Kenyan diplomat to head new UN office

A Kenyan diplomat has been appointed the head of the newly created UN office to the African Union, bringing hope to several locals who have in recent times narrowly missed out on such high profile jobs.

Mr Zachary Muburi-Muita, a 53-year-old graduate of Oxford University and University of Nairobi, becomes the first head of the office created on July 1 this year by the UN General Assembly to strengthen its links with the AU, whose role in Africa’s socio-economic and political affairs is fast rising.

“Mr Muburi-Muita brings to this position many years of considerable diplomatic, political, civil, military and management skills and experience from his work with the Kenyan Government, which he joined in 1982,” a statement from the office of UN secretary-general Mr Ban Ki-Moon said.

The UN office to the AU will be based in Addis Ababa where the continental body has its headquarters.

Mr Muburi-Muita has since 2006 served as Kenya’s permanent representative to the UN in New York.

His stint in New York saw him serve as vice president of the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In January this year, he was also elected president of the UN high-level committee on South-South co-operation, which oversees the inter-governmental review and policy-making.

Prior to his appointment in 2006 as permanent representative to the UN, Mr Muburi-Muita served in numerous roles, including as High Commissioner to the United Republic of Tanzania, principal counsellor at the Kenya embassy in Israel and head of the Middle East division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He has also previously served as head of the Americas division, senior assistant secretary and acting head of the Asia and Australasia division besides working in various capacities in Kenya’s missions abroad, including in the Netherlands and the Sudan.

The appointment is expected to bring some relief to the country after local candidates narrowly missed out on plum appointments to international bodies.

In July last year, former Trade minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi was among candidates that suffered a draw back when the UN General Assembly unanimously endorsed the re-appointment of Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi as secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The confirmation handed Mr Panitchpakdi his second four-year term at the helm of UNCTAD.

Mr Panitchpakdi served three years as director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva.

The re-appointment of Mr Panitchpakdi also dampened the spirits of the African Group at the UN and a section of the G77 members who had been rooting for the election of either Dr Kituyi or Mr Guy-Alain Gauze, Cote d’Ivoire’s former minister of commodities and foreign trade.

UN tradition requires that the secretary-general consult with the G77—the developing countries’ club — over the appointment since UNCTAD has traditionally been headed by a national of a developing country.

Other Kenyans

Besides the upset for Dr Kituyi another Kenyan, Prof James Otieno Odeck, managing director at the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) lost a race in 2008 for the post of director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

His poor performance was attributed to lack of support from the government.

Dr Kituyi’s candidature was, however, backed by the government.

Mr Ki-Moon said Mr Muburi-Muita’s past involvement in various initiatives related to the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (Igad), would be useful in the UN’s efforts in building stronger ties with the AU and other regional clusters.