Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril is the current Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage, and Culture. In addition, she is also a Kenyan attorney and a diplomat. She assumed the office as the new cabinet secretary for sports in March 2019 taking over from Rashid Echesa. Prior to her appointment as the cabinet secretary for sport, she had served a full term as Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs from May 2013 to February 2018 under the Jubilee government headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta. After that, she was transferred to the Ministry of Education which is now headed by George Magoha.
Furthermore, she has also served as chairwoman for several organizations including the International Organization for Migration, and the World Trade Organization’s General Council. In addition, Amina has also served as an Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
From 2000 to 2006, she served as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Kenya diplomatic mission in Geneva. Prior to her being appointed as the chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration, she served as an acting President of the Conference on Disarmamet in 2002.
Amina Mohamed Age and Place of Birth
She was born on 5th October 1961 and she is 60 years old as of 2021. She was born and raised in Amalemba Kakamega to a Somali family.
Amina Mohamed Education
Mohamed attended school at Township Primary in Kakamega. After that, she joined Butere Girls and later Highland Academy. After graduating, she was lucky to receive a scholarship and moved to Ukraine and attended the University of Kiev. At the University of Kiev she studied international law and graduated with a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Laws. Amina then went ahead and moved to the United Kingdom where she studied International Relations attaining a postgraduate diploma at Oxford University.
Amina Mohamed Family and Husband
Mohamed’s family belongs to the Dhulbahante Hartu Darod clans. She has eight siblings where she is the eighth born in a family of nine children. She was married to the late Khalid Ahmed, Khalid died on 29th July 2021 after a brief illness and he was buried at the family’s house in Lukenya. Khalid was a well-known businessman and contributed a lot to Amina’s successful journey. The two tied the knot in 2002 and they were blessed with two children, their daughter Firyal Nur Al Hossain Nur is a fashion designer who owns a clothing line. The two also fostered four children who are orphans.
Amina Mohamed Wealth and Net Worth
Mohamed has not yet disclosed her actual net worth. However, her net worth is from her hard-earned money. Her net worth is estimated to be over Ksh 60 million.
Career Journey
Legal Career
After graduating from law school she was hired as a legal officer in the Ministry of Local Government in 1985 at the age of 24 years. After that, she moved to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she worked as a Legal advisor between 1986 and 1990. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he managed to negotiate and draft several bilateral and international treaties. Some of these bilaterals included the Bilateral Air Service Agreements with the United Arab Emirates( UAE) Oman, Iran, and the United Kingdom.
In 1990 she started serving as a Legal Advisor to Kenya’s mission at the UN head office in Geneva, Switzerland, a position she held until 1993. After that, she took a leave in order to further her education in the United Kingdom. In 1997, Amina started working as a Legal Advisor to the Kenyan delegation at the UN Security Council.
Working With United Nations (UN)
Amina was appointed as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Kenyan diplomatic mission in Geneva, between 2000 to 2006. Within this time she became the chairwoman, coordinator, and spokesperson for the African Group in the WTO’s Human Rights Commission. In addition, she was also appointed as acting president of the Conference on Disarmament in 2002.
After that, she was appointed as the new Chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration. Being appointed in that position she became the first woman to chair the organization. Before accepting the role she requested the organization to open doors for other African countries because at the time Kenya was the only African country in that organization.
Three years later she was appointed as the chairperson for WTO’s General Council in 2005, becoming the first woman to chair the council. Furthermore, Amina chaired the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs Committee. Amina has also served as the Director for both Europe and Commonwealth Countries, between 2006 and 2007.
Serving as the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice
Being a professional lawyer she was hired as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion, and Constitution Affair of Kenya. She took full responsibilities in that office in 2008 and served until 2011. In that capacity, she spearheaded the redrafting of the 2010 Constitution. Amina was then named as the Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme in 2011 July.
Serving as Cabinet Secretary
Foreign Affairs
Having a clean record and being well versed with foreign affairs matters, she was appointed as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs. She was appointed in that position on 23rd April 2013 to serve under the Jubilee government headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta. After the appointment, she was sworn in on 20th May 2013, in a swearing-in ceremony that took place at Sagana State Lodge. While still serving as cabinet secretary she was again selected by President Uhuru Kenyatta to be the chair of the African Union Commission ( AUC). However, she lost the position to the Foreign Affair of Chad, despite having influence from the Kenyan Government.
Education Sector
After serving a full term as the cabinet secretary for Foreign Affairs, on 26th January 2018, she was appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary for Education by President Uhuru Kenyatta during his second tenure in the government. She took over from Dr.Fred Mating’i who at that time had changed the Ministry to a noticeable point. When taking over she promised to continue with the good work Matiang’i had started of transforming the education sector.
Just like she had promised while she was taking over she managed to achieve a 93% transition of pupils who had finished primary level and joined Secondary school. This number was the highest in Kenyan history at that time. She also went ahead and made reforms in the Higher Education Board which assist the student with tuition fee and they repay after getting jobs. Amina also managed to archive 100% vocational training enrollment. However, she encountered some challenges when she lowered entry grade to teacher training to a D. Her decision was challenged in court and it was eventually overturned by the Kenyan High Court.
Sports Heritage and Culture
Amina was transferred to the Sports Ministry in March 2019, taking over from Rashid Echesa. Taking the new docket she left the education docket to George Magoha who is currently heading the ministry. Compared to her predecessor, Amina has managed to bring more resources to the ministry.
Amina was selected for the position of Director-General of the WTO by the government of Kenya on 7th, July 2020. She managed to proceed to the second round of nomination, however, WTO’s General Council nominated two finalists by October 2020. The nominated candidates included Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Yoo Myung hee.