This week’s conversation dovetails themes that have become very present in my perspectives in the past year. Our conversation takes place in one of my locals, which happens to be a new-ish local for my guest--Brooklyn, New York. My guest, Ambassador Martin Kimani is a native of a soon-to-be local for me--Kenya. And we are both decidedly on a #PanAfricaProgress mission. Getting to this point, Ambassabor Kimani has spent his career operating at the intersection of diplomacy, security, and political legitimacy, working across national, regional, and multilateral systems to resolve conflict, build institutions, and negotiate power.

As Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, he served as president of the Security Council and the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. His Security Council address of February 2022, delivered on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and viewed by millions, affirmed a core element of his leadership: the ability to bring moral clarity and strategic grounding to moments of international rupture. Earlier, in his career, he directed Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and served as the President’s Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism advising three presidents through national and regional crises, from emergency evacuations to constitutional brinkmanship.

This year he stepped into a new role as President and CEO of The Africa Center in New York marking a new phase in his work where diplomacy, strategy, and narrative converge. At the same time his Pan-African portfolio, alongside his continued engagement with the United Nations, positions him as the current President of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

Where to find Martin?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Martin reading?
A Wreath for Udomo by Peter Abrahams

Other topics of interest:
About Mombasa, Kenya
Nyeri, Kenya
Kiambu, Kenya
About the Kikuyu People
Ambassador Kimani’s Security Council Speech
The First Pan-African Congress in London
The Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester
Who was George Padmore?
Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe
African Nationalism

Special Guest: Martin Kimani.