Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s conversation dovetails themes that have become very present in my perspectives this past year. Our conversation takes place in one of my locals, which happens to be a new-ish local for my guest - Brooklyn, New York. My guest, Ambassador Martin Kimani is a native of a soon-to-be local for me - Kenya. And we are both decididedly on a #PanAfricaProgress mission. Getting to this point, Ambassabor Kimani has spent his career operating at the intersection of diplomacy, security, and political legitimacy, working across national, regional, and multilateral systems to resolve conflict, build institutions, and negotiate power.
As Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, he served as president of the Security Council and the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. In his Security Council address of February 2022 (https://www.un.int/kenya/statements_speeches/statement-amb-martin-kimani-during-security-council-urgent-meeting-situation), delivered on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and viewed by millions, affirmed a core element of his leadership: the ability to bring moral clarity and strategic grounding to moments of international rupture. Earlier, in his career, he directed Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and served as the President’s Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism advising three presidents through national and regional crises, from emergency evacuations to constitutional brinkmanship.
This year he stepped into a new role as President and CEO of The Africa Center (https://theafricacenter.org) in New York marking a new phase in his work where diplomacy, strategy, and narrative converge. At the same time his Pan-African portfolio alongside his continued engagement with the United Nations positions him as the current President of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (https://www.ohchr.org/en/permanent-forum-people-african-descent).
Where to find Martin?
On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kimani-a44849215/)
On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ambmkimani/?hl=en)
What’s Martin reading?
A Wreath for Udomo (https://50wattsbooks.com/products/a-wreath-for-udomo-peter-abrahams?srsltid=AfmBOooU1jYcu8Lxyc0K8p8sCDK1PSkL0GaLZ0oi3AVTcUN7y8ulaTyx) by Peter Abrahams (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Abrahams)
Other topics of interest:
About Mombasa, Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mombasa)
Nyeri, Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyeri)
Kiambu, Kenya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiambu)
About the Kikuyu People (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyu_people)
Ambassador Kimani’s Security Council Speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZlaiuicYM)
The First Pan-African Congress in London (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Pan-African_Conference)
The Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester (https://panafricancongress.org/the-fifth-pan-african-congress/)
Who was George Padmore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Padmore)?
Necropolitics (https://www.dukeupress.edu/necropolitics) by Achille Mbembe
African Nationalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_nationalism)
