Ruto sustains push for Africa's seat at UN Security Council

President William Ruto during the State Funeral Service for Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at Nyayo Stadium, October 17, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

President William Ruto has sustained the push for a permanent seat for Africa at the highest governing body of the United Nations, terming it a make-or-break decision for the global body. 

The President, who was addressing the World Urban Forum, a meeting organised by the United Nations body on human settlement, UN-Habitat, said this anomaly needs to be rectified for the UN to remain credible. 

He also insisted that the continent will continue pushing for a fair international financial system that takes into account the needs and wealth of the continent when it comes to accessing funds. 

President Ruto made the remarks in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he is attending the 13th session of the World Urban Forum under the theme, Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities. 

He is accompanied by Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development CS Alice Wahome and Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga. 

In his address, President Ruto spoke of a continent that has been sidelined from participating in discussions that affect it. This is despite its influence and capital on the global economy. 

Africa, whose population now stands at 1.5 billion, will make up 25 per cent of the world’s population by 2050. 

“A continent that has huge resources that will have the world’s largest population – 25 per cent of the world’s population by 2050 – today, cannot access concessional funding to drive its development, more importantly, housing,” he said. 

He said today, African countries and emerging economies pay two to three to four times more to access development financing because of the element of risk. 

“We need to correct this paradox,” said the President. 

He said the necessity to reform the international financial architecture so that it is aligned with the needs, requirements and imperatives of the current world is urgent. 

“Most of our countries did not exist in 1945 when the Bretton Woods institutions were established. Today, we do not have enough voice, enough access, and even the paradox is that the countries that need concessional funding the most pay more than those that do not when they go to the market.  That must be corrected,” he said.

He added: “That is why we are of the firm position that as African countries we need the reforms of the international financial architecture so that it represents the exigencies of the present.” 

He expanded the reforms to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the highest decision-making body of the UN, speaking of how there is no permanent representation of the continent. 

He insisted this must also be rectified if the UN is to survive in future. 

A bigger paradox is that 60 per cent of the agenda of the UNSC is African issues. What a paradox that your issues are being discussed on a table you are not represented at,” he said. 

He added: “For the survival of the UN, there must be reforms that correct this anomaly, that bring justice so that the UN and the UNSC specifically. 

It is only then, he said, that the UN will be a democratic representative of its membership. 

“That is how we are going to solve the problems of the present and figure out how we are going to have a better future,” he said. 

France, which is a permanent member of the UNSC, through President Emmanuel Macron, pledged during the just concluded Africa Forward Summit held in Nairobi, that he will push for Africa to get a seat at the table. 

Apart from France, other permanent members of the UNSC are: China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

In this forum that opened on Monday, President Ruto also detailed how Kenya is tackling the housing crisis. He documented that in the last three years, through implementation of the 1.5 per cent affordable housing levy, some 8,000 Kenyans have become homeowners. 

He said by the end of this year, 50,000 keys would have been issued. In the pipeline, there are some 700,000 units at different stages. 

He said apart from providing shelter, which is a human right under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Kenya has also created jobs through the programme. 

“As a result, we have employed 640,000 young people – masons, architects, quantity surveyors – and we are on the way to hiring one million in the short term,” he said.