Ruto complains of mistreatment during foreign trips, goes after AU management

President William Ruto has questioned the management of African Union (AU) and exposed how African presidents have been mistreated in the past while on foreign trips.

A tough-talking Ruto on Saturday, April 29 noted that AU has failed to live up to its expectation in addressing the continent’s challenges.

The president who was speaking during Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Conversation in Nairobi noted that "We seriously need an interrogation of the management of the African Union".

"We have the wrong architecture in the management of the African Union (AU).

"The AU Commission Chairman cannot do very little because we have retained all the powers as Heads of State and yet you cannot run one country and run the continent of Africa.” Ruto stated.

He noted that it is indeed embarrassing for AU to rely on donations from the European Union to support Somalia.

"Today we cannot even support Somalia. We are waiting for the EU to give us $85 million. It is madness.

"Are you telling me 54 countries, 60 years after independence cannot manage $85 million to support Somalia?" Ruto slammed.

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He also lamented that leaders from the continent are often mistreated during foreign trips when they are assembled before leaders from Europe, Asia and America.

“We have these meetings, Africa-US, Africa-Europe, Africa-Turkey, now we are waiting for Africa-Russia and Africa-Japan. We have made the decision that it is not intelligent for 54 of us to go and sit before one gentleman from another place.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan and other African presidents in a bus as they headed to Birmingham Palace in United Kingdom for the funeral service of the late Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022 Pulse Live Kenya

“Sometimes we are mistreated. We are loaded into buses like school kids, and it’s not right,” Ruto added.

The president was referring to events of September 19, 2022, when he attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.

African leaders at the event were loaded onto a bus and driven unlike Western leaders who had the privilege of being driven in private cars.

The treatment of African leaders was the subject of discussion after US president Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron were allowed to move in their convoys.