Yokohama, Japan: Deputy President William Ruto has announced that Kenya will vie for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for a two year term from 2017-2018.
Ruto on Saturday appealed to the government of Japan to support Kenya’s bid for the position when the election is held.
“We are calling on Japan and other countries in the world to support Kenya’s bid for the position of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Ruto said.
Ruto made the remarks during a meeting with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Hotel Intercontinental in Yokohama ,Japan where bilateral relations were discussed.
Elections for the 71st session of the UN General Assembly will be held in the year 2016.
Currently, the non-permanent members of the UN are – Azerbaijan, Argentina, Australia, Guetamala, Republic of Korea, Morocco, Pakistan, Lexembourg, Rwanda and Togo.
Five permanent members are – China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
Ruto said relationship between the two countries stem from independence and that Kenya was looking forward to further
cooperation.
“We look forward to further expanding the Mombasa port by two other phases and will call on Japan for support,” Ruto said.
He added, “We want to develop our energy sector to be able to produce 6,000 megawatts of power in the next five years from geothermal, coal and hydro,”
The deouty president said that Kenya was looking up to Japan and the international community to help Kenya as it tries to ensure Somalia becomes peaceful so the people can do business and develop their country.
Abe said that he valued the fact that Kenya held democratic and peaceful election in the March 4 2013 poll which saw
President Uhuru Kenyatta elected to succeed former President Mwai Kibaki.
The PM congratulated Kenya on the occasion of celebrating her 50 years independence which coincided with the opening of the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Yokohama.
He called on Kenya to promote Japanese investments in the country and that the two countries should work on a bilateral investment agreement.
“Japan will continue to provide support to Kenya to achieve vision 2030 with support mainly centered on technology, infrastructure and education,” Abe said.
He stated that the support would among others be on the Mombasa Port expansion, geothermal development, roads construction, human resource development and that JICA and Toyota Motor Corporation would assist actualization of the programs.
Abe also appealed to Kenya to support Japan’s bid to host the Summer Olympics in the year 2020.
“Japan would like to request Kenya to support us in the bid for non-permanent membership for the UN in 2015,” Abe said during the meeting.
Ruto was accompanied cabinet secretaries Aden Mohamed (Trade) ,Davis Chirchir (Energy and Petroleum), Michael Kamau (Transport and Infrastructure), Environment Permanent Secretary Mohamed Ali, Kenya’s Ambassador to Japan Benson Ogutu and Jackson Kinyanjui, the Director External Resources at Ministry of National Treasury and John Lanyansunya, the Director for Asia and Australiasia in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.-standardmedia.co.ke
