UN set to establish three more major offices in Nairobi by end of 2026
The United Nations is set to establish three more global offices in Nairobi by the end of next year in addition to the two existing global offices.
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) programmes will be set up in Kenya's capital.
This will be in addition to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and UN-Habitat, which have their headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi.
The plan was revealed on Wednesday, February 19 during a consultative meeting between Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and the President of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Philemon Yang.
“I want to thank the government of Kenya for receiving the United Nations here in Nairobi. I have heard and personally seen many things happening from both sides and the collaboration and partnership on the Kenyan side is tremendous,” said Mr Yang.
Mr Mudavadi noted that Kenya’s strategic positioning as the regional logistic and financial hub gives it an edge in supporting the UN’s pivotal role in multilateral diplomacy, and advancing key global and regional priorities.
“We are working very closely, and Kenya is looking forward for UN’s support with a commitment to make Nairobi a very critical hub for the UN’s operations both in the country, regionally and across the globe,” Mr Mudavadi said during the meeting at his office in Nairobi.
The meeting between Mr Mudavadi and Mr Yang was also attended by the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi (Unon), Zainab Bangura, and Senior Kenyan Government Officials including principal secretaries Dr Korir Sing’oei (Foreign Affairs), Joseph Mbugua of Roads, Water’s Julius Korir, and Ms Aurelia Rono of Parliamentary Affairs, among others.
Mr Mudavadi stated that the move will elevate the country’s status as it will be competing with Geneva and New York in hosting the UN meetings.
“Kenya will be leveraging on the UN’s existing presence in the country and the opportunities presented by its operations in the greater horn, east and central Africa sub-regions,” Mr Mudavadi said.
UNON Director-General Zainab Bangura said that Kenyan government has been instrumental in ensuring a steady growth of UN operations.
She also lauded the Kenya Kwanza administration and the previous governments for having a sense of mutual benefits from the programmes run by the UN in Kenya.
Ms Bangura said that as the world moves towards the 2030 deadlines and setting the agenda for 2063, Kenya’s experience highlights the need for collective action both within the country and globally to ensure that progress is inclusive and enduring.
“The Nairobi duty station is the fastest growing duty station in the United Nations, and it is the only duty station progressively recording a steady growth. As we speak, we have 86 UN offices in Kenya, 73 in Gigiri in the capital city Nairobi. When the Unep was set-up, we had only 300 staff, now we are boasting of 6,500 staff, 11,000 families and dependants,” Ms Bangura said.
The new global offices will boost UN’s operations thus reaffirming Kenya’s leadership in regional and global affairs, since being admitted as a Member State of the United Nations on 16th December, 1963 immediately after attaining independence.
Mr Mudavadi noted that by working together and with the UN’s support, Kenya can achieve a lot not only for her economic growth and well-being of the citizens but much more for the good of the region and world.
Apart from the UN, we are seeing other entities wanting to come to Kenya. We are already receiving a fairly rapid line of requests, from other international agencies including non-governmental bodies, that would want to relocate and have their centers come to Nairobi,” said Mr Mudavadi.
Additional reporting by OPCS