President William Ruto has renewed his call for urgent changes at the United Nations Security Council, saying Africa’s continued exclusion from permanent membership is unfair and weakens trust in global governance systems.
Speaking during the Africa Forward Summit at KICC on Tuesday, he said it is not acceptable that Africa, with nearly 1.5 billion people and 54 countries, remains outside the group of permanent decision-makers at the UN Security Council.
“It is both indispensable and unconscionable that a continent of nearly 1.5 billion people, represented by 54 sovereign states and constituting one of the largest blocks within the United Nations, continues to remain excluded from permanent representation on the Security Council,” Ruto said.
He warned that this imbalance reduces confidence in international institutions and weakens their legitimacy.
“Such inequality erodes legitimacy, undermines credibility and diminishes confidence in multilateral systems itself,” he added.
Ruto said reforming the Security Council is not optional, but necessary to restore fairness in the global order.
“The reform of the Security Council is not merely an institutional adjustment. It is a moral obligation. It is a strategic necessity. It is indispensable restoring trust, legitimacy and confidence in the international order itself,” he said.
He stressed that Africa is not seeking special treatment but equal participation in global decision-making.
“Africa does not need privilege, but fairness. We don't need exclusion, but inclusion. We do not seek confrontation, but partnership anchored on mutual respect,” he said.
The President also highlighted Africa’s growing population and youth as a major global asset.
“Our huge population is not a burden to be managed. It is an extraordinary strategic advantage to be invested in,” Ruto noted, pointing to cities such as Nairobi, Lagos, Kigali and Cape Town as centres of innovation and entrepreneurship.
However, he warned that insecurity, conflict and extremism continue to slow development across the continent. He said Africa must also strengthen its own peace systems and reduce dependence on external financing by building stronger domestic resource mobilisation.
His remarks came a day after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres made similar calls during an event in Nairobi, where he supported African representation in the Security Council.
“There will be no justice before there will be permanent African members in the Security Council,” Guterres said.
He also criticised global financial systems, saying Africa continues to face unfair borrowing conditions.
He said it is “not acceptable that African countries pay more than three times more than developed countries” to access loans for development.
The United Nations Security Council was created in 1945 after the Second World War, with five permanent members given veto powers: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China.
At the time, most African countries were still under colonial rule and had no representation in shaping the global system.
Even after independence in the 1950s and 1960s, African countries joined the UN but remained without permanent seats, a situation that has remained unchanged for decades.
African states continue to push for reforms through proposals such as the African Union’s Ezulwini Consensus, which calls for at least two permanent seats with full rights, including veto power, but no agreement has been reached.