Ignore claim that former Kenyan prime minister Odinga has ‘rejected AU job’ to run for president in 2027

IN SHORT: A viral TikTok video claims Kenyan politician Raila Odinga has turned down the African Union’s top job to run for Kenya’s presidency in 2027. But what he’s really doing in the speech is announcing his bid to chair the African Union Commission.

A widely viewed TikTok video is captioned: “Listen to Raila Odinga’s powerful speech today about rejecting AU job to vie for president in 2027.”

It shows a photo of Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, with a banner labelled “latest news” at the bottom. Odinga served as the country’s prime minister from 2008 to 2013.

The video contains only audio, mainly of Odinga speaking, with no footage of the actual event.

Kenya’s next presidential election is scheduled for August 2027.

The video has been viewed more than 230,000 times, has over 8,600 likes, and more than 500 comments.

The same claim has received over 800 comments and more than 14,000 likes here.

Odinga’s bid for AUC job

Hints that Odinga might run for the chairmanship of the African Union Commission (AUC) began in early 2024. The AUC is the secretariat of the Pan-African bloc.

Odinga officially launched his campaign on 27 August with the support of Kenyan president William Ruto and a diverse campaign team.

Since then, Odinga has been meeting with various African leaders and diplomats to build support for his candidacy. The election is set for February 2025.

His campaign aims to make the African Union more people-centred to ensure that all Africans benefit from its programmes. He also plans to facilitate visa-free travel within Africa and promote trade between African countries.

This time, the AUC chairmanship is reserved for an East African candidate, while the deputy is to come from North Africa. Odinga’s challengers for the position are three candidates from Djibouti, Madagascar and Mauritius.

The outgoing chairman of the AUC is Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad.

The video claims that Odinga has sensationally shifted his focus from the AUC position back to local politics. But is this true? We checked.

Video shows update on Odinga’s AUC campaign

The video’s audio is about 10 minutes long and consists mainly of Odinga’s speech and two questions from the press. In both his speech and the answers, he makes no mention of rejecting any role for the AU.

Instead, Odinga talks about his campaign for the AUC job, outlining his progress and discussing his main campaign issues. In response to one of the questions, Odinga even says he will reduce his involvement in Kenyan politics to focus on his AUC campaign. This directly contradicts the text accompanying the video.

Furthermore, a keyword search using related terms such as “press conference”, “Mudavadi” and “Raila” led us to this live stream recording of the original event, which was held on 21 August 2024. It was a joint press conference involving Odinga and prime cabinet secretary Musalia Mudavadi.

The circulating video consists entirely of sections of this press conference, mainly from around the 25:14 mark to 31:57. It excludes part of Mudavadi’s answer to a question.

This event was also reported in the news and presented as Odinga reducing his involvement in Kenyan politics to focus on his AUC bid.

The claim that Odinga rejected the AUC chair job to announce a 2027 presidential bid is false.