More details have continued to emerge on what transpired before and during the African Union Commission (AUC) elections held on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed lost to Chad's Mousa Faki Mahamat.
It has now been revealed that President Uhuru Kenyatta was so determined to see Ms Mohamed clinch the AU Commission post that on the eve of the elections, he held private meetings with 10 different Heads of State.
Kenyatta was trying to lobby votes for the CS at the last minute after it emerged that some of the countries like Uganda and Djibouti were pulling away from supporting Kenya's candidate.
Among the heads of state, Uhuru met in the last-minute lobbying included Presidents Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Patrice Trovoada, Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe.
The President is said to have persuaded the countries to vote for Amina terming her as the best candidate.
Despite the determined effort by Kenyatta, Ambassador Amina was defeated by the Chad Foreign Affairs Minister, Mahamat, who garnered 38 votes in the seventh round. Mr Mahamat succeeded South African politician Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
On Friday, President Kenyatta while chairing the African Peer Review Mechanism meeting also took the opportunity to campaign Ms Mohamed.
"The EAC has never had the opportunity to lead the AUC and I think this should work strongly in favour of Amina," Uhuru stated.
It would later emerge that some of the countries that had pledged support and even backed Amina in the first rounds of the voting later withdrew their support in favour of her opponent.
Among the countries said to have abandoned the Kenyan candidate at the last minute were Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Other candidates who were contesting included: Equatorial Guinea's Agapito Mba Mokuy, Botswana's Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi and Senegal's Foreign Affairs Minister Bathily Abdoulaye.
After the loss, Kenyatta congratulated Chad's Foreign Affairs Minister for winning the seat and pledged that Kenya would work with him in overseeing reforms in the African Union.
