Institution
MINUSCA
A coalition file for most of Kenya's term, until Kenya voted for the mandate's 2022 renewal and its own A3 partner Gabon abstained.
The Central African Republic's UN file centers on MINUSCA, the multidimensional peacekeeping mission the Security Council established in 2014 after a coup and sectarian violence between Séléka and anti-balaka militias killed thousands. By the time Kenya's own Council term began in January 2021, disputed December 2020 elections had triggered a fresh armed-group offensive that briefly threatened the capital, Bangui, itself. That is the crisis Kenya's first CAR statement, delivered weeks later, was responding to directly.
For most of the term, Kenya spoke on this file through a coalition: first the A3+1 (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), then, after 2022's Council membership turnover, the three-member A3 (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya). Every one of these joint statements was delivered by another country's ambassador, most often Tunisia's Tarek Ladeb or Gabon's Michel Xavier Biang.
The joint statements return to a consistent throughline across nearly two years: support for President Touadéra's on-again ceasefires and the Luanda-roadmap peace process, condemnation of disinformation and hate speech specifically targeted at MINUSCA and its leadership, and a running argument over the CAR arms embargo, which the A3 consistently pushed to have lifted or eased faster than the Council as a whole was willing to move.
That coalition unity broke on the file's biggest vote. When the Council renewed MINUSCA's mandate in November 2022 as resolution 2659, Kenya voted for it, while its own A3 partner Gabon abstained, alongside China and Russia.
Kenya's own explanation of vote, delivered this time by Kimani himself rather than through a coalition partner, is unusually candid about why it voted yes despite reservations: the resolution, it said plainly, was "still not fully fit for purpose," with the A3's own proposal to elevate protection of state authority and territorial integrity to a mandate priority only partially accepted, and "manifest geopolitical considerations" among negotiating delegations blamed for a polarized process that left CAR's civilians "suffering consequences of rivalries they have absolutely no interest in."
Independent Sources for This Introduction
Chronology
| 2014-04-10 | event | Security Council establishes MINUSCA The Council adopts resolution 2149, establishing the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), following a coup and sectarian violence between mostly Muslim Séléka rebels and mostly Christian anti-balaka militias that had killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands. MINUSCA's mandate has been renewed annually ever since, the cycle Kenya's own statements track through 2021-2022. |
| 2020-12-27 | event | CAR holds presidential and legislative elections amid armed group violence President Faustin-Archange Touadéra wins re-election in polls marked by a coalition of armed groups, the Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement (CPC), attempting to disrupt voting and briefly threatening the capital, Bangui. This is the immediate backdrop to Kenya's first CAR statement of its Council term two months later. |
| 2021-02-24 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3+1 Joint Statement A3+1 joint statement (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) |
| 2021-06-23 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3+1 Joint Statement A3+1 joint statement (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), delivered by Amb. Tarek Ladeb, Permanent Representative of Tunisia |
| 2021-10-18 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3+1 Joint Statement A3+1 joint statement (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), delivered by Amb. Tarek Ladeb, Permanent Representative of Tunisia |
| 2021-10-18 | Photograph | Security Council Meeting on the Central African Republic (Council Presidency) |
| 2022-02-22 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3 Joint Statement A3 joint statement (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya), delivered by Amb. Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of Gabon |
| 2022-06-22 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3 Joint Statement A3 joint statement (Kenya, Ghana, Gabon), delivered by Amb. Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of Gabon |
| 2022-07-29 | Statement | CAR Arms Embargo Easing: Explanation of Vote (Abstention) Kenya's national explanation of vote |
| 2022-10-19 | Statement | MINUSCA: A3 Joint Statement A3 joint statement (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya), delivered by Amb. Michel Xavier Biang, Permanent Representative of Gabon |
| 2022-11-14 | event | Security Council renews MINUSCA's mandate, adopting resolution 2659 The Council adopts resolution 2659, extending MINUSCA's mandate for a further year to November 15, 2023, by a vote of 12 in favour, none against, and 3 abstentions: China, Russia, and, notably, Gabon, one of Kenya's own A3 partners on this file throughout the term. |
| 2022-11-14 | Statement | MINUSCA Mandate Renewal: Explanation of Vote Kenya's national explanation of vote, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |