Kenyan President Ruto assumed leadership of the AU reform efforts during the February summit in Addis Ababa, succeeding a frustrated Rwandan President Paul Kagame who was leading the reforms since 2016. Photo: Handout

On Tuesday evening, Kenyan President William Ruto appointed Lazarus Amayo, Kenya’s outgoing ambassador to the US and a career diplomat, as the Special Envoy for the African Union’s Champion for Institutional Reforms.

“To support the Ministry of Foreign & Diaspora Affairs in steering the President’s unique mandate as the African Union Champion for Institutional Reform, the Head of State has, with the approval of the Public Service Commission (PSC), appointed Ambassador Lazarus Amayo as the Special Envoy of the African Union Champion for Institutional Reforms,” read a dispatch from State House, Kenya.

It added, “The Special Envoy is expected to play a critical role in driving AU’s institutional reforms in liaison with the State Department for Foreign Affairs and the African Union institutions.”

Amayo, previously Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations, will undertake groundwork for President Ruto, traversing African capitals to advocate the importance of advancing the reform agenda to continental leaders.

President Ruto assumed leadership of the AU reform efforts during the February summit in Addis Ababa, succeeding a frustrated Rwandan President Paul Kagame who was leading the reforms since 2016.

Yet, advancing the continental reform agenda has proven challenging, with many reforms stalling despite some progress.

As he passed the baton to his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto, Kagame highlighted during the 17-18 February summit in Addis Ababa that only a minority of the goals outlined in his African Union governance plan have been accomplished.

Kagame was mandated by his peers in 2016 to carry out an ambitious governance plan focusing on the financial independence of the AU and strengthening the powers of the commission president.

Although the Rwandan president wrote in a summary published on his website that “a lot has been achieved”, only a minority of the targets he had set himself were actually hit – for example a reduction in the number of commissioners and the revitalisation of the peace fund.

Jeune Afrique reported that Kagame’s entourage pointed to the unwillingness of some of his peers, the bureaucratic red tape within the AU, in particular the blockages within the organisation’s committee of permanent representatives, adding that the committee of experts appointed to assist him were “out of touch”.

This nine-member committee includes Donald Kaberuka, Carlos Lopes, Amina Mohammed and Vera Songwe.

The Rwandan president told his counterparts that he had spent more than $5m on the process.