Kenya has fronted Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed for the position of the African Union (AU) chairperson, as revealed by President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday during the Youth Summit in Nairobi.

53-year-old Amina Mohammed, who is touted by majority of Kenyans as one of the best performing cabinet secretaries in the Jubilee government will be facing off three other candidates for the top AU job.

The other three contestants who are in the race to succeed the current Chair, South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has been in the docket since 2012, are former Ugandan vice president Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, the Equatorial Guinea Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy and his Botswanian counterpart Pelonomi Venson Moitoi.

The nomination process for the next AU Chairperson started in July this year but failed after the candidates failed to get the required two-thirds of the votes.

Amina Mohammed for UN Secretary-General?

Last month, word had it that  Kenya has been lobbying for CS Amina Mohammed to become the next UN Secretary-General as UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon from South Korea leaves office in December 2016.

Amina has previously served as chairwoman of the International Organisation for Migration and the World Trade Organization’s General Council. She served as Assistant UN Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. She was appointed to the Kenyan Cabinet in May 2013.