How Tanzania elections revealed that AU is an irrelevant white elephant

Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan

Last week’s election fiasco in Tanzania knocks you breathless. It leaves you asking hard questions, as a citizen of East Africa, and as a member of the African family. But it especially lifts the veil on the African Union (AU) to give its correct character as an ineffective elite self-protection club for African leaders. It is an irrelevant white elephant, disconnected from the aspirations of the peoples of Africa, especially the youth. 

The AU Commission was in a feverish rush to send a congratulatory message to Samia Suluhu Hassan for her ostensible election victory. The message went out even as Tanzanian police killed citizens in the streets in their hundreds, for protesting an election fraud that the AU calls a victory. While a later AU statement joined SADC and other observers to fault the election, the damage was already done.