Former Ghanaian President John Mahama appointed as the African Union’s (AU) special envoy to help Somalia resolve its diplomatic impasse with Kenya, has been rejected. – By Gerald Gekara.
Somalia claims that the former Head of State has “extensive links” with Kenya, and has written to African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat to inform him that Somalia will no longer support Mr Mahama in his current job.
Somalia’s Foreign and International Cooperation Minister, Mohamed Abdirazak, claims that the Ghanaian ex-president is “closely aligned” with Kenyan leadership.
“It is indeed surprising that a candidate with extensive links with Kenya’s leadership has been chosen by the AU to facilitate talks on a political impasse partly engineered by those the Kenyan leadership has supported. Given the politically sensitive nature of the task of a high representative in any case, I am certain you will appreciate the importance of any candidate for such a post to be seen as impartial and without any links to the region.” the letter, believed to have been wrongly dated on May 09th, stated.
He also went on to fault the African Union for being ‘overtaken’ by events, considering Prime Minister Hussein Roble had already brokered a deal to have parties resume discussions.
“It is my concern, [that] deploying an envoy in the process now will only confuse the present amicable arrangements and at worse risk the politicization of the process further than necessary,” he wrote.
