Uganda suffered a diplomatic setback at the just concluded African Union summit after it failed to scoop any of the African Union Commission top jobs.
This was despite fielding three people to vie for the AUC jobs.
Prof Pamella Kasabiiti Mbabazi was fronted to vie for the post of Deputy Chair, AUC, Apollo Kenneth Bagamuhunda, for Commissioner, Economic Development, Trade Industry and Mining, and John Patrick Kabayo to be commissioner of Education Science and Technology Innovation.
However, Rwanda’s Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, took the vice chairperson of the African Union Commission post, beating Uganda’s Prof Pamela and Ms Hasna Barkat Daoud of Djibouti.
Moussa Faki Mahamat has won a second term as the head of the African Union’s (AU) executive body at the opening of a two-day virtual summit expected to focus on the continent’s pandemic response.
The former Chadian prime minister, who ran unopposed, received support from 51 of 55 member states in Saturday’s secret ballot, officials said.
At the same summit, the Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, replaced South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as AU Chairman.
Addressing fellow heads of state and government on Saturday, Tshisekedi pledged to make the AU more relevant by taking it “away from meeting rooms”.
Tshisekedi has outlined an ambitious agenda that includes responding to climate change, fighting sexual violence, promoting the African Continental Free Trade Area and accelerating his own country’s Grand Inga Hydropower Project, which the AU sees as an important source of electricity for the continent.
