By Enyichukwu Enemanna
President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame has criticised the African Union’s recent appointment of a new Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a Democratic Republic of Congo national, doctor Jean Kaseya, alleging that selection process was excessively “secretive”.
Rwanda has been having a running battle with DRC which accuses it of supporting the M23 rebel group in the Eastern region of DRC, an allegation Kigali has repeatedly denied.
Kaseya was in February appointed to lead the pan-African public health agency at the AU’s annual summit of heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Kagame in a letter to Azali Assoumani, president of the Union of Comoros and the new chairperson of the AU alleged that changes to the AU’s recruitment processes to make them more “effective, efficient and transparent” were not adhered to in the lead-up to the appointment.
There was no debate allowed about which of the finalists should take on the role, even though three countries requested to speak about this, Kagame wrote. He added that this was the only agenda item during the summit where the debate was not allowed.
A committee created during the recruitment process selected Kaseya over the candidate who received the highest-ranking based on merit — but the committee’s legal counsel did not provide an explanation as to why it decided to choose Kaseya instead of this other candidate.
The committee’s decision of Kaseya was then put forward to African government leaders who ratified the selection.
An infectious disease physician from Guinea Bissau Dr. Magda Robalo, who is the global managing director of Women in Global Health, was the other finalist.
“More troubling, besides yourself, no Heads of State or Government took part in the Committee meeting, and delegated officials were mostly below ministerial level,” Kagame told Assoumani.
Kagame’s letter was dated March 3, less than two weeks after the appointment was made, a spokesperson for Rwanda’s government confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Dr. Githinji Gitahi, group CEO of Amref Health Africa and an Africa CDC board member said the board was not involved in the process. The published statute of the pan-African public health agency notes the director is “appointed by the Commission on the approval of the Board,” which was not the case in this circumstance.
The DRC president’s office announcement said that Kaseya’s appointment led the country to “regain its place” at the AU.
