{"id":110482,"date":"2025-02-16T07:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T07:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/16\/kindiki-lauds-ruto-raila-for-energetic-auc-campaign-as-he-says-kenya-must-reflect\/"},"modified":"2025-02-16T07:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T07:03:06","slug":"kindiki-lauds-ruto-raila-for-energetic-auc-campaign-as-he-says-kenya-must-reflect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kindiki-lauds-ruto-raila-for-energetic-auc-campaign-as-he-says-kenya-must-reflect\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindiki lauds Ruto, Raila for energetic AUC campaign as he says Kenya must \u2018reflect\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 16 \u2014 Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has praised President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for their determined effort in the race for the African Union Commission (AUC) chairmanship.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Deputy President commended the two leaders for giving their best, despite Odinga\u2019s unsuccessful bid during the voting held in Addis Ababa on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Kindiki said Kenya had fronted an outstanding candidate and expressed pride in the country\u2019s efforts, despite losing to Djibouti\u2019s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain a proud nation that we came so close. Today was not our day, but our day will come. Thanks to all the friends of Kenya who stood with us when it mattered,\u201d the Deputy President said.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that Kenya\u2019s bid was strong, adding that the country had never before nominated such a qualified, decorated, and ideologically grounded candidate for an international position.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setback, Prof. Kindiki urged reflection on the loss and called for lessons to be learned to improve future bids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur loss\u2014despite presenting such a superior candidate with a clear agenda for the continent and after such an energetic campaign\u2014requires that we figure out what else to get right in future bids,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6th round elimination <\/h2>\n<p>Djibouti\u2019s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf secured the AUC chairmanship after obtaining the required two-thirds majority with 33 votes in the seventh round of voting.<\/p>\n<p>Odinga, who led in the early rounds, was eliminated in the sixth round after garnering 22 votes against Youssouf\u2019s 26, with one abstention.<\/p>\n<p>President Ruto, in his remarks following the loss, congratulated Youssouf and assured him of Kenya\u2019s full support during his tenure. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/news\/2025\/02\/ruto-commits-to-advancing-africas-agenda-after-auc-loss\/\">Ruto commits to advancing Africa\u2019s agenda after AUC loss<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>He also thanked African leaders for considering Odinga\u2019s vision for the African Union and emphasized that the election was about shaping Africa\u2019s future, not individual or national interests.<\/p>\n<p>This marked Kenya\u2019s second unsuccessful attempt to secure the AUC chairmanship, following Amina Mohamed\u2019s loss to Chad\u2019s Moussa Faki in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Despite aggressive lobbying across Africa, President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s administration, the bid failed to secure unanimous backing from East African nations at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Following Saturday\u2019s vote, Odinga conceded defeat and congratulated Youssouf, calling for the strengthening of democratic values across the African continent.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 16 \u2014 Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has praised President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for their determined effort in the race for the African Union Commission (AUC) chairmanship. The Deputy President commended the two leaders for giving their best, despite Odinga\u2019s unsuccessful bid during the voting held in Addis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}