NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF KENYA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

John Otachi Kakonge, the new Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Kakonge had been working since 2010 as a Special Adviser to South-South News, a digital media platform for the countries of the South, based in New York. He has spent most of his career working for the United Nations Development Programme in various capacities, including as Senior Deputy Director of the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation in New York from 2008 to 2010 and Special Adviser to the Unit in 2006 and 2007. He joined UNDP in 1981 and worked for them in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Lesotho, Liberia, the Gambia and Rwanda.

Mr. Kakonge started his career as a research assistant at the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife of Kenya in 1974. In 1976 and 1977, he was an ecologist with the Tana River Development Authority in Kenya. In 1978 and 1979, he was a research assistant with the World Bank and with Africare in Washington. From 1980 to 1981, he was a lecturer at the Department of Geology and Geography at Howard University, Washington.

Mr. Kakonge has a Bachelor of Education in Geology from the University of Nairobi (1976); a Master of Arts in Development Sociology from Howard University, Washington (1978); a Doctor of Philosophy in African Studies from Howard University (1987); and a Master of Philosophy in Land Economy from Cambridge University (1989). His written work has been widely published.


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CR13/006E