Ruto warns UN double standards are eroding trust in global order

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 24— President William Ruto has warned that inconsistent application of international law and unequal power within the United Nations are eroding trust in the multilateral system, urging countries to confront what he described as a widening gap between the principles of sovereign equality and the way global institutions operate.

Addressing the General Debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ruto said the credibility of the international system depends not only on the rules it adopts but on whether those rules are applied consistently.

“International law cannot be invoked loudly in one crisis, cautiously in another and disregarded when convenient,” Ruto said.

“Trust cannot be restored by declaration. It must be earned by consistency.”

The Kenyan president placed the issue at the centre of a broader critique of the post-Second World War global order, arguing that institutions created in 1945 no longer adequately reflect today’s geopolitical realities.

He said the credibility of collective security was being weakened as conflicts multiplied while international responses remained uneven.

Ruto cited what he said were 65 state-based armed conflicts last year, including 13 at war scale, with nearly 250,000 people killed in organised violence.

He said interstate conflicts had doubled for a second consecutive year and quadrupled in two years, from two to eight.

“Disputes are increasingly frozen, deferred or decided by force,” he said, warning that conflicts stretching from Europe and the Middle East to the Sahel and Horn of Africa were exposing failures in collective security.

His criticism extended to the structure of the Security Council, where five permanent members- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — hold veto power.

The Council has 15 members, with the remaining 10 elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

Ruto argued that the arrangement sits uneasily with the principle of sovereign equality represented by the 193-member General Assembly.

“Every nation has one vote in this Assembly,” he said. “But five have permanent power in the Security Council. The equality proclaimed in this Assembly ends at the doors of the Security Council.”

For Africa, he said, the imbalance was particularly stark.

The continent has 54 UN member states but has no permanent seat on the Security Council, despite being heavily affected by issues on the Council’s peace and security agenda. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also described Africa’s absence from permanent representation as a historical injustice.

“We are frequently the subject of its decisions, permanently discussed but permanently excluded,” Ruto said.

He argued that the exclusion reflected the circumstances of 1945 rather than the political realities of the 21st century, noting that much of Africa was still under colonial rule when the UN’s founding institutions were created.

“The world has transformed. The Council has not,” he said. “We cannot manage transformation with institutions that refuse to transform themselves.”

Ruto’s remarks come as UN member states continue negotiations on reforming the Security Council.

 The General Assembly’s intergovernmental negotiations process has remained active in 2026, with discussions covering the Council’s composition, regional representation and other aspects of reform.

The UN’s 2024 Pact for the Future committed member states to Security Council reform, including efforts to make the body more representative, inclusive, transparent, effective and accountable, while specifically recognising the need to address the historical underrepresentation of Africa.

Kenya has backed the African common position calling for at least two permanent African seats and five additional non-permanent seats, with full privileges for permanent members, including veto rights if the veto is retained.

Ruto also linked political reform at the UN to inequalities in the global financial system, arguing that developing countries face borrowing costs and financial constraints that limit their ability to invest in development.

He cited global public debt of $102 trillion in 2024 and said developing countries, despite holding less than a third of that debt, paid about $1 trillion in interest. He said 46 developing countries spend more on interest payments than on health or education.

“Capital must price risk; it must not price prejudice,” Ruto said.

He called for reforms to the international financial architecture, including greater lending by multilateral development banks, stronger guarantees and risk-sharing mechanisms, and longer-term financing in local currencies.

But he also acknowledged that developing countries bear responsibility for strengthening their own institutions.

“Reform abroad cannot substitute for accountability at home,” he said, calling for debt prudence, credible projects, strong institutions, reliable contracts and action against corruption.

Ruto framed the two reform agendas — political and financial — as part of the same question over whether global institutions reflect the principle of sovereign equality.

“Political reform and financial reform are not separate projects,” he said.

Africa, he added, should not approach the global system merely as a recipient of assistance but as a source of investment, production and economic growth.

“Africa does not come to plead. We come to propose,” he said, pointing to the continent’s mineral resources, agricultural potential, renewable energy, young population and 1.5 billion-person market.

He urged African countries to move beyond exporting raw materials and capture more value from their resources.

“Africa’s resources must become the beginning of African industry, not the end of Africa’s contribution to the value chain,” he said.