Today January 30th, 2017 there was action in AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Elections for the near African Union Commission chairperson was underway.
If you aren’t aware, our Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Amina Mohamed was on the ballot. She was seeking to replace Dr. Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma as the top African diplomat. Ambassador Amina Mohammed missed her target because most of the blocks were supported Moussa Faki Mahamot. The newly elected chair received 38 votes against 26 for Amina Mohamed.
A lot of efforts were made to ensure Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed gets elected to the apex of African Union. Uhuru Kenyatta’s efforts have been watered down. This includes sending special envoys to 53 countries to campaign for Amina. This must have consumed a lot of tax payers’ money.
Here is the summary of Amina’s successes so far:
- managed to convene international meeting in Nairobi (TICAD and UNACTAD)
- competently handled the World Anti-Doping Agency when Kenya was facing a ban
- successfully convinced AU to support deferral of International Criminal Court (ICC) cases during one of the extra-ordinary meetings among others.
Amina’s previous and current positions
- Legal Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN at Geneva.
- Deputy Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) whose headquarter is in Nairobi, Kenya
- Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Jubilee government
- Chaired the 10th Ministerial Conference that took place in Nairobi, Kenya
CS Ambassador Amina Mohamed holds a Masters Degree in Law from University of Kiev and she is fluent in Swahili, English and Russian. She also has a working knowledge of French.
It’s unfortunate that Ambassador Amina Mohamed did not make it to the top at the African Union. We urge her to take heart and move on to other things. She did her best and made a statement for us Kenyans out there.
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