Disclosure from American and British diplomatic sources within and without the country reveal that the west was openly rooting for the election of someone other than Amina Mohamed to the AU Commission top job. It is no secret that the west holds sway in numerous African countries and advising them to reject Amina was not difficult. All this was happening while Uhuru’s government was using huge sums of money to campaign for the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary.
According to sources close to the British Foreign Service, Amina Mohamed possessed the highest qualifications for the job, but represented the worst in Africa due to her direct and indirect participation in corruption and lack of a clear vision for the AU. The claim is that Amina has been and is part of mega deals involving her family that were awarded irregularly. So far, Kenyans have not known about these deals. The Americans were also wary of Amina’s support for “impunity,” arguing that she was used to muzzle voices calling for a fair examination of the circumstances surrounding the atrocities that took place in the post-election violence that broke out in early 2008. “She does not possess an independent streak that is needed to lead a giant yet rather dormant organization such as the AU,” the source said.
Regional interests also played a role in her loss with Central Africa, North Africa, and Southern Africa rubbishing Kenya’s efforts and voting for candidates from their regions in the early ballots. The vote dragged on until the seventh ballot where Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad won with 38 votes.
Bad Neighbours?
In a case of practical bad neighbourliness, Tanzania and Uganda dumped Amina in the last ballot. While Tanzania has not been particularly close to Kenya with frequent expression of displeasure over the commonplace corruption in Kenya, Museveni’s Uganda is as crooked as Kenya with runaway police brutality, countless extrajudicial slayings, rampant corruption, and total disregard for the rule of law. The latest shameful incident of government harassment and murder of its citizens took place in Kasese where a small misunderstanding between a traditional kingdom and police led to the killing of more than 100 people whose bodies were strewn on the streets. How then did such a bird of Kenya’s feather jilt Amina? It turns out even the crooked do not love their crooked colleagues.
Victory for Africa
While Chad is not a particularly democratic success story such as Ghana or Tanzania, Amina’s loss sends a strong message to the world that a long list of accomplishments can be rubbished if outstanding blemishes are noticed. In a digital era where information dissemination no longer requires the physical movement of journalists, the rest of Africa knows what Kenya is going through- an unforgiving drought that has unleashed untold suffering on millions of Kenyans and a government that is oblivious to this suffering, an unprecedented looting spree that has seen officers of the government become billionaires after living in poverty for long stretches of their lives, and stinking stench in nearly every level of government bureaucracy. Progressive African states such as Ghana, Nigeria, the Gambia, Senegal, and Djibouti are tired of the rot that has maimed a continent and retarded its people. These are some of the states that led a spirited insurgency that eventually led to Amina’s loss. To them, an Amina loss is a repudiation of graft, incompetence, and a warning to detractors of the Pan-Africanist dream that Kwame Nkrumah helped initiate, Tom Mboya helped advance, and Nelson Mandela helped refine. In a way, Amina’s loss was a boost to Pan-Africanism.
Pan-Africanism
For the partisan hacks, the corrupt cartels, the false prophets of democracy, and the phoney heroes ringing hollow in their cry for fairness, Amina’s loss might be viewed as unfair. But here is what Pan-Africanism stands for that Amina does not stand for:
-The pursuit of justice for the children who died in a church in Kiambaa during the post-election violence. Those lives did not matter to Amina as she helped scuttle ICC attempts to uncover the truth. Pan-Africanism cannot prosper with the blood of children being shed without redress
-The active opposition to despots and strongmen-Amina has never opposed Museveni’s tactics. She never said anything as ECOWAS prudently pushed out a dictator and installed a new democratically elected president.
-Pan-Africanism stands for equal distribution of resources, economic and social justice, and seeking respect for Africa and Africans. Amina is part of a largely corrupt establishment. She witnessed and encouraged the spending of huge sums of money to campaign for her in a bid that should have been accomplished with mere phone calls. The winner, Moussa Mahamat, did not ask his government to spend colossal sums of money to drum up support for him. God was watching……He is always watching.
It wouldn’t have hurt to have Amina as AU Commission chair. Maybe she would have reformed on the job. But Africa is not seeking one who will get reformed by the job. The continent seeks one who will help advance the reforms that will advance Pan-Africanism. We sincerely hope Moussa Faki Mahamat will. Long live Pan-Africanism.
© CAP Research Team