Reformed AU needs Kenyan minister’s talent and ambition

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed speaks to a reporter during the launch of the East African Business Summit report at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi on June 17, 2015. She wants the AU chair position. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • She had signed a performance contract expecting her to meet that target in the European country whose exports include expensive medicines and large aircraft.

Some time in 2011 I had the privilege of picking a conversation with a Kenyan ambassador to a European country about her journey to a diplomatic career.

She recalled that during their days in college an international relations course wasn’t particularly popular with students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the humanities.

So when she and her friend chose the course for their postgraduate studies, she reckoned that some of their peers must have dismissed them as “naïve Muslim girls attracted to a soft career”.

“The fad then was to enrol for political science. Everyone else must have thought we didn’t know what we were doing studying for qualifications in international relations, which also involved learning foreign languages,” said the ambassador.

They would feel vindicated when, upon graduation, they received ready job offers, unlike their colleagues in the other disciplines – setting the two of them on the path to successful careers in the public service to date.

And their jobs have been anything but soft.

Around the time we had that conversation, the government had embraced the economic diplomacy policy which required diplomats to improve the balance of trade between Kenya and their host countries.

She had signed a performance contract expecting her to meet that target in the European country whose exports include expensive medicines and large aircraft.

The other “Muslim girl,” Amina Mohammed, whom the ambassador described as “tough”, “passionate” about her public service career and “highly ambitious”, had her hands full, too, as the Permanent Secretary in the then Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs.

Nothing demonstrates that ambition and talent better than the fact that, in five short years, Ms Mohammed has since served as a UN assistant secretary-general, contested the World Trade Organisation (WTO) secretary-general’s post, become Kenya’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade and is now a front runner in the race for African Union (AU) Commission chairperson.

Her performance in the Foreign Affairs docket is especially noteworthy.

Back in 2013 when President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed her to the position, Kenya was virtually a pariah state, with a President and a Deputy President indicted by the International Criminal Court.

An aggressive diplomatic campaign spearheaded by Ms Mohammed, including rallying African nations to side with Kenya in its battles with the court, has not only calmed the waters but it has also hoisted the country to a leadership role on the continent.

Going by the Friday debate featuring the five candidates for the post, the reformed AU Commission expects its next boss to deliver on an ambitious agenda, which includes strengthening Africa’s voice in international affairs and tackling emerging issues like climate change, migration and youth unemployment.

Any African head of state watching will have noticed that the candidate whose contribution drew applause from the audience on nearly every issue was Kenya’s Amina Mohammed.