ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia(AFP) — Kenya’s candidate for the top job at the African Union said Saturday that if US president-elect Donald Trump does not want to work with Africa, the continent has “other friends”.

Raila Odinga, a veteran Kenyan politician, is one of four candidates vying to replace Moussa Faki Mahamat as African Union Commission chair next year.

“I don’t want to prejudge him,” Odinga said of Trump in an interview with AFP in Addis Ababa following the Republican’s emphatic election win this week.

“If he wants to work with Africa as a friend of Africa, we will welcome him and work with him,” the 79-year-old added.

“If he does not want to work with Africa… Africa has got other friends.”

The continent of around 1.5 billion people is often competed over for influence by the West as well as by China, Russia and Turkey.

Many African leaders issued swift congratulations to Trump, even though during his first term from 2017-2021 he described African nations and Haiti as “shithole” countries.

Asked about those remarks, Odinga said: “No, it doesn’t worry me at all because that was Trump then. This is now another new Trump. So we want to see the new Trump, the one we are going to deal with.”

He reiterated: “I don’t want to prejudge him. I want him to first pronounce himself on Africa and how he wants to work with Africa.”

Kenyan President William Ruto, who narrowly defeated Odinga in the country’s 2022 election but has gone on to back his rival’s campaign for the AU, spoke by phone with Trump on Friday.

Ruto said they discussed “areas of mutual interest” including trade and investment, security and good governance, as well as Kenya’s role leading a UN-backed mission to try to quell rampant gang violence in Haiti.

Odinga, who has failed in five bids to win the Kenyan presidency, also left the door open to another run for the job in 2027, but said he was currently focused on his AU candidacy.

He faces a stiff challenge for the role from Djibouti’s long-serving Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, while two other candidates have also thrown their hats into the ring — Anil Gayan from Mauritius and Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar.

The election will take place by secret ballot during the February 2025 summit of the pan-African body.