Kenya

I should like to congratulate the President on the singular honour of having been chosen for the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I would like to assure him of my delegation’s fullest support as he undertakes his momentous responsibility to unite Member States in pursuing the common goal of a more humane, secure, united and prosperous world. There was a time recently when that elusive goal finally appeared within reach, but multiple new challenges have coalesced to render the goal even more distant. It is therefore most encouraging that the world is turning to the United Nations to find a common, global path to resolving the most intractable difficulties facing humanity. There is a clear recognition emerging that together we can all rise, but that separately, we can only sink. There was a time when the powerful disdained this institution’s ability to be a unifying player. That is now changing, and in this regard, I would like to commend the President of the United States, who holds 09-52470 28 a very special place in the hearts of Africans, Kenyans in particular, for having on Wednesday so eloquently indicated the centrality of the United Nations in charting common solutions. In order to better equip the United Nations for meeting these challenges, we must continue to press for reform in the Organization. The Security Council, in particular, must be enlarged and made more democratic and representative of current day reality. Part of the enlargement must include permanent, veto- bearing seats for Africa. The world can no longer continue to marginalize a continent that is home to nearly one billion people. That is wrong in principle, but even more, it is wrong in practice. We cannot find sustainable solutions to our challenges when such a large part of humanity is given so little voice and role in that quest for peace. The world is now acutely aware that the quest for peace begins with ensuring the survival of the planet. I would, therefore, like to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for having convened the high-level meeting on climate change, which has put that issue squarely onto the world’s centre stage. There is no issue that so clearly unites the population of the entire world as climate change does. Regrettably, the far-sighted decision at the 2005 United Nations World Summit to explore the possibility of a more coherent institutional framework for international environmental governance has not borne any fruit. This is particularly unacceptable now when climate change is indeed the most pressing challenge of our times. We therefore call for the upgrading of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, so that it can become the central environmental institution handling the numerous conventions. We have noted with regret the emergence of multiple centres dealing with environmental issues. That dissipates their impact and sometimes even leads to contradictory actions. The United Nations Office in Nairobi should now be elevated to the same level United Nations Offices in Geneva and Vienna to enable it to provide comprehensive support to all Member States and organizations struggling to adjust to a new paradigm of a sustainable and dynamic green economy. Without that, the lives of billions will be imperilled. Already, as the Secretary-General pointed out on Wednesday, another 100 million people may fall below the poverty line this year owing to climate change setbacks. Markets may be bouncing back, but incomes and jobs are not. These developments do not augur well for the future. I regret to say that my own country is emblematic of the woes unleashed by years of rampant excesses in the global and local mismanagement of our environment. The melting of the famed ice caps of Mt. Kenya and nearby Mt. Kilimanjaro, the destruction of vast swathes of our once beautiful forests, the drying of fast-flowing rivers, the intensifying cycles of drought and floods, the spread of malaria to highland regions as temperatures rise — these are all consequences of human action within and outside our borders. And so the solution also must also entail action on both fronts. The greater challenge for us, I am afraid, is the external one. We, like the rest of Africa, produce only a tiny proportion of the emissions that are rapidly warming the planet and wreaking havoc with our capacity to produce adequate amounts of food and energy and husband sustainable water supplies. Our economies are in disarray. We are victims of the richer world’s acts and omissions, and therefore we need large amounts of funds in assistance and private-sector investment to reverse the course of events. The world community must agree on concrete actions in Copenhagen. But we in Kenya are not interested in playing the blame game or waiting for international action to materialize. We have already begun to make very tough political decisions to reverse the ravages. Our immediate goal is to fully restore our largest water tower, the famed Mau Forest complex, as well as Kenya’s other four water towers, and are embarking on a huge reforestation drive to plant seven billion trees, which will restore the carbon-taming sinks that once made us self-sufficient in food and energy. We are also undertaking a crash programme designed to rapidly shift energy production to green technologies that use assets in which we are naturally rich — wind and sun, but most important of all, geothermal energy, which could more than double our current energy production within the next four years. For all of these programmes, we are mobilizing local resources, but we will need significant assistance and investment to succeed in our goal of achieving 29 09-52470 self-sufficiency in a green way. The rich nations have recognized that their own self-interest is served in promoting such green commitments in developing countries, but the existing mechanisms through which they can support such programmes need to be refined and made more effective in quickly releasing resources. We therefore support British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposal for a $100 billion facility, and at the same time urge that the $20 billion pledged by the Group of Eight (G-8) for enhanced food production be speedily mobilized and disbursed. We need immediate assistance in feeding the 10 million Kenyans who are now living in hunger and will otherwise face starvation shortly. Just last week we declared this situation a national disaster requiring $500 million to rectify, of which $250 million will be mobilized from our own resources, while we urgently appeal to our development partners to furnish the other $250 million. Tens of thousands of livestock animals have died. This devastation is the result primarily of climate change. We have had droughts before, but they now recur much more frequently and with greater severity. One drought year is difficult enough, but the rains have now failed us for the past four consecutive seasons. I appeal to our well-wishers, who are many, to assist us in this dire emergency. To mitigate the suffering, we have carried out a massive mobilization — including of the military — in providing relief and in drilling boreholes and transporting water to areas in acute need. I am very proud to say that despite the terrible post-election violence and the subsequent multiple reverses that made reconciliation and reconstruction even more difficult, our people have shown an extraordinary maturity and resilience in rising to unprecedented challenges. We were able to overcome the bitterness over the election with an accord that we signed with the help of the African Union and the mediation of Kofi Annan, as well as with the support of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who personally visited Kenya at the height of the crisis — for which we are deeply grateful. Let me now turn to an area where peace does not prevail and which is a source of immense concern to the entire international community — and that is Somalia. As its immediate neighbour and with a large population of Kenyan Somalis, we have done more than any other country to assist Somalia in overcoming its divisions and conflicts. No one is more eager than we are to help defeat the forces of extremism in Somalia, which have so much sway because of the help of external elements. The continuing inflow of refugees, small arms and light weapons from Somalia is the major source of insecurity in our country. The latest setback resulting from that insecurity is disruption through piracy against international trade in one of the busiest sea routes in the world. Despite the risks incurred by doing so, Kenya has offered facilities for the detention and prosecution of suspected pirates, as part of our international obligation to promote peace. We have also offered to host a United Nations- organized conference in Kenya on how to coordinate and more effectively deal with the scourge of piracy. In return, we ask the international community to recognize our many sacrifices and assist us in dealing with our major refugee and security burdens. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union have recommended to the United Nations Security Council that it impose a no- fly zone and a blockade of airports and seaports held by insurgents so as to prevent the influx of arms. Kenya fully supports their position. It is now incumbent upon the United Nations Security Council to take decisive action to forestall further anarchy in Somalia. To succeed in the quest for peace in Somalia, we must recognize that the present focus primarily on the use of force has not led to any curbing of extremism. Indeed, the security and humanitarian crises are worse than ever. We must therefore take a more comprehensive approach in tackling the extremists — an approach that includes encouraging the Transitional Federal Government to much more aggressively pursue its commitment to a more inclusive political process, by bringing into the Government all forces that eschew violence. Such outreach to all moderates can succeed only with much greater international support. It is regrettable that many pledges made at the Brussels donors conference have yet to be honoured. I call upon all those who have not honoured their pledges to do so immediately. Turning back to the global economic crisis, it is now recognized that one of its principal causes is the weakness of the international financial system. We should strengthen and promote effective multilateralism with the United Nations at the centre. We need to reform 09-52470 30 the international financial governance institutions, so that they can prevent crises and develop more effective and equitable responses to them. The ideals and principles of the United Nations are, today more than ever, the surest hope for a more prosperous and equitable world. Multilateralism in this globalized age is the only sure way to ensure that peace, development and unity prevail at a time when the world is riven with so many divisions. We need a genuine partnership among all nations and peoples, so that everyone feels that he or she is a critical stakeholder in national and international decision- making. Finally, within democratic nations, each person’s vote is equal to those of all others, regardless of their power or wealth. That is the principle that must finally be applied to the workings of the entire international system.