Remarks by Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura, Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi on the occasion of the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the CFP Assembly Hall and Inauguration of the New Office Blocks at the UN Gigiri Complex
Monday, 11 May 2026
Your Excellency Dr. William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya;
Mr. António Guterres [GUTERES], Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Madam Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Honourable Musalia Mudavadi, Prime Cabinet Secretary & Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign & Diaspora Affairs, Republic of Kenya;
Your Excellency Mr. William McDonald, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations in Kenya and the Conference Facilities Project Advisory Board Chair;
Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, UN Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen—good morning.
We are deeply honoured to welcome you to the United Nations Office at Nairobi for this historic moment: the groundbreaking of the Conference Facilities Project Assembly Hall and the inauguration of our new office blocks here at the UN Gigiri Complex.
We are standing on the very ground where a new, state-of-the-art Assembly Hall will rise—the design you see in the backdrop will seat 1,600 delegates. It will also reflect both the UN’s modernist heritage and the unique beauty of our Gigiri complex.
By 2029, UNON will expand from 14 to 30 meeting rooms, increasing total seating capacity from 2,000 to 9,000 delegates—thus strengthening Nairobi’s role as a global centre for multilateral diplomacy.
This milestone is possible because of the steadfast support of the Secretary-General, the President, Government and people of Kenya, and the Member States.
Mr. Secretary-General, thank you for your leadership and belief in Nairobi as a vital UN headquarters, the only one in the Global South.
Your Excellency Mr. President, we are deeply grateful for Kenya’s partnership and commitment to multilateral cooperation, which continues to make Nairobi a unique home for global dialogue and action.
I also thank our dedicated project team, the Advisory Board, and all Member States, as well as our architects—Boogertman [BOOGETMAN] + Partners of South Africa & their Kenyan partners, and Herzog & de Meuron [HEZOG & DE MURON] of Switzerland—and their consultants for turning this vision into reality.
Today, we also inaugurate the new office buildings—completed under budget and ahead of schedule—improving space utilization, strengthening climate resilience, and ensuring universal accessibility. Together with the new conferencing facilities, they represent a combined capital value of 340 million US Dollars—the UN Secretariat’s largest investment in Africa outside peacekeeping.
Thank you for joining us for this landmark step for the United Nations in Kenya and for the future of diplomacy in Nairobi.
Asanteni sana.