Kenya’s colourful but uncelebrated legacy at the UN Security Council

When he died in 2015, Dr Joseph Odero-Jowi had, perhaps, been forgotten. Easily forgotten, too, is that he was the first Kenyan to have ever sat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as its president.

He was also instrumental in negotiating the location of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to Nairobi — perhaps an indicator of the importance of the position of Permanent Representative to the UN.

Kenya’s legacy at the UN Security Council is, perhaps, is an untold story.

This week, Parliament approved the appointment of Dr Martin Kimani as the country’s 16th Permanent Representative to the UN and to follow, at the UN Security Council, the footsteps of Dr Jowi, Charles Gatere Maina in 1974 and Mr Njuguna Mahugu (1997) – the only other three Kenyans who have been lucky to have their tenure in New York coincide with membership to the UNSC.

Dr Kimani, perhaps much more known for being the Joint Secretary of the Building Bridges Initiative, has been the President's Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism and Director of Kenya's National Counter Terrorism Centre. He will arrive in New York at the 75th anniversary of the United Nations founding, and at a time when the world is being ravaged by Covid-19 pandemic.

Before he left for New York, Dr Jowi, then 43, was Kenya’s former Minister for Economic Planning and Development and had replaced Tom Mboya in 1969. At the UN, Odero-Jowi distinguished himself as a colourful speaker, even before Kenya was a member of the Security Council.

Man of the moment

For instance, when the UN General Assembly in November 1972 picked Nairobi, despite many western countries strenuous objection, as the UNEP headquarters, Dr Odero-Jowi became the man of the moment. The US had cast the lone negative vote in the initial vote to place the environmental secretariat in a developing country and when Dr Odero-Jowi took to the podium, he described the system of having UN bodies in western countries as “unjust” and called for rectification. That is how New York, Geneva and Vienna pulled out.

It was a bold move by Kenya and it was a surprise that a developing country could rally the non-aligned nation and garner support. The preamble of a draft resolution circulated by Dr Odera-Jowi proclaimed a new doctrine hitherto unheard within the UN: That “secretariats of United Nations bodies should be located having regard to equitable geographical distribution.”

A team led by Krishna Menom, a former Indian Defence Minister and a controversial figure in Indian and international politics, and Canadian, Albert Khazoom, had been sent to assess the suitability of Nairobi. By then Dr Odera-Jowi had convinced its candidacy and suggested that a new paragraph should be inserted to read “further decides to locate the secretariat to Nairobi, Kenya.”

 In the final ballot on the full resolution, 31 nations abstained while 93 voted for Kenya. Among the major powers, only China voted in affirmative. Many western diplomats had expected the secretariat to be placed in Geneva and were startled by the push by African, Asian and Latin America states to establish the headquarters in Africa.

Dr Njoroge Mungai, then Kenya’s Foreign minister was in New York lobbying African states to support Kenya.

Cost of secretariat

After the vote, Dr Odero-Jowi did not spare western countries, which wanted Kenya to drop its bid: “Some industrialised states are still trying to live in the days when they made the decision for their colonies. These times have passed. If it costs a little more to build a United Nations agency in a developing State, the UN will in effect pay a little rent for the omissions of the past. That is why I say that the decision must be political, not financial.”

By then the office of the UN Secretary General Kult Waldheim had estimated that the first year cost of the secretariat in Geneva would cost the UN $1.4 million compared to Nairobi’s $2.3 million.

They had also argued that the body should be placed close to environmental experts and other UN agencies.

It was during Dr Odera-Jowi’s tenure within the Security Council that the question of South Africa’s continued occupation of Namibia, the perpetuation of the Bantustan policy, and exploitation of mineral resources in the territory became a major subject within the Security Council.

More so, Kenya sponsored Security Council resolution 326 (1973), when Odero-Jowi was President, which sent a team to Zambia after “provocative activities” by Rhodesia’ regime of Ian Smith and asked UK “to take all effective measures to put an end to such actions by the illegal and racist régime of Southern Rhodesia and that of South Africa.”

Forgotten

Maina, the Makerere-University trained former principal at the Kenya Institute of Public Administration in Kabete, had arrived in New York at a volatile Cold War period. By the time he died on January 5, 2018, he had been forgotten.

UNSC is the heart of global politics as Maina soon found out. It was also during his tenure in October 1974 that he led Cameron and Mauritania in sponsoring a motion to expel South Africa from the United Nations because of its apartheid policy and racial discrimination.

This was the first formal vote in the 29-year history of United Nations that the Security Council was being asked to expel a member State. But after a 12-day campaign, as it was known, the US, French and Britain, while condemning the apartheid policy said expulsion would not bring any change. With Australia and Costa Rica abstaining, that left only 10 members to vote for expulsion but the veto from the three permanent members carried the day. China and Soviet Union voted with the other non-permanent members.

South African President John Vorster hailed the vote and thanked the three countries for voting “in South Africa’s favour” and blocking the expulsion resolution in the Security Council. This, to an extent, embarrassed the three countries and it was the New York Times which took to defend them in an editorial “saying they acted not in South Africa's favour but in defence of the principle of universal United Nations membership and in the belief that the chances for Pretoria's peaceful evolution away from racial repression are better if it is kept under constant exposure and pressure at Turtle Bay than if it is expelled.”

But Maina later told United Press International (UPI) that “the vote shows what African have said for a long time, that South Africa has powerful supporters who are prepared to talk in the United Nations but do nothing about what is happening there.”

It was the French ambassador to the UN, Louis de Guiringaud, who put it more bluntly that United Nations didn’t have “to amputate one of its members” with the US Ambassador John Scali saying the expulsion “would be a major strategic mistake.”

But even with that setback, Kenya campaigned vigorously to uphold a ruling by UN General Assembly's President, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, suspending South African participation. Although the United States and Britain challenged the ruling, they could not marshal the numbers even after arguing that it was unlawful under the charter and could set a dangerous precedent for the future.

Made an impact

But Kenya had made an impact at the Security Council and continued to push for the ouster of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith.

When Mr Smith in 1978 signed a pact with Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Senator Jerimiah Chirau and Rev Ndabaningi Sithole – whose hatred for Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was epic – it was Mr Maina who organised a press conference in New York together with Mozambique’s Jose Carlos Lobi, Angola’s Elisio de Figueiredo and Benin’s Thomas Boya and dismissed the trio as “traitors.” By then, the struggle for independence and the guerrilla war were reaching their climax led by Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, who led Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU).

“The Smith Pact is the outcome of a carefully prepared process set up by imperialists and necolonialists in the United States and Britain,” said

So charged was this press conference that Kenya, Mozambique and Benin described the three as “traitors of Africa who betrayed other Zimbabweans…detestable corrupters who went on even to the extent of betraying those who have not been born.”

They asked Washington and London to remove Smith from power saying: “The time has come to persuade Ian Smith to desist from his macabre plans… We must isolate and completely eliminate the Ian Smith regime.”

Kenya was by then playing hardball in diplomatic circles and suggested that Britain and US start talks with Patriotic Front, which was a coalition between Mugabe’s Zanu and Nkomo’s Zapu.

Mercenaries

In 1981, Maina had been left to clean the damage, both at the Security Council and the General Assembly, after Kenya was accused of aiding mercenaries who wanted to topple the Seychelles’ government. Maina signed the letter dated December 8, 1981, which dismissed the allegations by one of the captured mercenaries as “ridiculous and absurd” and that the country did “not wish to be dragged into any aspect of it.”

The other tenure at the Security Council was by Mr Mahugu and he was the man who was tackling the Angola crisis after Jonas Savimbi’s Unita, that was mainly a result of failure by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), to fulfil its obligations in the country’s peace process.

Mr Mahugu had been elected by the Security Council to chair the committee on Angola that was dealing with sanctions and that meant he was to diplomatically deal with President Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Unita’s Savimbi to get a common ground. Actually, from March 21 to 29, 1998, he met with President dos Santos and Mr Savimbi urging them to respect the Lusaka Protocol and the relevant council resolutions.

These are some of the unsung victories by previous envoys. Dr Kimani is heading to New York to fit in some of these diplomatic shoes. But from records, it is clear that Kenya has never disappointed at that global stage. He goes there when nations are facing a global pandemic and need to revamp the body. Wish him well.

[email protected] @johnkamau1