UNEP not to relocate from Kenya: official

There has been no proposal to relocate the UN Environment Program (UNEP) from its headquarters in Nairobi to Europe, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner told journalists that a secret plot reportedly hatched in Paris last week that France is lobbying European nations to relocate UNEP from Africa was basically a rumor.

"Nobody has presented a proposal in any document to this effect. I have never heard it mentioned at any meeting...or even here in Nairobi," Steiner told journalists on the sidelines of the 24th session of the UNEP Governing Council underway in Nairobi.

"What I know is that some concerns have been expressed in regard to transformation of the UNEP into an organization. This is still subject of discussions by the UN member states," he added.

On Monday, Kenya's Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana said that the plan to relocate UNEP from Nairobi 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 UN 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.

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

UNEP boss told Kenyans to focus on what the world needs, saying the UN agency is in Kenya to stay.

"I have no idea of the source of this rumor but I think we should just put it to bed and focus on what the world needs," Steiner said.

The head of French delegation to the Global Ministerial Environment Forum underway in Nairobi Laurent Stefan denied the reports, which were carried by both local and the international media.

"The media reports which were carried today are untrue," said Stefan.

Source: Xinhua