Embattled and often globe-trotting, Kenyan President William Ruto, who was tasked by AU leaders in February to spearhead institutional reforms within the continental body, found himself unable to attend the AU 6th Mid-Year Summit in Accra, Ghana on Sunday.

The reason: intense, peaceful youth-led protests demanding government accountability.

Instead of attending the crucial summit, which Kenya hosted last year with the participation of various African leaders, Ruto chose to attend a church service in a village in Bomet County.

This marked a significant departure from his usual pattern, as he has been grounded in the country for over a month now, an unprecedented occurrence for the typically jet-setting leader.

In heated Accra, Nairobi faced a big blow when it lost the bid to host the African Union Humanitarian Agency to its neighbor Kampala.

The bid evaluation results showed Kenya scoring 76.14 percent, while Uganda came first with 86.66 percent.

Equatorial Guinea surpassed Nairobi as well, with a score of 76.70 percent, and Nigeria scored 74.50 percent.

The report, tabled by the continental body, was adopted without contestation.

The decision to establish a Humanitarian Agency was ratified at the 11th AU Humanitarian Symposium in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2023, as part of the African Union’s commitment to bolster its Humanitarian Architecture.

This loss comes just weeks after Nairobi’s second unsuccessful bid to host a UN Climate Fund hub.

Nairobi has previously been accused by other African countries of having an insatiable appetite for hosting bids, often competing with friendly nations even when unnecessary.

A regional foreign minister who attended the Executive Council meeting—where Kenya’s top diplomat, Musalia Mudavadi, was absent and represented by Kenya’s envoy in Addis Ababa, George Orina—remarked, “One of the things that tipped this in favor of Uganda is that it doesn’t host any AU institution, whereas Kenya has some.”