WILLIAM SAMOEI RUTO, President of Kenya, said that “the promise of the United Nations Charter to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war has been profoundly shaken”.  From Gaza to Darfur, Ukraine, Yemen, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, the Sahel region and the criminality in Haiti, conflict is inflicting a trail of destruction of life and livelihoods in historic proportions.  These conflicts have become battlegrounds for armed factions, external interventions and proxy wars, resulting in unprecedented repercussions on global stability and economic development.  Expressing regret that the world’s most powerful States have increasingly chosen unilateralism and militarization over dialogue and diplomacy, he observed that the capacity of multilateral institutions to maintain and enforce peace is “severely undermined”.

Spotlighting Kenya’s initiatives, he said that, through our participation in the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), it has stood side by side with Somalia in its fight against Al-Shabaab.  He welcomed the adoption of resolution 2719 (2023), establishing a framework for financing African Union peace support operations through UN assessed contributions, thereby enhancing collective peacekeeping efforts.  In 2024, he launched the all-inclusive Tumaini Initiative, bringing together the warring parties and the political leadership of South Sudan to address the root causes of the protracted conflict.  On the Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti, he said that Kenya has deployed 382 specially trained police officers.  Nairobi’s support for the Haitian National Police has significantly advanced the pacification of cities and towns, protected critical infrastructure and relieved many communities previously held captive by criminal gangs.

He further underscored that the existing international security architecture, represented by the Security Council, continues to hamper efforts to maintain international peace and security.  “An institution that excludes 54 African countries, representing 1.4 billion people, while allowing one nation to veto decisions of the remaining 193 Member States, is unacceptable,” he asserted.  Many countries in the Global South are forced to choose between buying medicine and hospital equipment or paying debt, and between hiring teachers or paying debt, he observed, adding:  “This is not an abstract illustration detached from daily reality, but the normal experience of billions of ordinary people.”

Against this backdrop, he stressed that facilitating debt relief, grants and de-risking lending instruments are essential to developing vital infrastructure.  “Consider Africa’s immense untapped potential in clean energy resources,” he said, noting that harnessing this potential is crucial not only for the continent’s economic growth and social resilience, but also for global priorities like accelerating the energy transition and combating climate change.  In this context, he spotlighted the Africa Green Industrialization Initiative, aimed at unlocking investments for the continent’s immense opportunities.  This pan-African initiative promotes large-scale, high-impact, bankable green industrial and infrastructure projects.  Additionally, he said, the Africa Club — an alliance of African multilateral financial institutions to strengthen Africa’s position in the global financial architecture — will serve as a powerful negotiator on behalf of the continent, coordinate with global financial institutions and leverage African countries’ balance sheets to increase investment and create jobs.