Kenya to bid for permanent UN Security Council seat

NAIROBI, March 15 (AFP) — Kenya said Tuesday it wanted one of two new permanent seats on the UN Security Council that the African Union hopes to reserve for the continent as part of broader reform of the United Nations.

“Kenya will vie for one of the two permanent seats if recommendations to give African countries two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats are adopted per the African position,” said Foreign Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere.

With the announcement, Kenya — which raised eyebrows earlier this year by announcing a long-shot bid to host the 2016 Olympics — joins Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa in declaring its candidacy for potential permanent African seats on the UN’s most powerful body.

Mwakwere said Kenya should be a veto-wielding member of the Security Council because of its work in sealing a deal to end Sudan’s 21-year north-south civil war, Africa’s longest running conflict, and its peace efforts in neighboring lawless Somalia.

Kenya “deserve(s) the permanent seat due to the pivotal role she played in both the Sudan and Somalia peace processes, her peacekeeping efforts worldwide and being one of the most secure countries in the world,” he said.

These are “among (Kenya’s) many attributes/advantages,” Mwakwere said in a statement released after meeting with the Cuban and Nigerian envoys to Kenya.

However, Kenya will face strong competition from the other African candidates.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, and South Africa, its richest, have both been heavily involved in peacekeeping and peacemaking across Africa while Egypt has been a key player in the Middle East.

Earlier this month, the 53-member African Union (AU) agreed to seek two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats for the continent on the Security Council if the proposed reforms are approved.

The bloc, which will vet African candidacies at an AU summit in Libya in July, said it would lobby hard with UN chief Kofi Annan and the current 15 Security Council members on behalf of the African position.

Annan is considering two competing Security Council reform proposals that would expand the body from five permanent and 10 elected members to a total of 24.

Under one proposal, new permanent members would join Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Under the other, a third tier of nations with four-year, non-permanent but renewable seats would be added.

Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have launched a joint drive for permanent seats and, until Tuesday, South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria were the only African states to have expressed serious interest in joining the council with veto powers.

Currently, only the nuclear-armed victors of World War II — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — have a permanent representation on the council and the power to single-handedly halt a UN resolution.