BY BMJ MURIITHI
Kenya’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), Martin Kimani, is still the talk of the town one week after giving a much-talked-about speech during a UN Security Council emergency meeting that had been called in the evening hours EST to discuss Russia’s decision to recognize the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, a few days before Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
Kimani issued a very strong condemnation of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, comparing it to colonial legacy in Africa.
In his statement to the Council, iwhere Kenya is a non-permanent member, Ambassador Kimani said Russia’s move breached the territorial integrity of Ukraine and pointed out that Africa itself has had to contend with borders created by colonial powers because of the greater goal of peace.
“Kenya, and almost every African country, was birthed by the ending of empire,” he said. “Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris, and Lisbon with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.”
Kimani said Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected diplomacy in favor of military force, which has put the international norm of multilateralism “on its deathbed.”
He warned Russia to respect its border with Ukraine, using Africa’s colonial past to highlight the dangers of stoking the “embers of dead empires.”
“Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known,” Kimani said.
Kimani has a lot experience in matters regarding Africa’s struggles and with the broader history of warfare and conquest.
Before his diplomatic post to the U.N., he was a top official in Kenya’s efforts against extremism and terrorism. He holds a doctorate in war studies from King’s College London, as well as an undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire, according to the UN.
