President William Ruto was on Saturday, February 17, appointed as African Union's Champion for Institutional Reform.
In the new role, Ruto will succeed his Rwandese counterpart Paul Kagame who will step down from the role after serving for seven years.
His role involves providing political leadership as well as completing the comprehensive Institutional Reform initiative.
The appointing body, AU's Assembly of Heads of State and Government, further tasked Ruto to revitalise the structure, functions and objectives of the union's organs, including the African Union Commission, which Azimio's Raila Odinga aims to chair.
The role was created in 2016 after African leaders saw the need to drive institutional reforms to achieve economic growth and development.
AU members subsequently appointed Kagame to lead the process and ensure agencies become more effective in managing AU's programmes.
"The AU Reform Agenda must therefore be a priority and we must interrogate and conduct the process to ensure that structurally, the roles of the bureau, summits, committees, regional caucuses, secretariat and commission are duly rationalised to give Africa a fit-for-purpose continental governance body with the capacity to engage globally," he added.
President Ruto urged other African leaders to donate power to the AU Commission on matters of trade, and regional and global security to benefit the continent.
Earlier this week, Ruto held talks with Kagame on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he emphasised the bilateral ties between the two countries.
"Discussed investment opportunities between our countries as well as regional peace and security," the president stated.
Ruto flew out to Ethiopia on Friday, February 16, to attend the AU Summit Heads of State and Government. During the Summit, he will address matters based on strategies to solve the education crisis in Africa.
"The summit's theme is on building resilient education systems for Africa's 21st century human capital," read the statement by State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.
