On June 17, permanent representatives of the 193 United Nations member states in New York will cast their ballots for the country candidates vying for slots in the United Nations Security Council. Kenya, the African Union candidate for 2021-2022, will be on the ballot paper.
The vote takes place at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the world.
With its rich peace and security credentials and an established leadership in galvanising regional and global consensus, Kenya is well placed to add value to the Security Council’s efforts in addressing these challenges.
Successive Kenyan governments have, since independence, prioritised regional conflict resolution and peace building. Kenya evolved a peace doctrine that prioritises peacemaking and peace building as a core pillar of our domestic and foreign policy.
Within the Greater Horn of Africa, Kenya remains an anchor state for peace, security and conflict management, working through bilateral arrangements and regional frameworks, including the AU and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad). Our conflict mediation efforts date as far back as 1975 when Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta brokered a truce between three Angolan nationalist parties in an attempt to salvage the Alvor Agreement.
In the 1980s, President Daniel Moi was instrumental in the Mozambique peace process. In the 1990s we engaged with the Democratic Republic of Congo peace process.
Closer to home, Kenya invested diplomatic capacity and financial capital in the search for solutions to conflicts in the Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia. Kenya hosted and mediated the Sudan Peace Process that birthed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 2005. Kenya hosted and facilitated the Somalia peace process that established the Transitional Federal Institutions, inaugurated the Transitional Federal Parliament and led to the election of a President in 2004, in Nairobi. Kenya is also currently at the centre of the Igad-led South Sudan peace process.
At the AU level, Kenya has remained active in the search for peace since the OAU days, becoming a founder member of the AU Peace and Security Council.
At a more global scale, Kenya has taken part in peace missions across 40 countries, contributing over 55,000 personnel. We host the oldest and largest International Peace Support Training Centre in Africa. The Eastern Africa Standby Force, a sub-regional force of the African Standby Force, is also based in Kenya. Under Kenya’s leadership, the Eastern Africa and the Great Lakes regions countries adopted the Nairobi Declaration on the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and established the Regional Centre on Small Arms in Nairobi.
On terrorism and violent extremism, Kenya has been steadfast in building partnerships for strategic and operational preventive approaches.
On November 7, 2019, as the Cabinet secretary for Foreign Affairs, I had the honour and privilege to lead the Kenya team, in the launch of our global campaign in New York. We promised to bring experience, expertise and networks accumulated over time to the UNSC. We promise consistency, commitment and resolve to contribute to the mandate of the UNSC. To the UN membership, I urge — Support Africa: Vote Kenya!
Ms Monica K. Juma is the Cabinet secretary for Defence.
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