Ruto challenges post-war global order, renews call for permanent African voice at UN

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 24— President William Ruto has challenged the post-World War II global order, arguing that the institutions created in 1945 no longer reflect the geopolitical realities of the modern world and must be reformed to give Africa a permanent voice in decisions on war, peace and global economic governance.

Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ruto placed Africa’s exclusion from the UN Security Council’s permanent membership at the centre of his broader critique of a multilateral system he said continues to proclaim sovereign equality while preserving structures of unequal power.

“Every nation in this hall has one vote. Every nation is sovereign and equal under the Charter. Yet on the gravest questions of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not,” Ruto said.

“The equality proclaimed in this Assembly ends at the doors of the Security Council.”

The Kenyan president argued that the imbalance may have reflected the international system that emerged from the Second World War but no longer corresponds to today’s world.

Ruto pointed specifically to Africa’s 54 UN member states, which account for more than a quarter of the General Assembly, but have no permanent seat on the Security Council.

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

The Security Council has five permanent members, including China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside 10 members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

Reform of the Council has remained under intergovernmental negotiations for years, with the UN’s 2024 Pact for the Future explicitly identifying the redress of Africa’s historical underrepresentation as a priority.

Ruto’s intervention therefore went beyond a demand for additional seats, framing Security Council reform as a test of whether the multilateral system can adapt to a transformed distribution of political and economic power.

The president also linked the question of representation to growing doubts about the credibility of international law, warning that inconsistent responses to international crises were eroding confidence in the rules-based system.

“The problem is not that the world lacks law. It is that confidence in its consistent application is weakening,” Ruto said.

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

He argued that perceived double standards were not simply a legal problem but a geopolitical one because they undermine trust in international institutions and weaken the legitimacy of collective action.

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

Ruto’s criticism comes as the UN itself faces renewed debate over whether its institutions are equipped to respond to a world marked by intensifying conflicts and geopolitical rivalry.

 At the opening of the 81st General Assembly, UN officials also called for a more representative Security Council and highlighted Africa’s continued underrepresentation.

The Kenyan president said the urgency of reform was underscored by the deterioration in global security, citing 65 state-based armed conflicts recorded in the previous year, including 13 that reached the scale of war.

He said conflicts stretching from Europe and the Middle East to the Sahel and Horn of Africa were increasingly being left unresolved, with civilians bearing the consequences through displacement, hunger, destruction of infrastructure and disrupted supply chains.

“Too many disputes are no longer being settled; they are being frozen, deferred or decided by force,” Ruto said.

For Kenya, he argued, defending multilateralism does not mean defending the international system in its current form.

“Kenya speaks today not from despair in this institution, but from conviction in its possibilities,” he said. “Multilateralism works when nations summon the will to make it work.”

From Security Council to global finance

Ruto extended his argument beyond geopolitical representation to the international financial system, saying the same structural inequalities that affect global security also shape countries’ ability to finance development.

He said global public debt had reached $102 trillion in 2024 and that 46 developing countries now spend more on interest payments than on either health or education.

“The hospital competes with the creditor, the classroom competes with debt service, and too often the creditor is paid first,” he said.

Ruto argued that developing countries frequently face higher borrowing costs despite having some of the greatest financing needs for infrastructure, energy, education and industrialisation.

He called for reforms that would enable multilateral development banks to lend more and for longer periods, alongside greater use of guarantees, risk-sharing mechanisms and long-term local-currency financing.

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

He also acknowledged that reform of the international financial system could not replace domestic responsibility, saying governments must manage debt prudently, strengthen institutions, prepare credible projects, honour contracts and tackle corruption.

“Reform abroad cannot substitute for accountability at home,” Ruto said.

His argument was that political and financial reform are ultimately part of the same question: who gets to shape the rules of the international system and who bears their consequences.

“Political reform and financial reform are not separate projects,” he said. “They ask the same fundamental question: whether the institutions that govern our common future will reflect the sovereign equality they proclaim, or preserve inequalities inherited from another age.”

The position echoes the UN’s Pact for the Future, adopted in 2024, which calls for stronger representation of developing countries in international financial institutions and identifies Security Council reform as a priority, including redressing Africa’s historical underrepresentation.

Africa as a global economic partner

Ruto also sought to shift the narrative around Africa from one of representation and financing needs to one of economic power and global partnership.

He said Africa’s mineral resources, agricultural potential, renewable-energy capacity and young population could contribute to global food security, clean energy and more resilient supply chains if the continent moved further up global value chains.

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

He pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area and the continent’s market of more than 1.5 billion people as potential foundations for a more industrialised Africa.

“The African Continental Free Trade Area must be more than a market for what Africa already produces; it must become the platform on which Africa makes more of what it now imports,” he said.

Ruto cited Kenya’s planned East Africa refinery in Lamu as an example of the type of value addition he wants to see, saying the project is expected to attract about $16 billion in investment and have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels of oil a day.

He said Africa should also mobilise more of its own domestic capital, which he estimated at more than $4 trillion across pension funds, insurance assets, sovereign wealth funds, banks and other institutions.

The broader message was that a more industrialised and financially stronger Africa would not simply demand a greater voice in global institutions but would become a more consequential partner in the global economy.

“A more industrialised Africa expands global demand. A more food-secure Africa strengthens global stability. A better-connected Africa diversifies global supply chains,” he said.

Seventeen years of Security Council reform talks

Ruto criticised the length of the reform process, noting that the General Assembly moved Security Council reform into intergovernmental negotiations in 2008, with formal negotiations beginning the following year.

“Seventeen years later, we are still negotiating,” he said.

He called for reform that would provide equitable and permanent representation for Africa, including the privileges and prerogatives associated with permanent membership.

The 2024 Pact for the Future similarly committed UN members to intensifying Security Council reform and specifically recognised the need to redress the historical injustice against Africa.

Ruto pointed to the Council’s own history to argue that institutional change is possible, noting that the General Assembly expanded the body from 11 to 15 members in 1963.