Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi Gets The Final Nod To Head UN's Trade and Development Body

DR. Mukhisa Kituyi

Courtesy of Daily Nation: Dr Mukhisa Kituyi's appointment to lead the UN's trade and development body has finally been ratified by the General Assembly.

Dr Kituyi will serve as Secretary-General of UN Conference on Trade and Development for a term of four years beginning September 1, 2013.

In a statement, the UN stated that Dr Kituyi, who is a former Trade minister in the Kibaki regime will take over from Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand who leaves office in August this year.

“[Dr] Kituyi brings to this position, a combination of proactive leadership and strategic management with hands-on experience in the global trading system,” said a statement from Secretary-General’s office.

Dr Kituyi, 57, who will become the tenth Secretary General of UNCTAD, had been nominated by Mr Ki-Moon last month for confirmation by the General Assembly.

He will become the first Kenyan to head a UN agency. Before this appointment, Dr Kituyi had served as MP for Kimilili Constituency (now split between Kimilili and Tongaren), a post he held on from 1992 until he was defeated in the 2007 elections by Dr Eseli Simiyu. 

He contested in the 2013 General Election for the seat of Bungoma Senator but emerged third behind winner Moses Wetangula and Musikari Kombo.

From 2008, he had been serving as as the Executive Director of the Kenya Institute of Governance, an institution that focuses on the linking the academia with public policy in the East African region.

He once served on the committee of experts advising the East African Community presidents on the challenges, opportunities and road map to regional integration, besides consulting for the Africa Union Commission on Pan-African Free Trade Area.

As Trade minister between 2003 and 2008, Dr Kituyi is accredited with spearheading regional relations through trade.

He was influential in campaigning Kenya’s position on the Comesa trade safeguards in 2007 which sought to protect local farmers from cheaper sugar imports from the region. The safeguards were extended again last year.

UNCTAD was formed in 1964 following calls by developing countries to have an agency that would tackle growing imbalances in trade between these nations and the developing world. 

The 194-member agency has had several achievements through its periodic conferences. 

For example, its formative years, it served as a forum for trade negotiations between developing and developed nations where to eliminate restrictive business practices by the developed world.

However, as times went by, UNCTAD could help countries to agree on trade policies because of the changing geopolitics. 

In the 1980s, the situation worsened as countries in Latin America and Africa found themselves in debt crises meaning they were more dependent on aid than trade.

Although through UNCTAD, the world has been able to create legal framework for international trade, the agency faces stiff challenges as countries are still affected by disease, poverty and corruption. 

Dr Kituyi will now have to draw lessons from challenges he faced in marketing EAC free trade campaigns to bring every UNCTAD member on the same page.