Kenya is banking on repeated endorsements by the African Union and Nairobi's own networks to clinch a seat at the UN Security Council when a vote comes up this evening.
In Africa, Kenya will be competing against Djibouti, which it beat three times at the African Union endorsement vote last year, but which stuck to the race, challenging the validity of the elections.
It was the third time the mission was clarifying the issue, after Djibouti contested the decision at the AU, saying the committee of permanent representatives who voted in Kenya had no authority to transmit the decision, unless endorsed by the AU Executive Council (a group of foreign ministers from AU member states).
In October last year, two months after Djibouti challenged Kenya's victory, Namira Negm, AU's Legal Counsel, wrote to AU members advising that the vote was conducted by African permanent representatives to the AU, on the authority of the Executive Council and hence did not require any further endorsements from the foreign ministers.
Kenya could also enjoy an edge over Djibouti, given that the African Union might want to prevent any possible falling-out from its decisions, argued Dr Wilfred Nasong'o Muliro, an international relations lecturer at Technical University of Kenya.
