President Uhuru Kenyatta Appeals to the UN General Assembly Leaders to Vote for Kenya at the UN Security Council

NEW YORK, USA, President Uhuru Kenyatta has appealed to the United Nations General Assembly to vote for Kenya for the Non- Permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council during elections to be held in June next year.

“When the world had given up on our region, we opened our doors to millions of people fleeing insecurity. To this day, we remain host hundreds of thousands of refugees. Our investment in The Sudan negotiations led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. And we continue to support stabilization efforts in both Sudan and South Sudan. When the world had turned away from Somalia, we engaged and invested in the Eldoret and Mbagathi peace processes that led to the formation and hosting of the Transitional National Government in Kenya that ultimately led to formation of Transitional Federal Government in Somalia. We have over the years contributed more than 40,000 peacekeepers and engaged in post conflict reconstruction and development efforts across the world”.

In his appeal the global leaders the President said Kenya is well placed to contribute constructively in the security council.

“We, therefore, hope that our experience, our competencies and unrelenting search for peace and prosperity in our neighbourhood, on our continent and the wider world, will persuade the entire UN Membership to support the African Union candidate. I request for the vote of each and every member of our United Nations family”.

Kenya officially launched its campaign bid for the seat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as a symbol that the seat belongs to Africa as a continent.

On the theme of this years’ session: “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action, and inclusion”, the President reminded the global leaders of their solemn duty for the future generation. 

“we have a solemn duty to ensure the world is a better place for future generations. We must bequeath our children a politically stable, environmentally healthy and socially cohesive world. We, the leaders gathered in this great hall, are and must be the bridge to that future world”. Our actions today will determine whether that future will be bleak: with depleted resources, with higher poverty levels, and fragmented, warring nations. Or on the other hand our actions today will bestow upon our children better living standards, prosperous, vibrant and cohesive societies, endowed with sustainably managed resources”.

The President pointed out a number of actions that Kenya is doing to contribute to a desired future.

 “We must support our populations, particularly the youth, to be productively engaged, to shape the future and not to fall victim to it.  In this regard, we must accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. Critical to this is the generation of big disaggregated data to help us plan, target interventions, and to monitor implementation”.

He said as a country, the government has heavily invested in education and health, in an effort to achieve social inclusion, develop knowledge and competencies, and secure the future by not leaving anyone behind.

“We have achieved 100 percent transition from primary to secondary school, and free secondary school education for all day scholars” the President remarked.

To enhance equal opportunity, President Uhuru said Kenya has provided re-entry for girls who drop out of school after falling pregnant.  Provision of free sanitary towels to all school-going girls. Kenya’s children now enjoy an average of 10.7 years of schooling, the highest in the region.

On health the President said we are on the path to achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2022 by providing programme that prioritizes primary health care interventions.

He told the leaders gathering that peace and security remains at the core of Kenya’s Foreign Policy and noted that combined efforts to advance peace and security in the region continue to bear fruits.  He congratulated the Sudan for coming to a path of sustainable peace, which they negotiated amongst themselves with the help of the African Union and commended the role of Women in the peace process. 

“I warmly commend the role of the Women of The Sudan for driving and facilitating this most satisfactory and lessons laden outcome, that makes Africa proud”. On South Sudan, the President said he was encouraged by the progress made that has led to improved security situation and expressed his conviction that the pending issues will be resolved in a consultative and collaborative manner. 

Speaking to the leaders and reiterating his sentiments to the Kenya media at a briefing, he said his government will continue to reach out to the Federal Republic of Somalia in an effort to find an amicable and sustainable solution to the maritime boundary dispute between Kenya and Somalia. He said the Boundary should not preoccupy the two countries in disregard for more important issues such as peace, security and prosperity of the two countries.

“We remain hopeful that the Federal Government of Somalia will be amenable and committed to the search for a mutually acceptable and sustainable solution to this dispute”. The President said.