New rules at African Union cost Kenyan top position at health body
African CDC Deputy director Dr Ahmed Ogwell, from Kenya, will be leaving the agency at the end of March 2024.
What you need to know:
- Dr Ogwell is barred from reapplying for another term, following the introduction of rotational quotas to ensure more countries are represented at agencies of the African Union.
- CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya indicated that the position of deputy director general must come from one of the 32 countries listed.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) deputy director Dr Ahmed Ogwell, from Kenya, will be leaving the agency at the end of this month, a victim of new rules on quotas and rotation.
Dr Ogwell told the Nation he is resigning from his position at the end of this month but declined to expound on the reasons, only promising to explain soon.
The Nation, however, understands that Dr Ogwell is barred from reapplying for another term, following the introduction of rotational quotas to ensure more countries are represented at agencies of the African Union.
His resignation came in the wake of a post on X by Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya who indicated that the position of deputy director general must come from one of the 32 countries listed due to African Union (AU) quotas to ensure balance around recruitment.
“Due to geographic balance and quota issues in the African Union, candidates must be from one of these 32 countries where the quota for regular staff is not full: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Rep., Comoros, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sahrawi Arab DR, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, and Tunisia,” Dr Kaseya said.
The list does not include Kenya.
Dr Kaseya has since advised Africa CDC staff of Dr Ogwell’s imminent exit but described his tenure as remarkable.
“His contributions have been instrumental in navigating our young organisation through unprecedented times, from managing the Covid-19 challenges to laying the foundations of the continental public health agency leading health in Africa in line with our new mandate,” Dr Kaseya told staff.
Ogwell’s had tried to contest for the African Union Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs, and Social Development but was unsuccessful after Nairobi backed a different candidate. The post is now held by Minata Samate Cessouma of Burkina Faso.
According to Africa CDC, a deputy Director-General comes with an indicative basic salary of Sh14.3 million ($ 100,017.00) per year plus other related entitlements.
The entitlements include post adjustment (46 per cent of basic salary), housing allowance up to Sh3.8 million per year ($26,208), and education allowance (100 per cent of tuition and other education-related expenses for every eligible dependent up to a maximum of Sh 1.4 million ($10,000.00) per child per annum).
The director general also added that Dr Ouma has offered his support to help whoever is selected to be the next deputy director-general after the ongoing recruitment process that started in September last year.
Dr Ouma joined Africa CDC in 2019 to serve as the continent's health authority’s first deputy director.
He then went ahead to become Africa CDC’s acting director-general for almost a year when his former boss Dr John Nkengasong left to head the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2022 before applying for the role of director-general.
Before Africa CDC, Dr Ouma was the deputy at the secretariat for the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Geneva, Switzerland where he not only led negotiations but also represented Kenya during the designing of international health regulations.
