For 23 votes against 2 for his only opponent, the Burundian Constaque Hakizimana, John Omo, candidate from Kenya won the title of Secretary General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) thus replacing the Nigerian Abdulkarim Soumaila, elected as the head of the ATU in 2011.
Omo was elected on August 17th, 2018 at the 5th ordinary session of the ATU Plenipotentiary Conference, held in Nairobi. He will be officially taking office in January 2019.
Hakizimana and Omo were the only candidates to remain till the end, after the withdrawal of the candidacy of Abubakar Sadiq Hussaini from Nigeria, and the invalidation of the candidacy of the Congolese Eric Ndoumba, for non-payment of his country’s arrears.
John Omo is currently the Director of Legal Services at the Kenya Communications Authority (CA), the country's ICT and telecom regulator. During his four-year term, renewable once, the new Secretary General, who has more than 25 years of experience in international legal advice, including eighteen in the information and communication technology sector, will continue to develop the African telecoms market, formerly done by its predecessor.
Omo will perform his duties from his country, under another notice on permanent location. Prior to 1999, ATU headquarters was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but because of political crisis, it was moved to Kenya.
