Kenya, 1993

May I, at the outset, take

this opportunity to extend our most sincere condolences and

deepest sympathy to the delegation, Government and people

of India following the earthquake disaster, which has left

thousands of people dead and many villages destroyed. We

share the grief of the people of India at this sorrowful and

tragic time.

I should like to join those representatives who have

already congratulated Mr. Insanally of Guyana on his

unanimous election as President of the General Assembly of

the United Nations at its forty-eighth session. His election

to this high office is a demonstration of the confidence that

the Member States have in him and of their respect for his

country, Guyana. We are confident that, under his wise

guidance, our deliberations in this session will achieve the

desired results.

I also wish to pay tribute to Mr. Insanally’s

predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, for steering the

forty-seventh session to a successful conclusion.

We commend the Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, too for the skilful and competent

manner in which he is directing the Organization.

Allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate the

Members that were admitted to the Organization during the

past year. Their admission strengthens the ideal of the

universality of the United Nations. We assure them of our

willingness to work closely with them in our common efforts

to create a better world.

The end of the cold war created an unprecedented

opportunity to increase international cooperation with a view

to achieving international peace and security and promoting

the socio-economic progress envisaged in the United Nations

Charter. However, the new challenges emerging on the

global scene demand that the international community

summon up the will and imagination to overcome them.

The disappearance of the great ideological rivalry

between East and West has resulted in a sense of soberness

and improvement in relations between States. It has also led

to a reduction in tensions and to significant progress in the

area of disarmament, thereby creating opportunities for the

conversion of massive resources to peaceful uses.

Peace and security, however, is not merely the absence

of war or the threat of war; it is the absence of conditions

that threaten the enjoyment of life and social harmony. The

United Nations now has an opportunity to put fully into

effect the system of security envisaged in its Charter. This

system is based on the principles of the peaceful settlement

of disputes and collective action in pursuit of international

peace and the maintenance of global security. Equally

important, the world has an opportunity to build pillars of

peace by tackling sources of instability in the economic,

social, humanitarian and ecological fields.

The brutal war in Bosnia, the destruction of Somalia

and the protracted civil wars in Angola and elsewhere

confirm the futility of the use of force as a means of solving

disputes.

The ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

(START I) by the Governments of the United States of

America and the Russian Federation and their signing of the

START II Agreements in January 1993 are significant

developments in disarmament. The primary responsibility

for nuclear disarmament rests with those States that possess

the nuclear arsenals. Kenya, however, strongly believes that

the international community as a whole must be involved

and should contribute to measures intended to achieve

nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation of all

weapons of mass destruction.

Forty-eighth session - 5 October l993 21

Contrary to expectations, the collapse of the bipolar

world order has not given way to a new order of peace and

democracy and improved socio-economic situations. The

emerging order has raised new challenges and new

approaches to solutions. As Members of the United Nations

family, we need to redouble our efforts with vision and

determination to balance both short- and long-term interests

as we struggle to shape the new order.

In many parts of the world, we are confronted with

assertions of nationalism coupled with territorial claims. As

the Secretary-General puts it in his Agenda for Peace,

"... the cohesion of States is threatened by brutal ethnic,

religious, social, cultural and linguistic strife".

(A/47/277, para. 11)

Kenya subscribes to the thrust of the Agenda for Peace

as elaborated during the forty-seventh session of the General

Assembly, on the basis of which a draft resolution will be

adopted during this session. The elaboration of the Agenda

for Peace should take into account the principles of

sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and

non-interference in the internal affairs of nation-States.

The new approach will widen and deepen the scope of

the United Nations in the promotion of the peaceful

settlement of disputes and the maintenance of peace and

security. In this regard, Kenya urges the full exploitation of

the potential of the International Court of Justice in the

adjudication of disputes between States as a potential

transparent and cost-effective means of conflict resolution.

The case of Somalia is particularly distressing. We

strongly believe that keeping United Nations peace-keeping

personnel in Somalia is critical to the pursuit of peace and

security in that country. We note with appreciation the

Secretary-General’s report that, despite several incidences of

violence in Mogadishu, there are improvements in the

overall situation, including eradication of starvation,

establishment of a large number of district councils, opening

of schools and resumption of normal life in most areas of

the country.

We also welcome Security Council resolution

865 (1993) of 22 September, by which the Council, inter

alia, invites the Secretary-General to consult the countries of

the region and regional organizations concerned on means of

further reinvigorating the reconciliation process. We believe

that the regional peace initiatives can effectively complement

the United Nations efforts in facilitating reconciliation

between all the factions in Somalia.

The highest priority is to assist the people of Somalia

in furthering the national reconciliation process and to

promote and advance the re-establishment of regional and

national institutions and civil administration in the entire

country, as set out in Security Council resolution 814 (1993).

This requires improvement of the dialogue between the

United Nations personnel in Somalia and the general Somali

public as an essential element in confidence-building to

facilitate reconciliation between the various factions.

Kenya shares an 800-kilometre-long border with

Somalia. In many ways, we are extremely exposed to the

Somalia problem. Somalia is a sister country with which we

share family relations as well as ethnic and cultural

affinities. The very heavy influx of Somali refugees into

Kenya has had a devastating effect on the most ecologically

fragile parts of the country. The border region has suffered

serious environmental destruction as a result of excessive

cutting of trees for building materials and firewood. The

physical and social infrastructures have been overstretched

by excessive usage and overloading.

Most seriously, our people and security personnel have

been subjected to numerous acts of banditry by armed gangs

crossing into Kenya from Somalia, causing general insecurity

in the border region. We have continued to lose both

civilians and security personnel at an unacceptably high rate

as a result of attacks by bandits. Huge numbers of livestock

and huge quantities of other property have also been lost to

them.

As peace is being restored in Somalia, we are

cooperating with the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees to accelerate the voluntary

repatriation of refugees. At the same time, we are

requesting the United Nations and the donor community to

urgently assist Kenya with programmes for the rehabilitation

of the physical and social infrastructures as well as for the

restoration of the ecosystem in the region.

We are also requesting the Secretary-General to

reinforce the United Nations Operation in Somalia

(UNOSOM) patrols along the Somali side of the border so

as to complement the efforts of the Kenyan security

personnel on our side. We believe that the joint security

efforts will significantly scale down the flow of armed gangs

and individuals into Kenya.

Sudan is another neighbouring country that has for a

long time now been suffering devastating civil strife. The

problem has been of great concern not only to the

neighbouring countries but also to the Organization of

22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations. There is an

urgent need for the United Nations to support the ongoing

regional efforts spearheaded by Presidents Yoweri Museveni

of Uganda, Afwerki of Eritrea and Zenawi of Ethiopia under

the chairmanship of President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya.

We appeal to all parties involved in the conflict to be

flexible in the search for a just and lasting solution.

Elsewhere in our continent, efforts to find solutions to

ethnic and other conflicts have shown encouraging trends.

We are confident that the people of Mozambique, Rwanda

and Liberia will realize their dreams of peace through the

process of dialogue. Greater involvement by the United

Nations in the Rwandese peace process is pertinent at this

stage. It is essential that the peace accords signed in these

countries be honoured by all the parties, with effective

support from the United Nations, the OAU and regional

bodies, and with generous assistance from friendly countries.

The situation in Angola is very disturbing. The

ongoing bloodshed could easily have been avoided if the

UNITA leadership had accepted the verdict of the people in

the elections. We appeal to UNITA to agree to a dialogue

for a peaceful political solution, with the mediation and

increased support of the United Nations, OAU and the

sponsors of the Peace Accords.

We are also greatly encouraged by the developments

that have taken place in South Africa. The agreement

reached for the creation of the Transitional Executive

Council and the setting of a date for the first democratic

elections pave the way for the establishment of a truly

non-racial, democratic South Africa. We support the recent

call by Mr. Nelson Mandela, the President of the African

National Congress of South Africa (ANC), for all diplomatic

and economic sanctions against South Africa to be lifted.

The recently concluded, momentous agreement between

Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) marks

a turning point in the process of finding a just and lasting

solution to the Palestinian and, indeed, the Middle East

problem. We are encouraged by the assurances that this is

the first tangible step towards the establishment of a

Palestinian State alongside Israel. We wish the Palestinian

and Israeli people happy and peaceful coexistence.

Further afield, we welcome the successful holding of

the elections under United Nations auspices in Cambodia,

the conclusion of the Governors Island Agreement on the

restoration of a democratically elected Government of Haiti,

and the progress towards the establishment of lasting peace

in El Salvador.

The experience of Somalia and other regional conflicts

convinces us that there is an urgent need for the United

Nations to re-evaluate the existing international control

systems for conventional-weapon production and trade. The

widespread availability of deadly conventional weapons

constitutes the most important factor in the prolongation of

regional and civil conflicts.

With its increased responsibilities and challenges, the

United Nations needs to be restructured and revitalized so

that it can effectively discharge its responsibilities. It must

also be provided with adequate resources. The tasks ahead

demand that the energy and attention of all components of

the United Nations be engaged fully and appropriately.

The General Assembly must be enabled to play its full

role in decisions affecting international peace and security.

There is a need to establish a balanced relationship between

the Assembly and the other principal organs of the United

Nations, and to ensure logical accountability of the principal

organs, in particular the Security Council.

The Security Council must also be reformed so that it

is more transparent, more representative and more

democratic in its decision-making process, while at the same

time its effectiveness is ensured.

The ongoing restructuring and revitalization of the

Economic and Social Council and the United Nations in the

economic, social and related fields should strengthen the

Council and enable it to play a central role in providing

policy recommendations to the General Assembly.

Similarly, the ongoing efforts to restructure the Secretariat

must be balanced and accord appropriate priority to

development concerns. Operational activities of the

Organization must be provided with adequate resources on

a sustainable basis to enable it effectively to promote

socio-economic progress in accordance with its Charter.

Peace-keeping operations have increasingly become

among the most utilized and widely acceptable instruments

of the Organization, especially in discharging its primary

responsibility in the maintenance of international peace and

security. The operations have also increasingly taken on

new and broader assignments and responsibilities. Kenya is

happy to be closely associated with peace-keeping

operations. We have contributed military and police

personnel to many peace-keeping operations world wide.

The enormous rise in the number and scope of

peace-keeping operations requires that the ability of the

Secretariat to manage such large-scale operations be

Forty-eighth session - 5 October l993 23

strengthened and also that Member States be ready to

finance the operations.

In this connection, the serious concerns expressed by

the Secretary-General and his urgent appeals to Member

States to pay arrears of contributions must receive a concrete

and speedy response from all the Members of this

Organization. The formula for apportioning contributions

should reflect the special responsibility of the permanent

members of the Security Council and of other developed

countries and take into account the relatively limited

capacities of developing countries. A dramatic change in the

formula of contributions could, I submit, complicate further

the problem of arrears. The establishment of the

peace-keeping reserve fund would go a long way towards

making peace-keeping operations more efficient. In this

regard, a timely and effective response by the United

Nations will largely depend on the availability of adequate

resources, at least in the initial stages, to cater for the critical

time lost in negotiations for the financing of peace-keeping

operations. It is also important that a formula be developed

to establish a more predictable financial basis for the

peace-keeping operations.

The uncertainty prevailing in the world economy today

is a cause for serious concern. Insufficient growth in the

developed countries has contributed to the unfavourable

external conditions that threaten the political, economic and

social stability of many developing countries. These include

renewed pressures for increased protectionism, falling

commodity prices and the decline in financial flows, among

other conditions. Despite the far-reaching economic and

political reforms which have been put in place by most

African countries in the last three years, the situation

continues to be grim, since the region continues to

experience economic growth of less than 2 per cent. The

current trends, if not reversed, threaten to marginalize further

the participation of African countries in the global economy.

The liberalization of the African economies and the

hard work of the African people are not in themselves

sufficient to transform the socio-economic situation in

Africa. The continent is not playing the international

economic game with other continents on a level ground. We

wish, therefore, to underscore the need for the international

community to seize the opportunity created by the positive

changes taking place on the continent and give Africa real

support so that the gains made for economic and democratic

reform will be sustainable.

At the same time, African countries should continue to

strengthen their regional integration efforts within the

regional bodies already established, such as the Preferential

Trade Area for the Eastern and Southern African Countries

(PTA), the Inter-Governmental Authority for Drought and

Development (IGADD) in the Horn of Africa, and the

ongoing efforts to revive East African cooperation.

Our experience in Kenya in implementing structural

adjustment programmes is that the reforms have inherent

negative short-term effects, particularly on the poor and the

other vulnerable members of society. These include the fall

in their purchasing power owing to the liberalization of

prices, job losses through a reduction of manpower in the

public sector, and the reduction of government expenditure

on such essential social services as health, education and

other infrastructures. The donor community needs,

therefore, to balance the aid conditionalities with the

socio-economic realities obtaining in the countries

implementing structural adjustment programmes, particularly

by addressing the social dimensions of such programmes in

concrete and human terms.

The United Nations new agenda for the development of

Africa in the 1990s, adopted by the General Assembly at its

forty-sixth session, commits the international community to

implement concrete and effective measures to support

Africa’s own efforts in the process of economic reforms and

development. The success of the implementation of the

programme will depend, first, on the efforts of the African

countries themselves and, secondly, on the back-up resources

from multilateral and bilateral donors. We are concerned

that these resources are shrinking owing to diversion and

what appears to be a subtle disengagement from Africa.

The acute external debt of African countries and the

heavy and unbearable burden of servicing that debt are

among the matters on which concrete action is needed. The

burden of debt-servicing drains the continent of over $10

billion annually, thus diverting resources badly needed for

investment and alleviation of poverty.

On trade, it is gratifying to note that, after six months

of stalemate, multilateral negotiations of the Uruguay Round

of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

have resumed. We emphasize, however, that the outcome of

the negotiations should be balanced to take account of the

particular needs of the poor developing countries.

The World Conference on Human Rights, which was

held in Vienna, Austria, in June this year, marked a

significant watershed for the international community on the

important question of human rights. That Conference

emphasized that human rights are interdependent and

24 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

indivisible. It recognized development as a basic human

right. Democracy, development and human rights go hand

in hand, as experience has shown that it is difficult to

guarantee some basic rights, especially economic and social

rights, in situations of abject poverty.

As I emphasized in my statement at that Conference,

the existing international institutions for human rights need

strengthening. At the same time, developing countries

require support and assistance to strengthen their domestic

institutions and build strong foundations for the rule of law

and the administration of justice.

Since the Rio Conference on Environment and

Development, Governments and international agencies have

focused their attention on the implementation of Agenda 21.

The first substantive meeting of the Commission on

Sustainable Development, held in June this year, made

tangible progress in adopting crucial decisions on its work

programme. Kenya welcomes the progress being made

towards ensuring the effectiveness of the Global

Environmental Facility as an important instrument for

funding incremental costs related to the implementation of

Agenda 21. However, we are concerned that adequate

financial resources for the implementation of the programme

have fallen short of expectations. On institutional

arrangements, while Kenya supports the mandate given to

the Commission on Sustainable Development in regard to

monitoring progress in the implementation of Agenda 21, the

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) must

continue to play a central role owing to the experience and

expertise it has accumulated over the years in the area of the

environment. The need to strengthen UNEP to enable it to

participate effectively in the implementation of Agenda 21

can therefore not be overemphasized.

Accordingly, the conference facilities at UNEP

Headquarters in Nairobi must be put to full use. It is neither

economically sound nor in keeping with the objective of

strengthening UNEP to have many meetings initiated by the

Organization held outside its Headquarters. As a host

country, Kenya shall continue to provide all the necessary

assistance to UNEP to enable it to play its central and,

indeed, its rightful role.

As the Secretariat of the United Nations undergoes

restructuring, we should be mindful of the mandates of

various agencies and bodies in order to avoid the possibility

of losing the original objective. Kenya is concerned that the

role of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements

(Habitat), whose Headquarters are in Nairobi, is being

eroded by the undue delay in filling the post of Executive

Director, despite the concerns expressed by the General

Assembly at its forty-seventh session. The filling of the post

will give the required impetus to the Habitat secretariat.

As to the social issues, I wish to assure members of our

cooperation with the international community in the

preparatory work for the forthcoming Conference on

Population and Development, to be held next year; the

Fourth World Conference on Women, also to be held in

1994; and the World Summit for Social Development, set for

1995. We need to put all our energies into the preparatory

work of these Conferences to ensure that they achieve their

intended objectives.

In conclusion, the international community, through this

Assembly, must make every effort to face these challenges

and many more which are yet to come. We owe it to

posterity and to future generations to leave this world a

better place to live in. We have neither excuses nor reasons

to fail. And if we do fail, history will judge us harshly. In

this endeavour, our differences should strengthen rather than

weaken us, for in unity lies our strength. In the words of our

beloved President, His Excellency Daniel Teroitich Arap

Moi, love, peace and unity are the pillars for development

and progress.