Nairobi, March 15 -- Kenya is preparing to launch a continental campaign after the African Union (AU) Executive Council dropped two key proposals that would have locked out its candidate for the Commission (AUC) chairperson seat.

According to Kenya's Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, the continental bloc will no longer demand that the next AUC chair be a woman.

Read: Raila quest for AUC top seat faces gender hurdle

They also agreed that the next chair be from eastern Africa although the region will have autonomy to agree on who runs.

Mr Mudavadi is also Kenya's Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Cabinet Secretary.

A dispatch from Mudavadi's office said the council "unanimously" asserted the right of the Eastern Africa region to pro...