Former Ethiopian president, Dr. Mulatu Teshome, has been appointed by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to lead its observer mission in the forthcoming Kenyan general election.
General elections are scheduled to be held in Kenya on 9 August 2022. Voters will elect the President, members of the National Assembly and Senate, county governors and members of the 47 county assemblies.
The election is delicately poised as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s deputy, William Ruto, is one of the leading candidates in the presidential election but Ruto does is not have the support of his principal to succeed him.
The president instead is throwing his weight behind former prime minister Raila Odinga.
Dr Mulatu will lead the team that is yet to be deployed to Nairobi at the invitation of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Mulatu’s appointment has been praised by the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Dr Workneh Gebeyehu, who remarked “he is a well-respected statesman and a distinguished diplomat.”
IGAD is a sub of the African Union (AU), was formed due to the recurring and severe droughts and other natural disasters between 1974 and 1984 caused widespread famine, ecological degradation and economic hardship in the Eastern Africa region.
The heads of state and government from the eight-member countries of the body recently meant to discuss “matters of mutual concern in the region,” particularly as concerning Ethiopia and Sudan who has had diplomatic tension amidst them lately.
With Kenya’s leading role in East Africa and a considerable level pf success it has enjoyed under President Kenyattah, the choice of who becomes Kenya’s next president to undoubtedly central to Kenya’s contemporary destiny.