Kenya, 2007

It is my very great pleasure to

address the General Assembly. I join other speakers in

congratulating you, Sir, on your election to the

presidency of the General Assembly. My delegation

has every confidence in your ability to discharge this

challenge. I assure you of our support.

I commend your predecessor, Sheikha Haya

Rashed Al-Khalifa, for ably steering the sixty-first

session of the General Assembly. I would also like to

take this opportunity to once again congratulate the

Secretary-General on his appointment. My delegation

welcomes his commitment to strengthen the pillars of

the United Nations: security, development and human

rights.

Last year, when I had the privilege of addressing

the Assembly, I dwelt on the issue of Somalia and how

the dynamic in that country had an impact in our

capitals and cities around the world, such as Toronto,

Stockholm, Rome, Nairobi and Mogadishu. Even

countries that are thousands of miles away and whose

interaction with Somalia has been minimal have been

forced to awaken to the reality that we have become a

global village when their citizens plying international

waters have been hijacked or robbed by pirates in the

Indian Ocean along the coast of Somalia.

Let me thank the General Assembly and the

Security Council for listening to our pleas from the

region. I appeal for closer collaboration by the

international community in addressing the complex and

difficult problems of Somalia. Yet, within all these

challenges, there are several windows of opportunity

that we must take advantage of to prevent extreme

human suffering, especially of women and children, in

that sister country.

My delegation commends the African Union for

its support for the African Union Mission in Somalia

(AMISOM). We pay special tribute to the Ugandan

troops for the important role they are playing in

Somalia under very trying circumstances. We appeal

for the deployment of the remaining peacekeeping

troops to strengthen AMISOM. Kenya also urges the

United Nations to assume greater responsibility in

Somalia in line with Security Council resolution 1772

(2007). A United Nations presence on the ground in

Somalia would complement regional and international

efforts to promote peace, stability and reconciliation in

that country.

Kenya unequivocally supports national

reconciliation in Somalia. We see it as a process, not a

single event. We urge all the political actors that

hitherto boycotted the talks to embrace the process,

because, no matter how long it takes, the final

resolution of the Somalia crisis will only come about

when all Somalis agree to sit down and talk. The

region and the international community can only

provide support. Ultimately, it is the people of Somalia

who can resolve their difference through a spirit of

give and take. For our part, as the international

community, we must honour our pledges to provide the

necessary resources to Somalia. The problem with

Somalia may be less visible today, probably because it

has been overshadowed by the conflict in Darfur, but

the Somalia crisis is far from over.

According to the Human Security Report 2005,

the number of armed conflicts in the world has fallen

by over 40 per cent during the past 13 years. The

report’s overall conclusion that conflict is becoming

less common in the world in general as well as in

Africa is very encouraging. Conflict is a major

disincentive to investment and poses an intolerable

burden in terms of human suffering. The end of wars in

Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Southern Sudan

is a welcome development in Africa.

While we may celebrate the end of those wars, it

is imperative that the international community make

the urgent and essential investments that will

contribute to the prevention of recurrence of such

conflicts. The local populations should experience

peace dividends so as to sustain peace.

Kenya urges a strengthening of partnerships

between the African Union and the United Nations

Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the area of

political and technical cooperation, as well as

partnerships with the continent’s subregional

organizations. The African Union’s peacekeeping

capabilities and capacity must be strengthened through

provision of financial, technical and logistical support.

The recent deaths of many African Union soldiers in

Darfur underline the urgency of the need for logistical

support by the United Nations to African Union

missions within the agreed-upon frameworks. In this

regard, my delegation welcomes the Secretary-

General’s initiative to provide assistance to the African

Union to enhance its military capabilities and

mediation role in conflict resolution.

The United Nations has deployed a lot of time

and resources in the area of disarmament and

development. The proliferation of illicit small arms and

light weapons in the Horn of Africa continues to

undermine our security and development. It has

contributed to making our neighbourhood a very tough

one.

In order to address this challenge, the States of

the region rallied together in 2000 to sign the Nairobi

Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of

Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great

Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. The Declaration

was upgraded in 2004 to a legally binding Protocol, the

first intergovernmental instrument of its kind to

address the proliferation of small arms. In 2005, the

Protocol established the Regional Centre on Small

Arms and Light Weapons (RECSA), with the main

objective of providing a comprehensive framework to

combat the availability of illicit small arms and light

weapons in the region. In view of the importance of the

Centre, Kenya has requested the inclusion of an item in

the agenda of this session of the General Assembly to

invite RECSA to participate in the work of the

Assembly as an observer. Addressing the problem of

the proliferation of small arms is important; we are up

against the very powerful international vested interests

of small arms manufacturers and traders.

Kenya was among the six sponsors of the draft

resolution on the arms trade treaty that was

overwhelmingly adopted during the last session of the

General Assembly as resolution 61/89. In that

resolution, the General Assembly requested that the

Secretary-General, among other things, seek the views

of Member States on the feasibility, scope and draft

parameters for a legally binding arms trade treaty. We

commend the Secretary-General for the progress made

so far in the implementation of that resolution. We look

forward to the establishment of a group of

Governmental experts to begin work next year and to

the group’s report to the General Assembly at its next

session.

I recently had occasion to address a group of my

fellow Foreign Ministers from our close neighbour,

Europe, on a couple of subjects that increasingly define

our relationship with the rest of the world, among them

illegal immigration. It is one of the ironies of history

that there was a time when my brothers and sisters who

were unlucky and could not run fast enough were

caught as slaves and shipped across the oceans in very

inhuman conditions. A large number died during the

journey as they were sent to different parts of the world

to provide slave labour.

Today, many of my brothers and sisters are often

voluntarily offering themselves and handing over their

life savings to be shipped across oceans in almost

similar inhuman conditions. Many of them have lost

their lives during the journey. They play cat and

mouse, attempting to avoid border patrols equipped

with tracer dogs and electronic monitoring, so as to get

a chance to slave most of their lives in the minimum-

wage bracket.

The clock has ticked full circle. But a lot has

changed as well. And I come back to my assertion that

distances between us have shrunk and we must now

recognize that, in this global village, a phenomenon

such as economic refugees is going to be a cause of

trauma in our communities. You can build great walls,

introduce and increase more menacing border patrols

and make your immigration meaner, but the respite can

only be temporary. You can whip up xenophobic

sentiment, especially around national election times.

But that amounts to an ineffectual Band-Aid and does

not address the fundamentals of the crisis we are facing

today.

Even in the most developed countries, unless a

society addresses the problems and stress in the poor

neighbourhoods and inner cities, any solution like

migration into the suburbs and the construction of

gated communities will only provide some temporary

relief. Crime will continue unabated. Muggings,

carjackings, kidnappings and other violent crime will

continue to prevail. We have to address the

fundamental problems in our poor neighbourhoods not

just for the sake of those living in those

neighbourhoods but also for the sake of those who live

in relatively affluent areas.

What I am talking about is not really rocket

science or some very complex social engineering

concept. It should be clear to all of us that, in the

global village that we have come to be, it is in the

interest of all of us to work together to address the

conspiracy of factors that create so much stress and

tension within and among our countries. We must be

level-headed enough to recognize that angry

unemployed young men in one country will spill over

sooner or later into other countries’ capitals and create

problems.

If nothing else, the phenomenon of global climate

change should teach us the lesson that our destinies as

human beings are inextricably intertwined. Vehicular

emissions in New York do the same thing to our village

Earth as our cutting of equatorial forests in Africa to

make charcoal. Both actions may introduce incidents of

floods due climate change all the way over in distant

China.

As neighbours in the global village, it is certainly

a good thing if we both come to recognize that if

wealthy countries’ policies and actions confine us to

abject poverty, then it is only a matter of time before

the stress in my country will spill over into their

neighbourhood maybe in the form of illegal

immigration, terrorism or whatever. However, sooner

or later we all have to pay for the consequences of

selfish and short-sighted policies of the World Trade

Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) and the World Bank.

It is therefore important that as we talk about

reform and paradigm shifts in any of these

international institutions we should adopt the right

attitude: that nobody is doing the other a favour. We

are in this small boat called Earth together. When the

powerful think that they are playing their advantage in

the global scene and winning the battles, such victory

can only be temporary. The only real victory is when it

is a win-win outcome. The other outcome, when a large

part of the world emerges as losers, is unsustainable. It

breeds anger and vengeance.

Most of the resources and capacity to change our

world for the better are domiciled in the developed

world. The resources needed are more than enough in

the more endowed countries. The knowledge of what

we must do to make a positive difference is simple and

evident. Yet as world leaders we must bear the

collective guilt of failing to focus on providing the

solutions.

I come from a country in a region, for example,

where factors such as poverty and lack of education

conspire to stress and destabilize our communities and

countries. There is an autocatalytic relationship

between poverty and low education. Those who have

low education tend to become poorer. And those who

are poorer tend to have low education. There is also a

correlation between poverty and low formal education,

on one side, and inter-ethnic, clan, religious and even

racial tension, on the other side. This invariably leads

to unstable societies.

When people are poor and less educated, their

reference point tends to become only their ethnic, clan,

religious or racial identity. With a few exceptions, the

educated and affluent are at least able to operate at a

higher level. A doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or an

engineer is usually less xenophobic.

In Kenya, we understand this, and therefore we

understand the importance of education. We have

invested up to 30 per cent of our annual budget to

provide free primary education. Next year, we will

have free secondary education. That is the type of

social and economic investment we all must make now

if we expect to have a better, more prosperous and

more stable world 10 years from now. We may make

fine speeches and express a commitment to creating a

safer, friendlier and more prosperous world. But as

long as we fail to make the right investment in

education and poverty alleviation, we are only engaged

in empty talk.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are

important medium- and long-term goals 10 years in

scope, usually. However, our democracies operate on a

shorter calendar of four or five years. In both the

developed and the less developed countries, many of

the leaders tend to do what they must to survive and

succeed in the next elections. Even with best of

intentions, the nature and scope of the challenges of

development that we must address cannot be

adequately solved with official development assistance

(ODA) programmes that are implemented and

completed within the political calendar of changing

regimes. We need more paradigm shifts and a longer-

term vision in that regard.

In conclusion, many of our countries are now

crashing under the weight of international debt. Those

who have actually crashed are the ones that have been

extended a parachute after they have crashed. I am

amazed by this undertaker mentality.

I do not wish to blame the current generation of

leaders in the developed countries for the status quo. I

know that there is some financial and economic

principle here. Most of the current leaders in these

countries are innocent. The deals that were cut in the

past, which put us in the kind of debt we are in today,

are no longer in place. But I feel I must say that the

load and the burden of our international debt is heavy

and debilitating. A lot of it should not have been

undertaken on in the first place; there is some

complicity in the dishonesty on both sides that

prevailed before we, today’s leaders, came onto the

scene.

It is important that today we secure the future of

all our children, who must share this increasingly

intertwined world. We must put behind us those

negative things, such as the unjustified debts of the

past, that can only breed anger and bitterness and affect

future generations. We must make the sacrifices and

the investment today for the future of humanity. That

would be a favour to all of us, and not just to one

group.