Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations has delivered a powerful speech to the Security Council on the situation in Ukraine, invoking Africa's colonial past to decry Russia's internationally-condemned move into its eastern European neighbour.
drawing international condemnation and concern amid fears a major war could be around the corner.
Mr Putin said the decision was made as part of "peacekeeping" efforts, a suggestion rubbished by Western powers.
It prompted , where Martin Kimani said Kenya was gravely concerned by the Russian action and deployment that he said "breaches the territorial integrity of Ukraine".
“Mr President, this situation echoes our history. Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of an empire. Our borders are not of our own drawings. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris and Lisbon with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart,” Mr Kimani said.
Across Africa today, Mr Kimani said, “live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural, and linguistic bonds”.
“At independence, had we chosen to pursue 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 follow the rules of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Charter, not because our borders satisfied us, but because we wanted something greater forged in peace.”
Mr Kimani said Kenya was not only concerned by Russia’s move, but also by the “trend” in the last few decades “of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard”.
He said multilateralism – or the process of organising relations between groups of three or more states – is lying “on its deathbed”.
“It has been assaulted today, as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past.”
Ukraine's ambassador told the crisis Security Council session his country's borders remain "unchangeable" despite Russia's actions.
Russia's ambassador said it was still "open to diplomacy for a diplomatic solution" - but warned against what he called Ukrainian aggression.
