Kenyan President, Mr. Kibaki has claimed that the sharp increase in oil prices is fast grinding down gains made by economies of developing countries and hence threatening international peace.
The President said ‘Indeed, the rapid increase in oil prices is hurting developing countries the most, and does not augur well for international peace and stability. We should all be conscious of the fact that we are one global community, and none of us is completely insulated from instability caused by inflationary pressures that result from the high oil prices.’
He further appealed to oil producing countries to consider the predicament of non producing countries, particularly, in the developing world, in his address to the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Kenyan head of state said that there was need to address the problem of speculative trading in the oil futures market that has led to the doubling of prices in the last one year.
On towering world food prices, President Kibaki said the poorest people living in developing countries were worst hit and that the situation could have serious implications to individual countries’ national security.
He called on the international community to find immediate mechanisms to deliver sufficient quantities of affordable food to poor people in Africa and other parts of the developing world as a short term measure.
