Amina Mohamed: A Distinguished Kenyan Diplomat and Cabinet Secretary

May 30, 2025 0

Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril (Somali: Aamina Maxamed Jibriil; Arabic: أمينة محمد جبريل), born on 5 October 1961, is a prominent former Kenyan cabinet secretary, lawyer, and diplomat of Somali descent.

She is the immediate former Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture in Kenya. Previously, she held significant positions such as chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration and the World Trade Organization's General Council, as well as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. From May 2013 to February 2018, she served as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Kenya, after which President Uhuru Kenyatta moved her to the Education docket. In March 2019, she was appointed to the Sports Ministry, succeeding Rashid Echesa.

Let's delve into the life and career of this influential figure.

Early Life and Education

Mohamed was born on 5 October 1961 in Kakamega County, Kenya, into an ethnic Somali family. She is the eighth of nine siblings. Her family belongs to the Dhulbahante clan and hails from the Sool region in Somalia. Mohamed spent her childhood in a modest household in Amalemba, Kakamega, where she enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes stories and other detective fiction.

For her elementary studies, Mohamed attended the Township Primary School in Kakamega and later Butere Girls and Highlands Academy. Her mother strongly emphasized the importance of education, regularly visiting her classes to monitor her performance.

Upon graduation, Mohamed received a scholarship to study at the University of Kyiv in Ukraine. She completed the institution's courses, earning a Master of Laws (LLM) in international law. Mohamed later obtained a Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in international relations from the University of Oxford.

Early Career

In 2002, Amina married Khalid Ahmed, a fellow Somali to whom she credits a lot of her success.

Mohamed began her career in 1985 as a legal officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Local Government. Her duties included assessing World Bank projects and tabling municipal by-laws. Between 1986 and 1990, Mohamed served as a Legal Advisor in Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she drafted and negotiated various bilateral and international treaties. Among these were Bilateral Air Services Agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iran and the United Kingdom, as well as the African Convention on the Rights of the Child.

From 1990 to 1993, Mohamed served as a Legal Advisor to Kenya's mission at the UN head office in Geneva, Switzerland. There, she worked alongside officials from the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization. She took a brief sabbatical to pursue higher studies in the UK, before returning to diplomatic service in Geneva.

Diplomatic Career

Between 2000 and 2006, Mohamed worked as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Kenya diplomatic mission in Geneva. She was also the chairperson, coordinator and spokesperson for the African Group in the WTO's Human Rights Commission.

In 2002, Mohamed served as president of the Conference on Disarmament and was appointed the first female chairperson of the International Organization for Migration. At the time, Kenya was the only African country included in the organization. She chaired the Trade Policy Review Body in 2003 and served as the chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body in 2004.

In 2005, Mohamed became the first woman to chair the WTO's General Council. She was also a Member of the Executive Boards and Committees of the WIPO, ILO, WHO, UNCTAD, UNHCR, and UNAIDS from 2001 to 2005.

Between 2006 and 2007, Mohamed served as Director for both Europe and Commonwealth Countries as well as Diaspora matters for Kenya. She was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs of Kenya from 2008 to 2011. In that role, in 2010 she supervised the redrafting of the Constitution of Kenya.

During the 2010-2011 calendar year, Mohamed served as the president of the United Nations Conference on Transnational Crime in Vienna.

Cabinet Secretary Roles

On 23 April 2013, Mohamed was appointed Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, one of 18 Cabinet Secretary nominees to the new Uhuru Kenyatta administration. According to the Business Daily Africa publication, "Kenya’s vigorous lobbying and aggressive pan-Africanism agenda gained momentum with the collapse of International and Criminal Court (ICC) cases against Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto partly because attributed to Ms Mohamed’s skillful diplomatic maneuvers." The same publication reported that Mohamed by late 2016 had "come under heavy criticism for remaining tight-lipped over the suffering of Kenyan detainees in Ethiopia.” Also, in December 2016 she stated that Kenya supported “Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic's quest for self-rule and its membership of the African Union,” which proved controversial with Morocco and other Arab states.

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On 26 January 2018, President Kenyatta appointed Amina Mohammed to be the Education Cabinet Secretary for his second term. She pledged to continue with the reforms initiated by her predecessor Dr.

At the Education Ministry, Amina Mohammed was lauded for the administration of the 2018 national examinations. She also achieved a 93% transition of pupils finishing primary school to join high school - the highest in Kenyan history at the time. She also devised and implemented a Special Needs Education policy and restructured the Higher Education Loans Board, which provides student loans in Kenya. Her reforms in the Vocational Training Centres increased enrollment in vocational training by 100%. She also completed and piloted the Competency-Based Curriculum.

However, her decision to delay the implementation of the Curriculum in 2019 proved controversial and she reversed herself on it after a dress-down from President Uhuru Kenyatta. Her decision to lower the entry grade to teacher training colleges to a D was also overturned by the Kenyan High Court.

In March 2019, President Kenyatta appointed Amina Mohamed to be the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture, replacing the fired Rashid Echesa.

On 7 July 2020, Mohamed was nominated by Kenya for the position of WTO Director-General. She proceeded to the second round of the selection process and was long seen as a frontrunner in diplomatic circles.

African Union Commission Candidacy

In 2017, Mohamed was nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta to serve as chair of the African Union Commission (AUC). Despite lobbying for the role from the Kenyan government, Mohamed lost the position to Moussa Faki, the foreign affairs minister of Chad. Uganda afterwards denied reports in February that it had failed to support Mohamed in her bid for AUC chair, stating that "Uganda wishes to state categorically that our support to the candidature of Amina before and during elections was unequivocal... Uganda wishes to reassure the government and the people of Kenya, and Amina in particular, that we remain a reliable ally and partner given our warm and close relations and our commitment to the EAC integration".

In late April 2017, she had a series of meetings with US officials such as Senator Bob Corker, Tom Shannon, and Constance Hamilton, where she urged the US to continue to interact with Kenya for the benefit of both nations. On 9 May 2017, she was honored by the Japanese government at the Imperial Palace for "promoting economic relations between Nairobi and Tokyo". She was the only African personally invested at the event with the award, the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. At the time, CNBC wrote that Mohamed was "known as an excellent strategist with proven negotiation and managerial skills".

Memorability Metrics

Amina Mohamed's biography is available in 15 different languages on Wikipedia. Among politicians, Amina Mohamed ranks 18,979 out of 19,576.

Table: Amina Mohamed's Ranking Among Politicians

Rank	Politician	HPI
18,973	Todd Akin	40.90
18,974	Ana Bjelica	40.88
18,975	Miguel Cardona	40.87
18,976	Ibrahim Baylan	40.86
18,977	Judith Collins	40.83
18,978	James Lankford	40.81
18,979	Amina Mohamed	40.81
18,980	Brian Schatz	40.81
18,981	Caroline Lucas	40.80
18,982	Lena Hallengren	40.79
18,983	Oh Ha-na	40.79
18,984	John H. Cox	40.78
18,985	Lauren Boebert	40.78

Among people born in 1961, Amina Mohamed ranks 836. Among people born in Kenya, Amina Mohamed ranks 97 out of 150.