Kenyan appointed to head UN body

By VPPS

Ambassador Bishar Hussein, a Kenyan, has been elected Director General of the Universal Postal Union. This is the first time for a Kenyan to be elected to head a high profile UN affiliated organization.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka congratulated Ambassador Hussein for the election having personally campaigned for Kenya's candidature at the 25th UPU congress in Doha, Qatar last week.

"Ambassador Bishar had the right credentials and the relevant experience, I am glad that the delegates considered him suitable for the job," Mr Musyoka said.

Kalonzo headed a strong delegation to pitch for Ambassador Hussein including Information and Communication Minister Hon. Samuel Poghisio, Ambassador Bruce Madete Director of Administration and CCK chairman Ben Kituku to Doha.

The VP said he was confident that the new Director General will implement the pledges he made while campaigning for the top slot, which include reforms at the UN agency as well as enabling the Union to adapt new technologies to make postal services profitable and relevant in a technology oriented age.

Ambassador Hussein triumphed over Uruguay's Serrana Bassini Casco garnering 87 to her 72 votes.

Hussein has a long career in postal matters, having spent 15 years working for the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation before being appointed the first Postmaster General of the Postal Corporation of Kenya when it split from KP&TC in 1999.

He was then appointed Kenya’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in 2002, a position he held for five years. He also chaired the 24th UPU Congress held in Geneva and became the chairman of the Council of Administration from 2009-2012.

Meanwhile Kalonzo arrived in Italy on Wednesday and held several meetings with members of the business community in Venice and Treviso regions.

He encouraged them to invest in Kenya by setting up factories in especially for leather and textile products.

He told the Mayor of Cornuda, Treviso Province Mr. Marco Marcolini, who paid a courtesy call on him that Kenya was keen to see more tourists from Italy come to Kenya and to attract more investments especially in manufacturing.

“Italy, especially Venice and Treviso, is famous for world class textile and leather products. We welcome you to set up production plants in Kenya to serve the East and Central Africa markets”, Mr. Musyoka said.

Mr. Musyoka expressed gratitude to the government and the people of Italy for continued investment in Kenya sitting the billions of shillings invested in the Kiambere Mwingi water project.

He also invited Italians to invest in agro-processing plants especially those for fruit processing. This will ensure value addition for Kenya's agricultural products, he noted.

Mayor Marcolini said he looked forward to leading a business delegation to Kenya soon.