New York, USA
Kenya on Thursday beat Djibouti
to clinch the last African seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Backed by the African Union, Kenya garnered
129 votes against Djibouti’s 62, and will join Tunisia and Niger at the Council
for two years, 2021-2022.
Nairobi had campaigned on its contribution to
East Africa’s peace efforts and its participation in AU peacekeeping missions.
In his final plea to UN General Assembly
delegates, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday said Kenya would use its stint
at the Security Council to advance the “pan-Africanist agenda of global peace,
solidarity and multilateralism.”
The first vote was held on Wednesday but no
clear winner was obtained, forcing a second round of voting.
While most of the UN operations are currently
conducted online, the voting was done by a secret ballot in New York.
Each of the 193 delegations were allocated a
chance to cast their ballots in the Assembly Hall at designated times
distributed throughout the day.
The Security Council has 10 non-permanent
members in addition to the veto-wielding Big Five – Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States.
Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir was also elected President of the UN General Assembly for the 2020-2021 session.
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