CS Amina loses, Chad’s Mahamat elected new AU Commission Chairperson

African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Mahamat

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has failed to clinch African Union Commission Chairperson post after members elected Chad’s Moussa Mahamat with most blocs supporting his bid.

Mahamat won with 38 votes against Amina’s 26 votes in the hotly contested elections held on Monday at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Kenya has gone all out in its bid to have Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed elected to head the Africa Union Commission.

Pundits in diplomatic circles say the country’s push to have Ms Mohamed at the helm of AU has much to do with the ripple effect of the now collapsed International Criminal Court (ICC) charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

Prof Macharia Munene, a History lecturer at the University States International University (USIU), said Amina was the most competent and qualified candidate to push the African agenda.

“Being at the helm of AU, Kenya gets the feel-good factor but is also sure its interests will not be hurt,” says Prof Munene, who gave Amina between 45 and 55 per cent chance of getting elected.

He said the fact that Kenya had proposed the foreign secretary at a point where there was a stalemate on the chairperson’s election had driven a forceful campaign for her election.

Kenya has argued that being a foreign secretary, she will hit the ground running in addressing the most pressing issues in the continent including terrorism, war and post-election conflicts.

Her experience in World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations as the chair of the ministerial conference will allow her to build Africa’s voice in multilateral trade negotiations and agreements.