Kenya has rejected Russia’s invasion and recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as independent states, stating that “In our considered view, this action and announcement breaches the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
In a strong worded statement by Ambassador Martin Kimani, and read at the emergency meeting of the United Nations security council on Monday evening, Kenya condemned Mr Putin for breaching the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Ambassador Kimani rejected the independent status of Donetsk and Luhansk and urged Russia not to subject itself as the new tool of oppression against other nations.
“Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression,” he said.
Acknowledging the security concerns in both nations, Kenya stressed that Russia could have opted for diplomatic methods in resolving the dispute between the former Soviet union and its neighbouring Ukraine.
The Ambassador urged Mr Putin to emulate Kenya, a nation that had learned to live with the borders it inherited from colonial masters instead of waging bloody wars against other nations to secure more territories.
“Kenya and almost every other African country were birthed by an ending empire. Our borders were not our drawing. They were drawn in a distant metropole in London, Paris and Lisbon with no regard to the ancient nations that were cleaved apart,” the Ambassador said.
He added that, “At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars 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 look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known,”
Concluding the statement, the ambassador said “We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious or cultural factors. We reject it again today.”
