Kenyan ambassador offers African recipe to Russia, Ukraine impasse
Sopuruchi Onwuka
The Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, has urged Russia and Ukraine to forego the nostalgia of the past geopolitical enclaves and focus on greater future in peace and common prosperity.
His appeal came in response to rising tension over the rhetoric of historical boundaries and power blocs that Russia appears to front as reason for dismembering and invading neighboring and weaker Ukraine.
Ambassador Kimani who represents Kenya on the United Nations Security Council advised the disputing nations to borrow wisdom from post colonial Africa in forging ahead despite whimsical and divisive boundary lines drawn by imperial powers that mapped territories for themselves.
“Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire. Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropolises of London, Paris, and Lisbon with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.
“Today, across the border of every single African country live our countrymen, with whom we share deep historical, cultural, and linguistic bonds.
“At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial, or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later. Instead, we agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited, but we would still pursue continental political, economic, and legal integration. Rather than form nations that looked ever backwards into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known.
“We chose to follow the rules of the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Charter, not because our borders satisfied us, but because we wanted something greater, forged in peace.
“We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighboring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?
“However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression. We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural factors. We reject it again today.”
