Celebrating peace

NAIROBI--Representatives of the Kenyan military, and international Diplomats stationed in Nairobi yesterday joined United Nations staff members at the UN African headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi, to commemorate the International Day of Peace.
Observed each year on 21 September, the International Day of Peace is meant to be a day of ceasefire and non-violence. In a message read on his behalf by UN Resident Coordinator Paul Andre de la Porte, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said:’Peace is the paramount United Nations mission. It is the basis of our existence. The essence of our identity. The cause that animates everything we do’.
The focus of the UN-sponsored celebration of the International Day of Peace in Kenya was the contribution made by the people and Government of Kenya to peace in the region, and for their important role in the UN’s peacekeeping work across the globe.
Participants in the celebrations included Kenyan military officers, led by Major General Njuki Mwaniki, and civil society representatives from the peace process which resulted in the cessation of hostilities between Northand South Sudan. Also invited were schoolchildren from the Nairobi area who had written messages of support to Kenyan peacekeepers currently involved in nine different peacekeeping operations around the world. Some of the mail being sent to Kenyan peacekeepers was read out by the children before they presented them to General Mwaniki for forwarding to the peacekeepers.
At UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan rang the Peace Bell and led a minute’s silence, which was observed at 12 noon local time around the world.