With close to three decades of experience as a diplomat under her belt, it is difficult to hear the name Amina Mohamed and not have “Foreign Affairs” spring automatically to mind. Having most recently served as Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary between April 2013 and January 2018, Ambassador Amina Mohamed and Kenya’s foreign relations docket have been closely intertwined over the years. She had a fresh opportunity to change lanes in 2018, to embark on a new challenge, having just been re-deployed to the Ministry of Education. In March 2019, she was redesignated to the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage.

Mohamed rose through the ranks from her appointment as a Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986 after graduating with a degree in Comparative Law and a Master’s in International Law from the University of Kiev. The distinguished diplomat, who is fluent in Russian, went on to become a Legal Adviser in the Kenyan Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as the Kenyan mission to the UN Security Council in New York.
Given her intimate knowledge of how these missions operate, it came as no surprise when she was appointed Permanent Representative to the United Nations by President Moi, an appointment she held for six years beginning in 2000. During that time, Mohamed made history by becoming the first woman and African to chair the International Organisation for Migration in 2002.

In 2005 she became the first woman to chair the World Trade Organisation’s General Council. Under the administration of President Mwai Kibaki, she served as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs for three years from 2008. During her tenure as PS Justice, Mohamed was actively involved in the process that led to the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010, as part of the recovery efforts following the 2008 post-election violence. Between 2010 and 2011 she played the additional role of President of the UN Conference on Transnational Crime while based in Vienna. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon then appointed her to the role of United Nations Environment Programme Assistant Secretary General in 2011, making her the most senior Kenyan in the UN organisation chart prior to Mukhisa Kituyi’s assumption of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General’s office.

Mohamed’s able representation of Kenya in these roles, coupled with the honour she brought to the country through her appointments to various international organizations, earned her the Chief of the Burning Spear (CBS) award. She proved herself suitable and again made history when she successfully led the African Union charge to amend the International Criminal Court’s Rules of Procedure to allow for the exemption of sitting Heads of State from continuous physical presence at trial.

In 2013, prior to taking up the job of Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Mohamed sought to fill the position of World Trade Organization Director General; had she succeeded she would have been not only the first woman, but the first African to do so. Earlier in her career, Mohamed was involved in the drafting and negotiation of the monumental
African Convention on the Rights of the Child. And most recently, in 2017, after a spirited campaign to become Africa’s first female chairperson of the African Union Commission, Amina lost to her counterpart from Chad, Moussa Mahamat, in a hotly contested race. Fortunate to have a mother who ensured her daughter stayed in school and studied hard as opposed to being married off at a young age – as was traditionally practiced by most nomadic communities including the Somali from whence she hails – Mohamed is now herself a married mother of two.

Her decision to not only add to her brood by adopting four children but also to stay put in Kenya with her mother when her father was taken ill in the late 1980s, make it abundantly evident that family is important to her. The little girl who once had to have her school uniform nipped and tucked because none could be found in so small a size, now stands tall as probably the most accomplished individual, let alone woman, in Kenyan diplomatic circles.