PCS
President William Ruto has called for an end to a United Nations Security Council structure that gives five countries permanent membership and veto powers while excluding the other 188 member states.
Ruto said Africa’s 54 nations remain excluded from permanent membership of the Security Council despite the continent frequently being the subject of the Council’s decisions.
He called for reforms to give Africa equitable and permanent representation, with the prerogatives and privileges of permanent membership.
“Every nation in this hall has one vote. Every nation is sovereign and equal under the Charter. Yet on the gravest questions of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not,” he said.
Ruto made the remarks while addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, where he called for urgent reforms to restore trust in the global institution.
He said African nations could not build trust in a system that proclaimed equality while preserving inequalities in its structures or applying international law inconsistently.
“If we are serious about restoring trust, then rules must apply consistently. If we are serious about managing transformation, then our institutions must themselves transform. And if we seek a United Nations that delivers for all, then all must have a meaningful voice, a fair opportunity and a stake in the system,” he said.
Ruto said Africa must have a meaningful voice in decisions shaping global peace and security.
“The world has transformed. The Council has not. We cannot manage transformation with institutions that refuse to transform themselves,” he said.
He said the current international security architecture was designed at a time when most of Africa was under colonial rule and therefore had little influence in shaping institutions governing global peace.
“At San Francisco, only four African countries were represented while most of our continent remained under colonial rule,” he said.
Ruto noted that, under the Pact for the Future, UN member states had agreed that addressing historical injustices against Africa should be a priority in Security Council reform.
The President also called for reforms to the international financial architecture to give every country a fair opportunity to improve the wellbeing of its people.
He said development should not remain most expensive for countries that need investment most, as debt servicing continues to compete with spending on education, healthcare and other priorities.
Ruto said global public debt reached a record $102 trillion in 2024, with developing countries accounting for less than a third of the total. He said the countries paid about $1 trillion in interest that year.
“Forty-six developing countries now spend more on interest than on health or education. Behind these numbers lies a simple reality: The hospital competes with the creditor, the classroom competes with debt service and, too often, the creditor is paid first,” he said.
Ruto called for multilateral development banks to increase lending and for greater use of guarantees, risk-sharing instruments, long-term financing and local-currency financing to lower the cost of viable investments.
He said international reforms alone would not be sufficient, urging governments to manage debt prudently, strengthen institutions, deepen domestic capital markets, honour contracts and tackle corruption.
“Governments must also do their part to manage debt prudently, prepare credible projects and deepen domestic capital markets,” he said.
“A fairer international system requires responsibility on both sides. Reform abroad cannot substitute for accountability at home,” he added.
Ruto said political and financial reforms must be accompanied by action to ensure global institutions deliver peace, prosperity and opportunity more fairly.
“Political reform and financial reform are not separate projects. They ask the same fundamental question: Whether the institutions that govern our common future will reflect the sovereign equality they proclaim, or preserve inequalities inherited from another age,” he said.
He warned that failure to build an effective United Nations capable of preventing conflict, defending peace and advancing development would have severe consequences for civilians.
“When collective security breaks down, schools close, hospitals collapse, families flee and economies are consumed by war. Peace is not separate from development. It is its first condition. When the institutions entrusted with peace fail, it is too often the youngest who inherit the consequences,” he said.
Ruto said Africa was not approaching the global system merely to demand change but was offering solutions backed by its mineral wealth, agricultural potential, renewable energy resources, youthful population and a market of more than 1.5 billion people.
“Africa does not come to plead. We came to propose,” he said.
On the domestic front, Ruto announced that Kenya expects to break ground on the East Africa Refinery in Lamu, a facility he said would have the capacity to process 700,000 barrels of oil a day at an estimated investment of $16 billion (about Sh2 trillion).
“Its significance extends beyond one project or one country. It represents the Africa we seek to build: Adding value at home, creating jobs for our people and building industries capable of serving continental and global markets,” he said.
Ruto urged countries pushing for reforms not to conclude that change was impossible because it was difficult.
He noted that the UN had previously changed its architecture, citing the 1963 General Assembly decision to expand the Security Council.
“The Council grew from 11 to 15 members because Member States recognised that the institution had to respond to a changing membership. What was possible then is possible again,” he said.
