Exclusive investigative report sheds light on an unprecedented smear campaign at the African Union Commission (AUC).
Over the last year, the AUC and its leaders have been the subject of an extreme persecution orchestrated by a fomer by a former staff who was seconded by ACCORD, Ms Yvette Ngandu Kapinga.
In a carefully engineered memo, she claimed that at the AUC there was “a professional apartheid against female employees and spoke of ill-treatment and humiliation.”
The memo added that, “the morale across the commission, especially among female employees, was at its lowest and will continue to fall down for lack of remedy in sight.”
The AUC was therefore agitated with such allegations and in a bid to establish the truth, it constituted a High-Level Committee in June to investigate the accusations of harassment against women staff members of the Commission.
The probe panel composed of Bineta Diop, Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security; Lucy Asuagbor, Member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights in Africa; and Tujilane Rose Chizumila, Judge at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights carried out several interviews and the High Level Committee is expected to release its findings this September.
This website has learnt that interestingly, last week an anonymous letter was sent by Ms Ngandu to all staff of the AUC, diplomatic missions claiming that the inquiry was a waste and that the report will be biased. In her “anonymous” letter she accused everyone including members of the Panel and some who were initially sympathetic to her cause of all being in cahoots to disguise the truth.
“Without anticipating the findings of the inquiry, it’s odd that at every-time that the report is about to be released, the leaders of the AUC are subject to sponsored articles in newspapers or messages attacking people’s character through the AUC email network,” a source at AUC further revealed.
Last August, when the Panel was expected to release its preliminary findings a bizarre article appeared in Jeune Afrique Magazine.
Multiple sources in this institution say Ms Yvette Kapinga she had ordered “a hit Job” with Jeune Afrique against the commissioner for Peace and Security in anticipation of the findings.
“In fact, she later bragged that she has a well oiled and planned campaign to take down the entire leadership of the AU Commission by using a network of journalists and staff inside the AU to tarnish the reputations of leaders. In our next article we will expose the names of the paid journalists and other staff involved in the smear campaign,” sources added.
“It is so important to distinguish between serious issues of discrimination and/or abuse or gender discrimination from a smear campaign orchestrated by an individual notorious for her unprofessional behavior, meanness with her colleagues with a sense of entitlement unmatched in this world.”
Who is Yvette Ngandu Kapinga?
The daughter of the current DRC Ambassador to the AU, Mr Jean Leon Ngandu was seconded by ACCORD to the AUC about 10 years ago to assist with the establishment of the Panel of the Wise Secretariat.
She was later joined by two staff to work with her to stand up the Panel Secretariat.
But insiders say, Yvette suffocated and mistreated them so much that one of the two staff tendered his resignation while another was transferred to another division. She claimed that she had special access to the “powerful” and no one could touch her.
“Many today stand ready to testify about her unprofessional behavior including partners,” a source says.
Yvette is known to have ruined many relations between the AUC and various partners and operated for the longest time with what officials termed as “total impunity.”
“Her alleged concerns about women’s issues or staff treatment were of no concern to her when she was at the AUC the last 10 years,” wondered another official adding that, “in fact, she was part of a group of people who destroyed anyone who stood on their way. God forbid you didn’t have the mighty and powerful to protect you. The only reason why she is unleashing this campaign is because she was not retained by a panel for a position she applied for.”
The Investigation of the High Level Panel established by the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat was conducted transparently and independently, and its findings and recommendations will be published.
But officials have already expressed fears that Yvette Ngandu or anyone else opposed to this committee would covertly work to influence the findings using an external ‘iron hand.’
We have also learnt that Yvette is being funded by foreigners to sabotage AUC.
Separately, the website understands a court defamation has been filed against Ms Yvette Ngandu Kapinga because “smear campaigns” are punishable by law. In our next article, we will expose the network that has been helping Ms Yvette Ngandu Kapinga to tarnish the names of the leaders of the AUC and exposed how foreign entities hijacked Ms Yvette Ngandu Kapinga smear campaign to use it at its advantage.
TrumpetNews will publish more articles following our investigation into the mess at AUC.