Kenyan appointed to UN post

Justice and Constitutional Affairs Permanent Secretary Amina Mohamed is the new Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) May 13, 2011. FILE

Posted  Saturday, May 14 2011 at 13:44

Justice and Constitutional Affairs Permanent Secretary Amina Mohamed is the new Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki Moon appointed Ms Mohamed to the post on Friday evening. She will also be an assistant secretary general of the UN.
Ms Mohamed will succeed Angela Cropper of Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the UN’s communiqué, Ms Mohamed will be responsible for advancing UNEP’s medium term reform strategy.

“Ms Mohamed brings a wealth of experience to this position at the national and international level as a distinguished diplomat, lawyer, manager and policymaker working across the sustainable development and environment policy agendas,” said Mr Ban.

From 2000 to 2006, Ms Mohamed was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN in Geneva. She was the first woman to chair the General Council of the World Trade Organization, and the first African and first woman to be elected Chair of the Council for the International Organization for Migration.

She becomes one of the most senior Kenyans in the UN system.

Ms Mohamed graduated with a LLM in International Law from Kiev State University, and has also undertaken post graduate studies at University of Oxford and the Kenya School of Law.