Kenya has strongly opposed lobbying by a number of European nations that want the UN Environment Program (UNEP) headquarters moved to France.

Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana told journalists late Monday that the plan is mischievous and questioned why Kenya and South Africa were excluded from a global ecological meeting held in France last week, where the scheme was hatched.

"This is actually the only environmental UN program that we have in Nairobi and it would be very sad if it was relocated to some place in Europe but that does not mean that we will not support the expansion of the capacity of United Nations to deal with the environment," Kibwana said.

The Paris meeting was hosted by French President Jacques Chirac and attended by 47 countries under the title friends of UNEP but Kenya and South Africa were excluded.

"Though the meeting called in France discussed how to strengthen UNEP, some protagonists want it relocated to Europe from Nairobi," the minister said.

"Despite Kenya and South Africa being leaders on environmental matters in Africa, we were not invited and that is not something light."

The meeting held on Feb. 2 sought to mobilize international action in support of UNEP with a view to strengthening environmental governance.

But the head of the French delegation to the Global Ministerial Environment Forum underway in Nairobi Laurent Stefan said they want the hub shifted to Europe because Kenya is not serious about environmental issues.

"Of course governments were invited but only the governments which have already expressed strong support of that organization and strangely enough your government (Kenyan government) has not been among the more active in the promotion of UNEP and so it was not invited," said Stefan.

Kibwana said Kenya has a counter-plan for delegates to dismiss the idea through the G77 and China. Prof. Kibwana said those pushing for the relocation were basing their argument that all major conventions directly related to UNEP were headquartered abroad.

They are Convention on Biological Diversity in Canada, Convention on Desertification and the one on Climate Change, both headquartered in Germany.

Critics have cited insecurity as the main reason for relocating the only UN headquarters which is the only one in Africa and developing country but Kenya has thwarted such attempts before.

Source: Xinhua