Activities of Secretary-General in Kenya, 2-5 May
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Nairobi late on Tuesday, 2 May, coming from the Afghanistan meeting in Doha.
He spent much of the following day at the United Nations compound in Nairobi where he met with the senior leadership of the United Nations in the country, including the Director General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Zainab Hawa Bangura; the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen; and the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
He also attended a tree planting ceremony related to the expansion of the Gigiri complex in Nairobi.
He also met with United Nations staff, including those recently temporarily relocated from Sudan. He thanked the staff for all the work they do on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people. The Secretary-General emphasized his solidarity with Kenya, which is suffering from both the impact of climate change and an unfair international financial system.
Speaking at a press conference, the Secretary-General reiterated the immediate need for aid to be allowed into Sudan with secure and immediate access, so that humanitarians could distribute it to people who need it the most.
Noting the turmoil and the violence, the Secretary-General called for an immediate stop to the fighting. “All parties must put the interests of the Sudanese people first — that means peace, prosperity and a return to civilian rule,” he said.
That evening, the Secretary-General met with Kenyan President William Ruto at the State House. The Secretary-General and President Ruto discussed the peace and security situation in the region, including Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia. They also agreed on the need to reform the international financial systems. The Secretary-General later attended an official dinner hosted by the President at State House for the Chief Executives Board for Coordination members where he thanked the President for Kenya’s deep cooperation and warm welcome to the United Nations institutions based in Nairobi.
On Thursday, 4 May, the Secretary-General opened the biannual meeting of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.
The meeting concluded on Friday afternoon, after which he headed to Burundi to take part in the eleventh high-level meeting of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region.