Ruto highlights funding woes for Kenya-Haiti mission at UN General Assembly

During his address to the UN General Assembly, the president termed the current structure of the UN Security Council exclusionary, underscoring the need for urgent reforms to address what he labelled an unfair post-1945 order. 

The president’s fourth address to the United Nations General Assembly came a day after US President Donald Trump made his, discrediting the United Nations and bringing New York to a standstill.

Taking to the podium, President William Ruto billed the UN fit for purpose, outlining Kenya’s heavy load in the region and Haiti, the Kenyan-led mission, calling the world’s attention to the Caribbean country and the cash crunch facing the mission in Port-au-Prince.

Dr Ruto, on the world stage, once again called for the reformation of the UN’s top-most organ, the Security Council, decrying Africa’s underrepresentation. He urged for additional voices to dilute what he labelled traditional voices holding the world at ransom.

The head of state also heaped praise on the UN, warning against the pitfalls its predecessor, the League of Nations, encountered in the lead-up to the Great Depression and World War II.

His optimistic address on the 80th birthday of the UN comes against the backdrop of deadbeat members and a budget crisis that has pushed the citadel of peace and security to the brink of a liquidity crisis.

Though the UN has known many crises since its birth in 1945, a mix of factors, including Trump’s ascendancy, conflicts, dipping multilateralism, and climate change, remain traumatic scenarios for this institution, which now gears up for desperate times.