submit candidate(s) for chairperson, and only the Northern region is eligible to submit candidate(s) for the deputy post.
The six Commissioner positions will be distributed equally by gender across the three regions, with each eligible region nominating at least two candidates (female and male).
Additionally, the report proposes, each region will establish its own formula to determine how to nominate candidates for the portfolio(s) for which a region is eligible.
