Patrick Lumumba, a constitutional lawyer, blamed Raila Odinga’s loss in the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson contest on bad diplomacy.
Lumumba criticized Raila’s campaign, calling it disorganised and weak in comparison to the winner, Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahmoud Youssouf.
He pointed out that Raila’s team, and Kenya as a whole, had incorrectly assumed that when heads of state granted Raila meetings, this always translated into support.
“This was merely courtesy. I can tell you that one or two heads of state whom he believed were his supporters actually said, ‘No, we only accorded him courtesy’,” Lumumba stated.
During an interview with Spice FM on Monday morning, Lumumba said that Raila’s campaign secretariat made key diplomatic mistakes that may have led to his defeat.
“The campaign strategy employed by Raila Odinga was flawed,” Lumumba said.
The famed lawyer also stated that the messaging was improper and, at times, appeared hostile against heads of state.“The secretariat marketed him to the Kenyan public as if he were going to be the ‘president of presidents’ which was a fundamental mistake.”
Lumumba argued that the campaign should have been structured differently because the AUC chairperson is effectively the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) rather than a leader of heads of state.
The lawyer also criticized President William Ruto’s handling of the Democratic Republic of Congo problem, namely his decision to meet directly with French President Emmanuel Macron rather than confer with regional leaders.
“Recently, instead of engaging with Cyril Ramaphosa on the DRC issue, the President said, ‘I’ve engaged Macron.’ Who wants to engage with Macron on African matters?” Lumumba questioned.
He suggested that such diplomatic errors reflect Kenya’s ineffective foreign policy agenda.“This is not the first time Kenya has mishandled an AUC campaign. Years ago, when Amina Mohamed contested against Moussa Faki, we made similar mistakes,” he observed.
Raila lost his AUC bid to Mahmoud Youssouf in a vote of leaders of state and government in Addis Ababa on Saturday.
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