Press Review CW 41/2024: Appointed and dismissed by parliament
Revue de presse 2.10.2024 jusqu'à 11.10.2024

Malheureusement, ce numéro de la revue de presse n’est actuellement disponible qu’en allemand et en anglais.

Ethiopia’s parliament elects new president

On Monday, the two chambers of the Ethiopian parliament in Addis Ababa elected the former Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie as President. In the vote in the House of People’s Representatives (HoPR) and House of Federation (HoF), he was elected by a majority with five abstentions. He thus takes over the position of Head of State from the first female president in Ethiopian history, Sahle-Work Zewde. After weeks of speculation, the 74-year-old resigned shortly before the end of her first term in office, following a rift between her and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Taye’s appointment is not associated with a shift in the balance of political power, as Ethiopia’s constitution limits the powers of the president to largely ceremonial and representative duties. Taye is the sixth president since the fall of the authoritarian Derg military government in 1991 and the fifth since the adoption of the current constitution in 1995.

As Ethiopia’s former ambassador to Egypt and former Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, the president, who has been appointed until 2030, has extensive experience in diplomacy. Before becoming Foreign Minister in February of this year, the 68-year-old had already been Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since January 2023. According to experts, the political science graduate could play an important role in initiating peace processes in the Horn of Africa. In his inaugural speech, he announced that Ethiopia would work to strengthen relations with neighbouring countries in all areas and stated that his most important priorities were building sustainable national peace and ensuring the rule of law. Ethiopia would also participate in the peace efforts in Sudan.

With his focus on bilateral relations with neighbouring countries, Taye refers in particular to the tensions with Egypt and Somalia. In January 2024, Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with the de facto autonomous state of Somaliland, which is not recognised internationally. The agreement grants Ethiopia access to Somaliland’s commercial port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden and offers the prospect of a leasehold on which it intends to build a naval base. In return, the government of Abiy Ahmed pledged to conduct an in-depth review of Somaliland’s position on its efforts to gain international recognition, calling into question Somalia’s claim to sovereignty (Press Review CW2/2024). As a result, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed a defense agreement with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo in mid-August, which decided to station Egyptian military aircraft at Mogadishu airport and to send officers and equipment to set up command centres in southern Somalia. Relations in the region are also strained by geopolitical tensions over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Egypt, which is heavily dependent on the fresh water of the Nile, fears that Ethiopia, which is located upstream, could use the passage as leverage in times of drought. Against this background, Egypt is seeking proximity to other countries in the region, which themselves have tensions with Ethiopia. Just yesterday, Thursday, Egypt’s al-Sisi and Somalia’s Mohamud met with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki in Asmara to discuss closer cooperation.

 

Kenyan National Assembly votes for Impeachment of Deputy President Gachagua

 

The Kenyan National Assembly in Nairobi approved the motion to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua by a large majority on Tuesday evening. Out of a total of 349 MPs, 281 voted in favor of the removal of President William Ruto’s deputy, thus achieving the required two-thirds majority for the impeachment process. In a total of eleven charges, he is accused of abusing his office, stirring up ethnic hatred and acquiring the equivalent of 40 million US dollars worth of wealth through corruption during his two years in office. The final decision now lies with the Senate, which will meet next Wednesday and Thursday within the legally prescribed period and will then have ten days to give the motion its final consideration.

The vote in the National Assembly was preceded by a public consultation, which according to the constitution must be included in such important parliamentary decisions. According to a parliamentary report, more than 200,000 responses were received as part of this process, 65% of which supported the impeachment, while almost 34% voted against it. Even Gachagua’s defense speech, in which he denied all accusations and proclaimed his innocence, could not change the National Assembly’s decision.

The impeachment proceedings are taking place against the backdrop of the rift between President Ruto and his Deputy President. Ruto’s camp accuses Gachagua of supporting the protests against the government that broke out in June and July of this year following a planned tax reform and in which more than 50 people were killed. Gachagua, in turn, complains that he was left out of the subsequent dismissal of a large part of the cabinet by President Ruto and the inclusion of members of the country’s main opposition parties in the government. Meanwhile, the motion for the current impeachment proceedings was filed by Mwengi Mutuse, a member of parliament from the party alliance Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) led by President Ruto; however, Ruto himself has not yet publicly commented on the proceedings.

For impeachment proceedings to be successful, the motion must now be supported by at least two thirds of the senators. If this happens, Gachagua would be the first Deputy President of Kenya to be removed from office in this way. So far, only Kenya’s fifth Deputy President, Josephat Karanja, was about to be removed by parliament in 1989 under the old constitution. However, he pre-empted the vote of no confidence by resigning. Gachagua has explicitly ruled out such a step for himself. On Wednesday, his lawyers tried to stop the impeachment proceedings in court – the Supreme Court has since referred the case to the President of the Kenyan Constitutional Court.

 

In other news

 

On Tuesday, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay announced that Rabat has been named World Book Capital 2026. The Moroccan capital thus follows Rio de Janeiro and will be the fifth African city to hold this title after Alexandria (Egypt), Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Conakry (Guinea) and Accra (Ghana). Rabat is not only the venue for Africa’s third largest international book and publishing fair, the Rabat International Book Fair, but also home to 54 different book publishers, according to the explanatory statement. The celebrations will kick off in Rabat on 23 April 2026, World Book and Copyright Day. The city will then host a series of cultural events, including workshops, debates, exhibitions and book fairs. The aim is to raise citizens’ awareness of the importance of books, promote a culture of reading and strengthen cooperation between the authorities and civil society. Parallel to this, long-term projects are planned, such as the creation of new reading and creative spaces. UNESCO emphasised Rabat’s role in the democratisation of knowledge.

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