On the morning of Monday, December 9, new details emerged claiming that current Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed campaigns to capture the African Union Commission chairmanship may have set back the country a whooping Ksh437 million.
In a report published by the Business Daily, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary, Macharia Kamau, told Parliament that the Office of the Deputy President had spent Ksh52 million for the campaign exceeding the ministry's budget for the activity.
Despite the concerted efforts, the CS lost the race to Chad's Foreign Affairs minister, Moussa Faki Mahamat during the January 2017 vote.
According to a February 1, 2017 report by The Standard, various world leaders, wondered how the country failed to convince some of its closest allies as Uganda and Tanzania never voted for her.
"South Sudan voted for Kenya but it is surprising that Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Tanzania did not vote for Kenya during the stages. We think it has to do with how Kenya relates with its neighbours. Burundi said Kenya interferes with her internal affairs by condemning the conflict there
“Uganda is also not happy with the way Kenya wants everything. I saw the Ugandan President in an animated discussion with his Tanzanian counterpart during the sixth round. In the seventh round, Tanzania didn't vote for Kenya," stated South Sudan's Ambassador to Ethiopia, James Morgan, at the time.
The publication further detailed that the gender card disadvantaged Amina considering that the outgoing chairperson had been a woman.
That was despite the fact that Muhamat was an AU insider and that his father was the immediate former AU chairman.
"The new chairman has worked for AU on peace and security issues and also participated in the peace negotiations in South Sudan. He also played a role in developing AU's maritime strategy and played a key role in Chad's fight against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. This gave him an upper hand,” pointed AU affairs analyst from Cameroon Elias Ntungwe Ngalame.
In her defence, Amina, who served as the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary at the time, explained that her loss only proved that the continent was divided and challenged the winner to bridge that gap.
“That 16 countries abstained is a clear manifestation of that division. So the Chadian candidate has a big job to unify the continent. I think we are now divided more than we ever were," she noted.
Amina scored 17 votes against the Chadian minister who scooped 24. That was after she emerged the winner in the first round with 16 against 14.
