2 Countries in East Africa Did Not Vote for Raila, Nelson Koech

Belgut MP Nelson Koech has hinted that at least two East African Community (EAC) countries did not vote in favour of Raila Odinga at the African Union Commission (AUC) elections on Saturday, February 15, 2025.

Speaking during a morning TV show on Monday, February 17, 2025, Koech who chairs the Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations committee in the National Assembly also revealed that several factors may have played out in Addis Ababa.

“Two countries from the East African Community (EAC) did not vote for us,” Koech said.

“Even in East Africa, we did not confront this election as a united front. There are those within the East African Community that I believe strongly did not support our course. One of our neighbours comes to mind.”

Koech equally noted that while the team in charge of Raila’s campaign did their best, religion, language and geopolitics played out against the Kenyan candidate.

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Feared a pan-Africanist

Equally, Koech noted that the African countries may have feared the strong pan-African candidate in Raila and that this fear may have led to them voting for a different candidate.

“Many African countries viewed Kenya with a lot of suspicion of competition that Kenya could be taking into the continental stage; leaving other countries behind,” Koech observed.

The Belgut MP also blamed a last-minute statement by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to back their own candidate Richard Randriamandrato who was eliminated at the end of the third round of voting.

“That statement by SADC a few days before the election was extremely suspicious and unexpected. That, in very big way, seemed to have swayed that block,” he observed.

Initially, Randriamandrato secured 10 votes in the first round of the election where Raila won by garnering 20 votes while Djibouti’s candidate Mahmoud Youssouf secured 18.

In the second round, Odinga maintained his lead with 22 against Youssouf’s 19 while Randriamandrato fell to seven. However, Youssouf overtook Raila in the third round by getting 23 votes against Raila’s 20 while Randriamandrato got 5 votes.

Youssouf continued his lead into the fourth round by garnering 25 votes against Raila’s 21 in the fourth round and further widened the margin by getting 26 votes against Raila’s 21 in the fifth round.

In the sixth round, Youssouf had 26 votes against Raila’s 22 and in the seventh round, he garnered 33 votes to secure the position of the African Union Commission chairperson for a four-year term.