Rwanda President Paul Kagame sharply criticized the African Union’s recent appointment of a new director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, claiming the selection process was excessively secretive.
In February, Congolese medical doctor Jean Kaseya was appointed to lead the pan-African public health agency during the AU’s annual summit of heads of state and government. But 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, Kagame wrote in a letter to Azali Assoumani, president of the Union of Comoros and the new chairperson of the AU.
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.