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Category: Diaspora News

Written by BMJ Muriithi

He has been in the news in the recent past, mainly because of his involvement in the Kenyan government’s attempt to lobby the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to push for a deferral of cases currently on the International Criminal Court’s desk at The Hague, Netherlands. But few Kenyans in the Diaspora had heard of his name before that.

Mr Macharia Kamau is the new Head of the Kenyan Mission to the United Nations in New York. He replaces Mr Zachary Dominic Muburi-Muita, who recently took up a senior UN posting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Perhaps due the timing, Kamau’s ascendency into the coveted position seems to have been obscured. He moved in unnoticed and even the hawk eyed Kenyan mainstream media seems to have been caught napping as it did not give the posting the hoopla that usually accompanies a new posting at the assembly of nations.

But be as it may, the diplomat hit the ground running, and before we knew it, heads were turning, wondering who this Macharia Kamau was. KEN can now reveal the true identity of the Harvard educated diplomat who has been making hedlines as President Kibaki’s pointman in NewYork.

He was born on 3 March 1958, and holds degrees in history, economics and education from Wooster College, Ohio, and Harvard University, Massachusetts.

Until his latest appointment, Mr. Kamau was Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Nairobi, where he served concurrently as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) from March 2009.

From August 2008 to March 2009, he served as a consultant in multiple concurrent roles, including Africa Adviser with the Global Development Department of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Advocacy and Leadership Adviser with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for East and Southern Africa; Independent Consultant with the Africa Child Policy Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Senior Associate at the Africa Policy Institute in Pretoria, South Africa; and Senior Adviser for Community Innovations in Pretoria.

Between June 2005 and July 2008, Mr. Kamau was the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative in South Africa, prior to which he served in the same country as Acting United Nations Resident Coordinator and Designated Official for Safety and Security.  From September 2002 to April 2005, he was United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Kigali, Rwanda.  From May to August 2002, he was the United Nations Representative and Technical Adviser to the Technical Support Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium, prior to which he held the post of Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Gaborone, Botswana from August 1998 until May 2002.

In addition to New York, Mr. Kamau’s extensive experience in the United Nations system earned him postings to Barbados, Namibia and Zambia, serving in various capacities with UNICEF and the United Nations Transition Assistance Group.  He joined UNICEF in 1985 as Programme Communication and Social Mobilization Consultant for the East and Southern Africa Regional Office in Nairobi.

With a resume like that, chances are that the gentleman will not disappoint as he seeks to represent our country at the august assembly of Nations. But again, only time will tell.