Is the AU a club for dictators in Africa?

At the end of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday, the continental body's new chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, issued a statement attacking Chadian rebels who were advancing on the presidential palace in N'Djamena to oust President Idriss Deby. Kikwete said the AU will not accept the mutineers because of the undemocratic way they were seeking power, and pledged to suspend Chad from the union if the rebels prevailed over loyal forces.

The chairman's statement was supported by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who said the rebel onslaught was a “great violation” on a democratically-elected and legitimate government. Earlier, as the rebels were advancing on the capital, Gadaffi's office released reports of an alleged ceacefire he had brokered between Deby and rebel leader Mohamed Nouri. Gadaffi's intervention was in the pursuance of continued stability and respect for democracy in Africa, according to reports.
At the same summit, Kenya's Mwai Kibaki delivered a statement that was condemned by the opposition ODM that accuses him of stealing last month's elections, for undermining peace talks in Nairobi between the party and Kibaki's side. Kibaki had reassured the meeting of Kenya's security situation and blamed the Opposition and unnamed foreign governments of instigating violence.
The AU's stand on Chad was achieved amidst prevarication on the monthlong crisis in Kenya that has left hundreds dead and nearly half a million displaced. Despite efforts by former chairman, Ghanaian President John Kuffuor, continental consensus on Kenya has been elusive while international support has been profuse.

Since December 30 when Kibaki rigged himself back to power, there has been outpouring world support for the AU-initiated dialogue led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Kibaki's very journey to Addis Ababa as Kenya's representative was criticised by ODM and local civil society who believe it to undermine the talks.

On Wednesday, an ODM delegation to Addis Ababa was denied accreditation on the basis that AU lacks the legal mandate to stop Kibaki from the summit despite the flawed election that brought him back to power. This deficit of authority issues from the AU's lack of a charter on the conduct of democratic elections. The AU suspends military rulers, but it lacks benchmarks on democratic elections. In 2005, Chad's legitimate Deby changed his country's laws to allow him a third term and endless presidency.

From early January, as world leaders have condemned Kenya's sham elections, African presidents and AU institutions were notable for their impotence. A few presidents, like Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, have felt as confident as to congratulate him. Thus, against massive evidence of vote rigging, Kibaki insists on his own capacity to investigate the fraud and redress grievances expressed by ODM and the Kenyan population. He stubbornly resisted Kuffuor's 'meddling' in Kenya's affairs, and his spokesman Alfred Mutua arrogantly said the Ghanaian leader was coming to Nairobi “to take tea with his friend and age-mate” Kibaki. Kenya recognised the mission only on the pressure and declarations of support by the United Nations, Britain, the European Union and America – all of who were firm on the necessity for foreign intervention.

In the region, Kibaki's grandstanding was supported by Museveni who sent combat troops to help quell Kenya's violence. Many African leaders either sided with their peer or just did not care what happens in Kenya. So the AU's first statement on Kenya, characteristically mourning human rights abuses and potential for more violence, came after four weeks of deaths and destruction, by which time the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation talks were underway in Nairobi.

In the Kenyan and Chadian cases an august African institution has taken sides with corrupt oppressors in the name of protocol. The same Tanzanian leader who condemns Chadians to leave under perpetual dictatorship under Deby has not condemned the rigging in Kenya, a next-door neighbour. While only a handful of leaders at the assembly spoke firmly against electoral fraud and instability in Kenya, Kikwete was allowed to offer diplomatic succor to dictators and swindlers in N'Djamena.

The crises in Kenya and Chad are quite similar. Deby became a president for life in November 2005, the same month Kibaki killed a fifteen-year process to reform Kenya's draconian constitution. In both countries corrupt regimes have pillaged national resources and used illegal wealth to sustain despotic rule at the expense of democratic majorities. Both leaders deployed state security services as armed units of the ruling party.

The impartiality of the AU in the Kenyan crisis will be of particular interest to many Africans as it did not employ its institutions to make a formal response on issues raised by ODM, which is why they invited Kibaki. But allowing a dictator to grandstand at an auspicious continental body was horrifying.
The writer is a Kenyan journalist based in Nairobi. [email protected]