YouSaid · the spoken record

William Samoei Ruto

lines on the record

59

first

2022-09-24

most recent

2023-09-24

sittings or episodes

2

sources

un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “If for no other reason, the fact that we are in this together must strengthen the case for concerted efforts across the continents. With that in mind, I call on Member States and all relevant stakeholders to demonstrate strong political will and showcase effective cooperation by supporting the most affected countries both financially and by sharing land-restoration and climate-adaptation technologies. Collaborating to expand inclusion can usher in a new paradigm of multilateralism for us. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds us that we cannot afford to waste another moment debating the merits of doing something versus doing nothing. It will soon be too late to reverse the course of events, and then, even the best possible interventions will not suffice.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

2. “The northern, arid and semi-arid rangelands of our country have been gravely impacted by drought whose severity has not been experienced in 40 years. The scarce rainfall over three consecutive seasons has led to poor crops and pasture, leaving some 3.1 million residents of those rangelands severely food insecure. That unprecedented confluence of intensely adverse events has exacerbated water scarcity and starvation, which are worsened by rising food prices, thereby complicating Kenya’s road map towards delivering a good quality of life to its citizens and hindering our progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 2. Severe drought has affected not only the Horn of Africa and the Sahel regions; it also continues to devastate many others, including in Asia, Europe and the Americas.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

3. “The interlocking challenges of conflicts, the triple planetary crisis and the global food crisis have impeded our momentum and obstructed our focus in achieving fundamental transformations towards sustainable development. In the Horn of Africa region, severe drought and the disruption of supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have left us food-insecure. Consequently, we have been constrained to repurpose our strategies to prioritize drought and famine relief to insulate education from disruption and improve social protection and health-care systems in order ensure people’s well-being. Many countries now bear witness to the unsettling phenomena of rivers, canals and water reservoirs drying up owing to droughts and heat waves occasioned by climate change. Kenya is no exception.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

4. “The bottom millions relentlessly wage their daily battle for survival in a crowded arena that is characterized by scarcity of opportunity and a generally precarious existence. The ingenuity, optimism, resilience and energy demonstrated by those in that ever-bustling bottom segment is sometimes called hustling. Invisible to policymakers and beyond the reach of many public services, those hustlers take nothing for granted, surviving overwhelming odds and frequently achieving great success. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle. It is time to bolster the resilience of our nations to mainstream those millions through deliberate strategies and efforts to advance economic inclusion by building back better from the bottom.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

5. “It is important to reflect on those matters as we do our best to get our people, enterprises and industries back on their feet so that the engine of development can power our societies towards a prosperity that actually leaves no one behind. “Building back better” is the universal rallying call to incorporate lessons learned into doing more, in a better way, to recover from shocks. I would suggest that we have a golden opportunity to faithfully adhere to that motto by augmenting it, in word and in deed, with an additional “b” to make it “building back better from the bottom”. Building back better from the bottom upwards is essentially about including the marginalized working majority in the economic mainstream.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

6. “It brought into sharp focus the global economy’s two- lane highway, repressively patrolled by a rising tide of exclusionist nationalism — a spectre that undermines prospects for collective action and significantly impairs the resolve of the international community to guarantee the fundamental rights, including the rights to safety and dignity, of the world’s vulnerable majority. It is also for that reason that many nations, especially in the global South, now advocate the democratization of global governance and a reimagined multilateralism that is inclusive and works for the good of all. Kenya stands ready to work with other nations to achieve the pan-Africanization of multilateralism and a more just and inclusive system of global governance.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

7. “The immense pressure exerted by conventional threats, such as climate change, the global food crisis, terrorism, cybercrime and armed conflict, has been compounded by the unprecedented and devastating disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I express my approval of the President’s theme for this year’s session, “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”, because it boldly signals the window of opportunity that we now have to step up our engagement from firm consensus to decisive action. In many respects, the COVID-19 pandemic stripped us of many illusions and exposed stark justice and solidarity deficits in the face of existential crisis.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

8. “I take this opportunity to congratulate the President on his election and to express my confidence that his wealth of experience offers us significant assurance of his good leadership. The motto of his presidency, “Solutions through solidarity, sustainability and science”, succinctly captures with particular resonance the urgent imperatives of our time. I assure the President of Kenya’s firm support and cooperation during his tenure. I also take this opportunity to commend his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, for his bold steps in steering the United Nations community and for ensuring its business continuity under the unprecedented circumstances occasioned by multiple global threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Human well-being is under grave threat. The health of the planet requires urgent attention.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)

9. “I am grateful for the immense privilege of joining everyone here in the General Assembly — a privilege made possible by the peaceful democratic transition that followed the free and fair elections held in Kenya on 9 August. Those elections stand as a testimony of the universal power of democracy, as well as the manifest ability of African peoples to invest in stronger nations and a secure future by using robust institutions, effective constitutions and the impartial administration of the rule of law to guarantee the realization of our shared objectives. The General Assembly’s seventy-seventh session comes at a unique moment, as the entire world struggles with multiple grave challenges, including regional conflicts, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the triple planetary crisis, food insecurity and the rising cost of living.”

   2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)