2nd Kenyan Model United Nations held in UN Complex

Nairobi, 6 March 2003--The Second Kenya Model United Nations (KMUN) conference took is taking place at the UN Gigiri complex in Nairobi with students from six universities in Kenya taking part as delegates. The four-day conference began on 3 March with welcoming remarks from Shafqat Kakakhel, the Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It was officially opened by Duncan Okello, East African Regional Director of the Society for International Development.

KMUN President Nyakiaro Njuguna told the conference, which is attended by more than 200 students, that the United Nations must continue fighting for the rights of women. “FGM (female genital mutilation) is a cultural practice that must be done away with. The rights of children must also be upheld; we are the ones to fight for them. Child labour must be totally abolished and the child, whether boy or girl, must receive compulsory and even free education,” she said.

Miss Njuguna also said that HIV-AIDS has continued to haunt us all and in many African countries it continues to leave men and women widowed, children orphaned and countries “stripped of potential economy builders”.

The universities taking part in the KMUN conference include Daystar, Kenyatta, Moi, Nairobi, Strathmore and the Nairobi-campus of the United States International University.

The KMUN conference follows the East African Model United Nations conference which took place last week, with nearly 1,000 high school students from Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) taking part.

For more information contact Nasser Ega-Musa, email : Nasser.ega-musa@unon.org