Gutteres' appointment of Kenyans to high UN offices good for our country

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale welcomes UN chief António Guterres at JKIA, Nairobi. [File, Standard]

From its inception in 1945, the United Nations Organisation (UN) has a secretary-general as its chief executive. Elected in a process in which the Security Council recommends candidates for the General Assembly to settle on one, the winner must not be obnoxious to any of the five Security Council permanent members, the P5. The main creator of the Security Council, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), wanted to empower each of the then big powers to protect its perceived interests through a ‘veto’ against the vagaries of global ‘democracy’ at the General Assembly. Since he did not want big powers, especially the United States, to feel unsafe in a democratic world arena, the veto on who becomes UN chief executive was one way of safeguarding big power interests.

The impact of those who have served as secretary-general, especially in Africa, varies with time and personality. Although two of them were Africans, Boutros-Boutros Ghali of Egypt and Kofi Annan of Ghana who succeeded him, it was Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden and Antonio Guterres of Portugal who stand out for Africa. The Americans had ensured that Ghali was a ‘Wantam’ SG. On his part, Annan carried the 1994 Rwanda genocide baggage and an image of being a good handyman for Western interests.

With Hammarskjold in the lead, the UN declared 1960 the Year of Africa when many former colonies joined the General Assembly. Questions arose as to how increased African UN presence would affect world affairs. Three consequences, starting with the sidelining of apartheid South Africa became clear. Second big powers, after the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in January 1961, turned newly independent Congo into a Cold War ideological battleground. While attempting to diffuse the chaos in Congo, Hammarskjold died in a September 1961 plane crash. Third, the manufactured Congo chaos was a warning to new countries such as Kenya, the land of the Mau Mau, not to rock the international boat with scaring rhetoric. As a result, Jomo Kenyatta and his team assured the Conceptual West that they were no threats to Western interests. Kenya subsequently became a thriving darling of the capitalist West in the midst of assorted ‘socialist’ experiments.

Kenya also gained reputation as a reliable bridge between ideological extremisms by sounding reasonable while retaining aspects of Mau Mau ‘revolutionary’ legacy and providing what Munyua Waiyaki termed ‘dynamic compromise’ to sticky issues. In the 1970s, using diplomatic common sense, it persuaded the United Nations to station its environmental headquarters in Nairobi. With support from UN secretary-generals, it thwarted occasional attempts to relocate the UN from Nairobi. When US President Donald Trump made it clear that he wanted some UN functions out of New York, UN Secretary-General Guterres had no problem thinking of Nairobi as the ideal place to relocate functions.

Gutteres makes Kenya happy, appointing Kenyans to high UN offices. He in November 2020 made former NCIC Commissioner Alice Wairimu Nderitu UN advisor on genocide and in November 2024 appointed Macharia Kamau, Kenya’s former Foreign Affairs PS and ambassador to the UN, Chairman of the UN Peacebuilding Fund. He followed this up in March 2026 by appointing Monica Juma to the UN office in Vienna and three months before leaving office he wants Martin Kimani as UN Assistant Secretary-General for African Affairs. Versatile Kimani shot to global prominence in 2022 by using the UN platform to condemn the Russians in Ukraine. Not interested in rupturing Russian-Kenyan relations, Russia ignored and let Kimani enjoy his new celebrity status in the West.

Guterres leaves the UN in January 2027 a revered man, but he leaves behind a troubled UN. The UN is different from what FDR had envisioned, globally ‘democratic’ on small matters but highly protective of big power interests through the Security Council. The successor to Guterres, probably a Latin American woman, will face an institution dismantling Trump who targets the UN.