President Kenyatta roots for full nuclear disarmament

President Uhuru Kenyatta during a France-Kenya business forum hosted by MEDEF, the largest French business consortium in the world. The luncheon was attended by top executives of leading French companies.

Full implementation of international conventions and treaties aimed at achieving global nuclear disarmament must remain a priority for all nations, President Uhuru Kenyatta told a UN meeting on Friday evening.

The President regretted that five decades after the 1968 Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), an alarming number of nuclear weapons were still in existence.

“We continue to witness an increasing nuclear rivalry, modernization of nuclear weapons including their delivery mechanisms; and weakening of inter-governmental arrangements aimed at curtailing nuclear arsenals and their ultimate elimination,” he said.

The President's message was conveyed in a recorded video statement delivered during the virtual High-Level Plenary Meeting of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

President Kenyatta reiterated Kenya’s longstanding commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons for a safer nuclear-free world.

Kenya is a state party to the African Nuclear-Weapons-Free-Zone Treaty and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The Head of State said the use of nuclear weapons is reprehensible and cannot be justified in any way as it goes against the basic tenets of humanity.

“As we approach the 10th Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2021, we call for renewed momentum among all our states to implement their disarmament commitments,” President Kenyatta said.

While commending the progress in the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones, the President called on nuclear states to join in the universalization of the NPT treaty and to commit to complete nuclear disarmament.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Non-Proliferation Treaty remains the cornerstone of the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime.

Guterres expressed concern that some of the programmes towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons have either stalled or are at risk of backsliding.

For the sake of security, the UN Secretary-General stressed that the world must return to a common path towards nuclear disarmament.

“And states possessing nuclear weapons have a responsibility to lead in this endeavor including by fulfilling their disarmament commitments and by taking practical steps to reduce nuclear risks,” the UN Secretary General said.

The President of the 75th Session of UNGA, Mr Volkan Bozkir, said the only way to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons is by eliminating the weapons themselves.