Kenya's President William Ruto, on Wednesday, May 29, proposed a reduction of seats in the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) from 275 to 100 members, for cost-effective reasons.
The Pan-African Parliament, also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. Currently, each AU member state is represented by five lawmakers in PAP which sits in Midrand, South Africa.
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Ruto was speaking at the opening of the African Development Bank's annual meeting themed 'Africa's Transformation, African Development Bank Group, and Reform of the Global Financial Architecture' in Nairobi, Kenya.
The meeting brought together officials from bilateral and multilateral development agencies, leading academics and representatives of non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector, to engage in high-level discussions regarding the continent's socioeconomic transformation.
Speaking in his capacity as African Union Champion for Institutional Reform, Ruto said that the Pan-African Parliament would have one man and one woman representative member from every African country and become a full-time organization.
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Ruto took over the African Union Champion for Institutional Reform role, on February 17, from President Paul Kagame. The Rwandan president had been at the helm of the initiative since 2016.
The reform involves reforming the structure, functioning and focus of the African Union Commission, AU Organs and Specialised Agencies, so that they become more effective and efficient in managing the programmes of the African Union.
Ruto said that it is an assignment he intends to perform to align continental financial institutions to support Africa's development and progress.
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"We will be proposing that the AU Commission executive be given sufficient power to prosecute Africa's economic diplomacy so that we unlock the potential of our continent," he said. This will help showcase Africa's mineral, agricultural development, human capital, and natural resources assets which, he noted, can be used to create investment opportunities.
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Ruto said the intention is to also make AU a fit-for-purpose organization that takes charge of the consolidation of African markets and boosts intra-African trade which currently stands at 15 percent.
"We are struggling to look for markets elsewhere except on our continent. We must believe in ourselves," he said, adding that this also goes hand-in-hand with taking charge of Africa's security and stability.
To improve accountability, Ruto announced that his team seeks to reform the PAP seats, foster PAP's connection with the AU executive, and make it a full-time organization to approve the AU budget.
"Today, the budget of the African Union is approved by people who are not people's representatives. We want the people of Africa to take charge of this continent," he said.
He also pointed out a need to have an African Court of Justice that would facilitate sorting out issues and for "no African to be dragged to court elsewhere to sort out our issues."
PAP held its inaugural session in March 2004 for a five-year mandate.
The seat of the Pan-African Parliament was initially in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before it was moved to South Africa. The Parliament holds two ordinary sessions (May and October) in a year.
Its Rules of procedure provide for the sittings to be held at its seat or at such other venue as may be determined by the Bureau upon invitation by any of the member states.
Egypt became the first country to host a session of the PAP in October 2016. Rwanda was the second member state to host a session of the Parliament in 2018.
