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{
    "id": 1005024,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1005024/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 436,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this important Motion. First of all, I will start by thanking His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Government and all the people who participated in ensuring that Kenya again emerged victorious at the international stage. This is a very important achievement considering that the UN Security Council is primarily concerned with maintenance of international peace and security. It is a very important body in that it ensures that we have peace and security in the world. It is this body that will ensure key decisions regarding peace and security are made like maintaining sanctions, authorising the use of force to ensure that peace prevails and even, critical decisions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) like the appointment of judges. So, it is a very important organ of the UN and it is a milestone that Kenya, for the second time, is going to sit on the 15-Member United Nations Security Council. So, it is an important development. However, at the same time, I think what is important in the coming days is for the country to analyse the intrigues before this success. For example, you are all aware that Kenya withdrew from the race in the years 2013/ 2014 and 2018/2019 in favor of Rwanda and Ethiopia, with an understanding that the region will support Kenya for 2021/2022. However, when it came to Kenya declaring its bid, Djibouti came forward. Even after the African Union saying it is Kenya, they still insisted in vying. Actually, they got very reasonable number of votes. Strangely, our neighbors voted for Djibouti and most of them are Members of IGAD. I think one of the key decisions that the Government will make is its engagement within the IGAD framework and how to engage our neighbors. That would be the most critical decision that the Kenyan Government needs to make. Lastly, I think one of the things that Africa will be expecting from Kenya is to push for representation of Africa as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. This is because Africa is the only continent that is not represented among the five permanent members. Every other continent has a member. This is historical injustice. One of the things that need to be pushed harder is to insist that the legitimacy of United Nations is under threat because of lack of representation by Africa and the Arab World among the veto countries in the UN Security Council. Most importantly, I think this is a big win after the country lost the position of AU leadership and also, after we lost the bid to host the African Continental Trade Area. It is an achievement. It means Africa and the world believes in Kenya. However, as I said, we would be looking at the behavior of our neighbors and particularly, Somalia, which came forward openly to say that it was not going to support Kenya. We have seen reports that other countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and even Tanzania opposed Kenya’s bid. I think this is worrying. We would like to call upon the Government under His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta to put more emphasis in bringing those countries closer to Kenya than what we saw during the voting. With those few remarks, I support."
}