We will fight bid to move Unep: Ongeri
Foreign Affairs minister Prof Sam Ongeri. Photo/FILE
Kenya will fight plans to relocate United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) offices from Kenya.
Foreign Affairs minister Sam Ongeri said Kenya will take advantage of an upcoming international summit to block a motion by some countries to relocate the Unep offices from Kenya.
He said that they would advocate for the transformation of Unep into a United Nations Environment Organisation at the UN Conference for Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.
Twin themes
The event, dubbed Rio +20, will be held under the twin themes of “A green economy in the context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication” and “Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development”.
“There are a number of countries that have vigorously campaigned to downgrade Unep and advocated for its relocation and this campaign has never ceased,” Prof Ongeri said on Wednesday.
But Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN Macharia Kamau dismissed the allegations that there were plans to move the office from Africa.
“There is no such thing,” he said.
