President William Ruto will skip the upcoming Russia-Africa Summit, choosing, instead, to be represented by the African Union.
Hussein Mohamed, the President’s Spokesman, said Ruto had conveyed the message to the continental body to carry the wishes of the country at the Summit, Moscow’s second since 2019 to try and tie down relations with Africa as it gets shunned by the West over its war in Ukraine.
“President William Ruto will not be personally attending the Russia-Africa summit; instead, he will be represented by organs of the Africa Union. This decision aligns with the stance of African Heads of State and Government, who believe that in order for Africa to engage in meaningful discussions with global partners, partnership summits organised by external parties need to be reviewed to establish an effective framework for African Union partnerships,” Mr Mohamed said on Wednesday.
Ruto had been critical of summits inviting African leaders to another place and recently said it was disrespectful to be loaded in buses as though they were school children.
However, he himself has attended such summits before and was even bused in London, last year during the burial of Queen Elizabeth II.
Yet, he says the skip is in line with AU Assembly’s Decision 762 of February 2020 which said the African Union/African Continent is to be represented at partnership meetings between the African Union/African Continent and a partner country by the Members of the Bureau of the Assembly of the Union, as well as chairpersons of Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Chairperson of the Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) of AUDA-NEPAD and the Chairperson of the AU Commission.
