Ruto refers to the Security Council as “dysfunctional” in his speech to the General Assembly

Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto urged for the Security Council to be reformed, describing it as “dysfunctional, undemocratic, non-inclusive, and un-representative.”

Speaking to the General Assembly on Thursday during High-Level Week, Ruto declared: “If any confirmation was ever needed that the United Nations Security Council is dysfunctional, undemocratic, non-inclusive, un-representative and therefore incapable of delivering meaningful progress in our world as currently constituted, the rampant impunity of certain actors on the global stage settles the matter.”

The Head of State also brought up Haiti’s predicament, saying, “We encourage the United Nations to swiftly produce an appropriate framework to permit the deployment of Multinational Security Support as part of a comprehensive response to Haiti’s issues. We urge the Security Council to make a meaningful contribution by passing a resolution under Chapter Seven that specifically fits the security support mission to the needs of Haiti and its populace, he added.According to the president of Kenya, hundreds of millions of people are plagued with worry about their present and future security, dignity, and possibilities for wellbeing. “The poverty, fear, suffering and humanitarian distress haunting the victims of conflict, drought, famine, flooding, wildfires, cyclones, deadly disease outbreaks and other disasters, are the outcomes of sustained violation of the most essential principles, and the systematic neglect of humanity’s dearest values, which lie at the very foundation of the Charter of the United Nations,” he emphasised.

A state of immobility has been created, lasting one of the darkest eras in human history, due to the failure of peace and security systems, inadequate development, and limited climate action. The widespread impunity of its actors on the international stage, he added, “sets the matter if any confirmation was ever needed that the United Nations Security Council is dysfunctional, undemocratic, non-inclusive, and unrepresentative and therefore incapable of delivering meaningful progress in our world as it is currently constituted.” In terms of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the climate change targets that underpin them, including peace and security, the international community has significantly lagged behind.

He lamented the unconstitutional changes to the government and said that Kenya was proud of the achievements it had made and was still making in its tireless effort to promote peacemaking, conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and other interventions performed across many regions. He referred to a number of peace measures supported by Kenya, including a team of six African Heads of State to Moscow and Kyiv that brought a 10-point peace plan and efforts to start a mediation process between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. He added that Haiti is the ultimate test of international solidarity and group action because it deserves more from the world. “The hunger for peace and security in Africa is evident, and this bodes well for the prospects of attaining the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and global peace,” he said. “As we mobilise to show up for Ukraine and countries that have experienced the devastating impact of climate shocks, including Libya, Morocco, and Hawaii, we must not leave Haiti behind,” he stressed, pleading with the UN to make it easier to send international security assistance to Haiti.

“The tragic spectacle of young people from Africa boarding rickety contraptions to gamble their lives away on dangerous voyages in pursuit of opportunities abroad, as conflict, climate, and economic refugees, is a testament of the failures of the global economic system,” he said, adding that each year 30 million young people need jobs and many more need food while half of Africa will be without electricity in 2023. “The enormous investment opportunity in Africa’s potential offers the greatest returns on capital and technology anywhere. Such investments would promote green growth, generating employment and prosperity while reducing carbon emissions from global production and consumption, the speaker emphasised, adding that no significant climate action or development can occur in times of economic hardship. Sovereign debt should therefore have a longer tenor and a 10-year grace period under the new sovereign debt architecture. He also advocated restructuring the financial market and increasing loans with favourable terms. He cited the credit rating agencies’ erroneous assessment of subprime mortgage risk two decades ago, which led to a financial crisis whose effects are still being felt today, in saying that “the entire system of risk assessment and the opaque methodologies employed by credit rating agencies and risk analysis need to be overhauled.” We also understand that multilateralism needs to be fixed, and we are accountable for doing so, he added.