With passion and purpose, astuteness and will-power, Amina Mohamed has unequivocally turned out to be a leader worth reckoning with. Her growth and career path has been that of resilience hard work and utter patience. Her candidacy at the World Trade Organization is proof enough to know that she has the necessary qualifications to lead the now beleaguered global body as she has identified that it needs reforms in its operations. Ambassador Amina Mohammed has already identified key problems that needs to be resolved including a faulted negotiating function with limited successes in the last 25 years, increased trade tensions, and compromised dispute settlement system.
Looking into her career at the World Trade Organization, Amina has served in different roles that have made her a first of firsts, including being the Chairperson of the General Council which is the highest decision-making organ of the WTO that is composed of envoys from member States. Other roles that she has served at the organization are the Dispute Settlement Body and Trade Policy Review Body. This demonstrates her detailed understanding of the operations of the global body. As President Uhuru Kenyatta pointed out ‘Minister Mohammed Ambassador Amina Mohammed, is a committed servant who has served in many diplomatic ranks and understands its processes’. Combined with a diplomatic political career as well as her law background Ambassador Amina is well placed to engage in the political ongoings in the global scene in order to use her brilliant negotiating skills in providing solutions.
Amb. Dr. Amina Mohamed’s career spans back to 1985 where she began as a legal officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Local Government. Following this, she has served as a legal Adviser to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she played a critical role in the drafting and negotiation of various international treaties that touched several countries across the globe. She later worked as a Legal Adviser to Kenya’s mission at the UN head office in Geneva Switzerland, working alongside officials from the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/ World Trade Organization. She has also served in other international capacities including the chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration which is another first of firsts, when Kenya was the only African body. She ultimately ensured that the organization creates room for more African countries
Her representative role as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative for Kenya diplomatic mission in Geneva between 2000 and 2006 also enabled her to be the Chairperson, Coordinator and Spokesperson for the African Group in the WTO’s Human Rights Commission. She has also sat in different capacities in the Kenyan government as both a Permanent Secretary and Cabinet Secretary.
With such a tremendous and honourable career, Amb. Dr. Amina Mohammed is the best placed candidate to head the World Trade Organization.
