Kazibwe given Shs1b for AU job race
Dr Specioza Wandira Kazibwe addresses journalists after meeting with the Speaker of Parliament last month. Photo by Alex esagala
What you need to know:
Set facts right. Foreign Affairs ministry dismissed reports that Dr Kazibwe was given Shs3.5 billion for the campaigns, saying Shs2b was to clear outstanding arrears with AU.
Kampala. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has watered down claims that former vice president Specioza Wandira Kazibwe was given Shs3.5b for her campaign to become the next African Union (AU) chairperson.
The claim had got the public talking since she started campaigning early last month.
However, the ministry of Foreign Affairs officials told Daily Monitor that the former VP’s campaign team was allocated only Shs1b.
The head of public diplomacy, Ms Margaret Kafeero, said the Finance ministry disbursed only Shs3b with Shs2b meant for clearing Uganda’s outstanding arrears with the AU secretariat for last year.
“We had not cleared our bill with the AU for the past 12 months, which we had to do because it is an obligation,” Ms Kafeero said. “So that figure of Shs3.5b was just cooked up; also don’t forget that we have a candidate in the race to lead the same body, so how could we [Uganda] default on payment?”
Each of the 54 AU-member states makes specific a contribution to the body to run its activities.
The contribution is calculated in terms of percentage of its [AU] total budget based on the country’s ability to pay and financial muscle.
Uganda’s contribution is 0.2 per cent. The biggest contributors are also the biggest economies on the continent such as South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.
“It was just a coincidence of clearing the outstanding bill and Dr Kazibwe’s campaign,” Ms Kafeero said.
Dr Kazibwe, 60, the choice for eastern Africa, faces competition from Agapito Mba Mokuy, 51, the foreign minister of Equatorial Guinea, also the choice of central Africa and Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Dr Pelomi Venson-Moitoi, 65, the Foreign Affairs minister of Botswana to replace the outgoing AU chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Ms Kafeero said the campaign for Dr Kazibwe is at the “peak” in the run up to the heads of state meeting to vote later this week.
The leaders converged in Kigali yesterday and will meet today.
For a candidate to be declared winner, they have to secure two thirds of weight from all the leaders. This equally applies even if the race has a sole candidate.
Voting steps
The voting will go through several processes until two of the contenders drop out and the one standing has secured the required support. Decisions at the AU summit are usually by consensus.
Sources familiar with the matter told this newspaper that, so far only 14 countries have confirmed in writing their support for Dr Kazibwe. The government in the last two weeks dispatched senior officials to several countries to do the bidding after Dr Kazibwe ran out of time to reach out to individual African leaders.
Daily Monitor understands that the campaign task force is expected to make final tally of the supporting countries on Wednesday.
Dr Kazibwe was said to be in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, canvassing for the West African vote and is expected to be in Kigali, Rwanda also by Wednesday.
Ms Kafeero confirmed the development, saying: “this is when we expect all envoys to be back and then can do a tally. We think by then we will have more written letters confirming support.”
AU SUMMIT KICKS OFF IN RWANDA
Meanwhile, the 27th African Union (AU) Summit kicked off yesterday in the Rwanda capital, Kigali with the 32nd ordinary session of the Permanent Representatives Committee at the newly constructed Kigali Convention Centre (KCC).
The ambassadors of AU-member states, who constitute the PRC, discussed the agenda in preparation for the heads of state meeting.
The Foreign Affairs ministers of member countries will convene on Wednesday for the 29th ordinary session of the Executive Council to deliberate on the different reports of the Specialised Technical Committee (STCs) ministerial meetings organised by the AU Commission since the last sitting in January.
Top on the Summit agenda includes the launch of the AU Passport, a flagship project of Africa’s Agenda 2063 with the aim of facilitatimg free movement of persons, goods and services around the continent; discussion and adoption of the motion to pull-out of the International Criminal Court and election of the African Union chair.
WHO IS KAZIBWE?
Work: Specioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe is a Ugandan surgeon and politician. She was Vice President of Uganda from 1994 to 2003. She was the first woman in Africa to hold the position of vice-president of a sovereign nation. In August 2013, she was appointed by the United Nations’s Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, as United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa. She was born in Iganga District on July 1, 1955.
Education: Ms Kazibwe attended Mt St Mary’s College Namagunga, a prestigious all-female boarding high school affiliated with the Catholic Church. In 1974, she entered Makerere University School of Medicine, where she studied human medicine, graduating with the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1979.
