Kenya nominates Amina Mohamed for AU chair job

Kenya nominates Amina Mohamed for AU chair job

December 9, 2016

'Historic moment':
By Emmanuel Igunza, BBC Africa, Addis Ababa


But how significant will the debate be in finally deciding who takes over the leadership of the African Union?

Not very. Voting is usually done behind closed doors and it will only be the 54 heads of state and government who will cast their ballots. So in essence, they will have the final say.

As in previous elections, the divide between Anglophone and Francophone countries has again emerged, with candidates from Eastern Africa and Western Africa being seen as the top contenders.

This one has all the signs of being a tightly contested election, as it was four years ago when Mrs Dlamini-Zuma won after several rounds.

_83387716_464x2.jpg

Anglophone Francophone divide
The candidates and their supporters have been travelling across the continent to lobby for support from member states.

The Kenyan government, for instance, has launched an intensive campaign to canvas for votes for its Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed.

"Kenya is putting a lot of weight into it, it is calling in a lot of favours to get member countries to support her candidacy," Andrew Weir of Africa Confidential magazine, told Germany's Deutsche Welle.

But by tradition, the post rotates between Anglophone and Francophone countries. Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, from English-speaking South Africa, succeeded French-speaking Jean Ping in 2012.

Candidates from French-speaking Chad and Senegal would be in prime position if this principle is observed once more.

Critics have rejected the notion that choosing a successor should be based on a rotational system, saying that the best candidate should be chosen irrespective of their origin.
Source: BBC
 
January 29, 2017
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

D-day beckons as countries set to elect new A.U Chairman
African Union heads of states are on Monday set to vote to elect the new African Union Commission Chair who will replace South Africa's Ndalmini Zuma whose term has come to an end.
Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amb. Amina Mohamed is among five candidate seeking the top job.
For the better part of the day today leaders engaged in intense lobbying which is expected to continue late into the night as candidates try to woo more to their camps


Source: K24TV
 
Five candidates in the running for AU Commission Chair post
Delegates at the summit will be voting for a new AU Commission chairperson. Let's take a look at who's in the running for the top job. First up, we have Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, the current Foreign Minister of Botswana. Her vision for the AU is an organisation that delivers real results. Next is Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, a veteran at the AU, having held a position on the Peace and Security Council. Equatorial Guinea's Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy is the youngest candidate. He's been focused on issues like youth unemployment and migration. The fourth candidate is Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed. She's pushing for dignity for African citizens and a greater role for Africa on the international stage. The oldest candidate is Senegal's Environment Minister, Abdoulaye Bathily. He's committed to social justice and resolving conflict.

Bathily is seen by many analysts as a strong candidate for the AU chair seat. He served as a UN mediator in the Central African Republic and Burundi. Bathily has strong support from Morocco, which could complicate his bid.

Morocco, the only country in the continent that is not part of the AU, withdrew from the union in 1984 to protest against the admission of disputed Western Sahara territories.


Source: CGTN
 
East, central and Southern Africa should back Amina please!! She is a strong woman who is ready for the challenge
 
Watanzania tumuunge mkono huyo mama maana sisi tumelala, nilitegemea mhes. Mahiga angeomba shavu hilo kwa status yake.
 
tunaeza poteza hii nafasi kwa wa west africa kwasababu za kijinga kwa kukosa kuungana
 
bagamoyo said:
Five candidates in the running for AU Commission Chair post
Delegates at the summit will be voting for a new AU Commission chairperson. Let's take a look at who's in the running for the top job. First up, we have Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, the current Foreign Minister of Botswana. Her vision for the AU is an organisation that delivers real results. Next is Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, a veteran at the AU, having held a position on the Peace and Security Council. Equatorial Guinea's Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy is the youngest candidate. He's been focused on issues like youth unemployment and migration. The fourth candidate is Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed. She's pushing for dignity for African citizens and a greater role for Africa on the international stage. The oldest candidate is Senegal's Environment Minister, Abdoulaye Bathily. He's committed to social justice and resolving conflict.

Bathily is seen by many analysts as a strong candidate for the AU chair seat. He served as a UN mediator in the Central African Republic and Burundi. Bathily has strong support from Morocco, which could complicate his bid.

Morocco, the only country in the continent that is not part of the AU, withdrew from the union in 1984 to protest against the admission of disputed Western Sahara territories.


Source: CGTN
Click to expand...


And the West Africans have it.....deservedly so as Kenya's Amina has nothing to show in her C.V. but political
patronage.
 
Dr. Job said:
And the West Africans have it.....deservedly so as Kenya's Amina has nothing to show in her C.V. but political
patronage.
Click to expand...
The African Union, the 54-member state continental body, will on Monday elect a new commission chairperson to replace outgoing leader Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is not seeking a second term after finishing her four-year-tenure.
Heads of states and dignitaries have been arriving in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the AU is based, to attend the continental summit and to lobby for their preferred candidate for Africa's top job.
Five candidates are in the running to replace Dlamini-Zuma, a former South African minister and first female AU leader, who is thought to be seeking to replace her former husband, President Jacob Zuma, as South Africa's fourth democratically elected president since the end of apartheid in 1994.
So who are the candidates seeking to lead the AU over the next four years?
Amina Mohamed, Kenya's foreign minister
Widely seen as a front-runner for the job, Amina has the backing of almost all Anglophone countries.
[Rainer Jensen/ AP Photo]
Amina, who was UNEP's deputy executive director before she took her current post, is well-known as one of the most vocal critics of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Since her appointment as Kenya's top diplomat in 2013, Amina has continually criticised the Hague-based court on how it handles African cases, especially those involving sitting heads of state.
Her anti-ICC stance has won her many supporters. She successfully campaigned to get the ICC to drop its cases against Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, and his deputy, William Ruto.
Amina, 55, also served in the World Trade Organization and is seen by many as the candidate to obtain for Africa better trade agreements with the rest of the world.
Abdoulaye Bathily, Senegalese diplomat and academic
Bathily is seen by many analysts as a strong candidate for the AU chair seat. He served as a UN mediator in the Central African Republic and Burundi. Bathily has strong support from Morocco, which could complicate his bid.
Morocco, the only country in the continent that is not part of the AU, withdrew from the union in 1984 to protest against the admission of disputed Western Sahara territories.
Ghana would also prefer to see someone else other than Bathily as AU chair. Accra is campaigning for its former Deputy Foreign Minister Thomas Kwesi Quartey to get the deputy chair position. Quartey cannot obtain the position if Bathily becomes the chair because AU protocol forbids two candidates from the same region from holding the two most senior posts of the organisation at the same time.
Another headache for Bathily's bid is that Nigeria - the West African powerhouse and the continent's biggest economy and most populous country - is seeking the position of Peace and Security Commissioner, which Abuja will not get due to protocol if Bathily gets the AU chair post.
Algeria, Morocco's foe, would also rather have anyone at the AU's top table rather than Rabat's man. But Senegal can still count on the support of many fellow Francophone countries.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chadian foreign minister
Mahamat is another candidate showing a strong possibility of snatching the seat from the favourites, Amina and Bathily. The 56-year-old and father-of-five is not new to the workings of the AU after previously serving as the body's chair of the AU's Economic, Social and Cultural Council.
[Reuters]
Before taking up his current post, Mahamat was his country's prime minister. His boss, Chadian President Idriss Deby, who has ruled the country since coming to power in 1990, is the current chairperson of the AU.
As the AU chair, Deby, who is not on the good books of rights groups for alleged repression of critics, wields great power within the organisation.
The candidacy of two Francophones - Chadian and Senegalese - for the top seats will also not help Faki or Bathily as it could potentially lead to a split in Francophone countries' votes.
Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, a veteran politician from Botswana
A veteran politician from Botswana and a close ally of President Seretse Khama, Venson-Moitoi is also in the running to be the AU's chairperson, although it is predicted she has only a small chance of winning the seat.
Venson-Moitoi, 65, is the current foreign minister of the diamond-producing southern African country.
The former journalist-turned-politician has served in her country's cabinet since 2001.
Mba Mokuy, Served as a senior adviser to Equatorial Guinea's President
Mokuy's chance of becoming the chairperson is believed to be even slimmer than Venson-Moitoi's.
Before landing his current post, Mokuy, 51, served as a senior adviser to President Teodoro Obiang.
Mokuy's boss, President Obiang, has ruled the former Spanish colony for the past 37 years and is the continent's longest-ruling leader.
African Union Commission: Who will be the next chair?
 
Dr. Job said:
And the West Africans have it.....deservedly so as Kenya's Amina has nothing to show in her C.V. but political
patronage.
Click to expand...
Really? Dr. Job your political inclination should not drain you to these? Who has a better CV than Amina on that list! To add on much of her CV she has worked in Geneva, on world stage, more than any other candidate! Come on Doctor!!
 
Tujikumbushe

How Kenya's Amina lost to Chad's Mahamat in race for AUC chair
amina.jpg

Kenya's Foreign minister Amina Mohamed (right) during the 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2017. AFP PHOTO | ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER

In Summary

  • The Chadian foreign minister, who had said he would take a bullet for the sake of Africa, became the fourth AUC chairperson from francophone Africa out of five heads since 2002.
  • During earlier lobbying, Ms Mohamed had been endorsed by eastern African countries, but these pledges were not honoured at the ballot.
  • SADC had argued they still deserved one more term because the current occupant from South Africa had chosen not to run for a second term.


A last-minute change of the agenda and the refusal by Uganda, Djibouti and Burundi to vote for Kenya were Monday evening blamed for the defeat of Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed in the race to become chairperson of African Union Commission.

Details of the shock trouncing in Addis Ababa on Monday afternoon emerged as Kenyan diplomats came to terms with the loss after an extensive campaign of three months that cost the country about $3.5 million.

Ms Mohamed lost to Chad’s Moussa Faki Mahamat after seven rounds of voting.

The Chadian foreign minister, who had said he would take a bullet for the sake of Africa, became the fourth AUC chairperson from francophone Africa out of five heads since 2002.

Shortly after the vote, he said he did not have “a magic wand” to right the problems the AU is facing — such as shortage of funds and slow responses to crises — saying, instead, that he needed everyone on board to help bring the continent together.

“We will need to get our priorities right. It is a problem, really, because we have not been able to run our organisation properly. We need to come together more than before,” he said.

Mr Mahamat will be deputised by Thomas Kwesi Quartey of Ghana.

Ms Mohamed (55) and Mr Mahamat (56) enjoyed significant support from their regions.

The Chadian was declared the winner after garnering 38 votes in the seventh round.

Fifteen countries from the southern Africa bloc, SADC, abstained.

moussa.jpg


Disappointment

“We congratulate him on a race well won,” said Kenya's State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu soon after news of the election results spread from the hall in Addis Ababa.

“We pledge to work with him to defend the pan-African agenda of integration of Africa as well as democracy.”

Mr Esipisu continued that he did “not think there is anyone (in Kenya) who cannot be disappointed with this result” and thanked Ms Mohamed “for giving a strong showing”.

But the story of Kenya’s defeat, really, started sometime in the afternoon when Morocco, which had been lobbying to be accepted back in the AU family after three decades out, successfully argued for the debate about its readmission to be postponed.

That meant that the politics surrounding the race would not be mixed with Morocco’s application.

Morocco had quit the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, after it admitted the Sahrawi Arab Republic as a member.

This time, however, the North African country had come back with a clear agenda, promising financial goodies to member states who would accept to kick Sahrawi out of the AU while at the same time allowing Rabat back.

READ: As AU readmits Morocco, Sahrawi membership set to cause division

So important was the outcome of the Addis vote to Morocco that, on Sunday, the country’s foreign minister, Mr Salaheddine Mezoua, hosted a dinner in honour of Mr Mahamat, whom Rabat felt would dance to its tune if elected.

With Morocco’s readmission agenda out of the way, delegates had nothing much to do other than concentrate on lobbying and voting.

Kenya's loss

During earlier lobbying, Ms Mohamed had been endorsed by eastern African countries, but these pledges were not honoured at the ballot.

Uganda, Djibouti and Burundi voted for Kenya in round 1, helping Ms Mohamed get 16 votes against Mahamat’s 14.

The rest of the votes were split between Botswana and Equatorial Guinea.

In the second round, however, Chad scored 21, Kenya gained just one more vote, and the rest went to the three tailing candidates.

Mr Mahamat, a father of six, extended his lead in the third round of voting, getting 24 votes against Ms Mohamed’s 17. Kenya’s neighbours had decamped.

Kenya gained some momentum from round four, getting 26 against Chad’s 25 after the other candidates were compelled to drop out.

When the vote entered round 5, one country abstained, but Kenya won with 27 votes against Chad’s 26.

The vote entered round six and Chad gained again, collecting 28 votes against 25 for Kenya.

Ms Mohamed had, technically, been defeated, and Mr Mahamat went ahead to garner 38 votes when he ran alone in the seventh round.

The entire SADC region stayed away from the vote, perhaps in protest after their candidate from Botswana failed to make any progress in the preliminary rounds.

SADC had argued they still deserved one more term because the current occupant from South Africa, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, had chosen not to run for a second term.


How Kenya's Amina lost to Chad's Mahamat in race for AUC chair


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