Ruto to deliver Kenya’s official statement as 81st session of Unga opens

In New York

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) opened in New York this week under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All,” with President William Ruto expected to deliver Kenya’s official statement within the first two days of the General Debate.

For Kenya, the session carries its own weight. Dr Ruto left Nairobi for New York on Saturday with a stop at 30 Hudson Yards to meet the Kenyan diaspora ahead of the Assembly’s formal opening events.

On Monday, President Ruto met Kenyans living in the United States and witnessed the signing of a joint Declaration of Intent among the Kenya Government, the United Nations and Equity Group Holdings in New York.

The President also attended The Africa We Build High-Level Roundtable: Regulation, Risk, Reward, on the margins of the 81st Session of Unga 81.

Addressing the gathering, President Ruto described the Kenyan diaspora as an important "part of Kenya’s growth story" not only because of the remittances they send home, but also the investment, expertise, innovation and global networks they have built.

He pointed out that the Government is building a stronger bridge between Kenyans abroad and opportunities at home founded on trust, transparency and measurable results.

“We want to make it easier for those in the diaspora to convert assets and enterprises into long-term wealth,: President Ruto said.

At the meeting, the Kenya Diaspora Impact Platform, a digital platform offering an array of opportunities for Kenyan and other investors in the diaspora, was unveiled. 

The initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Department for Diaspora Affairs, is structured to deepen ties, formalise declarations of intent, and unlock strategic investment and national development opportunities through the Kenyan diaspora. 

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During the signing of the Letter of Intent at the 30 Hudson Yard in New York, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi signed on behalf of the Government, the private sector by Equity Group Holdings CEO James Mwangi and the diaspora by the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya Garry Conille.

The President noted that the initiative will enable Kenyans in the diaspora to know which investments are available for them at home. 

However, he cautioned that trust and transparency are crucial in the successful implementation of the initiative.

According to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Ruto is expected to use the UN forum to press Kenya’s priorities on peace and security, climate finance, UN reform, artificial intelligence governance and economic diplomacy, themes that closely echo the six priorities Rahman has outlined for the session as a whole.

This year’s main focus areas of peace and security, sustainable development, climate action, human rights, the responsible use of artificial intelligence and UN reform provide a broad framework against which Kenya’s own delegation will be measuring its asks this year.

The session also opens amid preparations for the selection of a new Secretary-General to succeed António Guterres. A UN Secretary-General selection process is currently underway to determine his successor, with the new chief expected to take office on January 1, 2027.

For Kenya, the diplomatic calendar around Unga 81 extends well beyond the General Debate itself. High-Level Week runs from September 22 to 29, and this year’s side-event calendar is dense with sessions directly relevant to Kenyan interests.

These include a ministerial dialogue on countering anti-rights mobilisation featuring Kenyan civil society voices, health security and pandemic preparedness sessions, and multiple sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and health-financing events where Kenyan organisations and officials are participating alongside global partners.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman took over the Assembly’s presidency from outgoing President Annalena Baerbock of Germany, opening the session with a stark assessment of where the institution now stands.

“This is not 1945. This is the 81st session. The world has moved on,” he told delegates, warning that “a widening trust deficit is testing confidence in international institutions and collective action.”

Rahman closed his opening remarks with a challenge aimed squarely at every delegation now filing into the General Assembly Hall, Kenya’s included.

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“Trust cannot simply be requested, it must be earned,” he said, adding that it would be won “through the decisions we take, the commitments we honour and, above all, the results we deliver for the people we serve.”

At the same time, nine out of 10 rights groups worldwide have lost funding since President Donald Trump’s administration overhauled US foreign aid.

In Kenya, that collapse is now visible in shuttered shelters, laid-off peer educators, and clinics that can no longer connect people to the HIV care they once relied on.

This is the picture drawn by Breaking Point, a new report from the New York-based advocacy group Outright International, which surveyed nearly 230 lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) organisations worldwide a year and a half after the funding cuts began. 

Only 3 per cent of them can now describe themselves as "stable."

For Kenyan organisations, the report's testimonies describe a system stripped down to its last functioning parts, and in several cases, past that point.

In the report, Mamboleo Peer Empowerment Group (MPEG) observed that funding cuts forced it to let go of 100 peer educators, caregivers, outreach workers, and paralegals in one stroke, the people the organization described as "not just staff but trusted faces within the LGBTQ community." 

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