Ambassador Martin Kimani

Ambassador Martin Kimani is the President and CEO of The Africa Center in New York City. He is also a Diplomat-in-Residence at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (UAE) and a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Global Politics. Previously, he served as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, where he led the Kenyan delegation on the Security Council (2021–2022). 

He was President of the Security Council in October 2021 and chaired key groups on climate, conflict prevention, and Africa. In 2023, he served as President of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. Ambassador Kimani has held senior national roles including Director of Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism. 

He has advised three Kenyan presidents on crises spanning conflict resolution, post-election recovery, and wartime evacuations. His earlier diplomatic work includes serving as Kenya’s Ambassador to UNEP and UN-Habitat. In the private sector, he has worked in political risk analysis and global financial markets. 

He holds a BA in Philosophy (University of New Hampshire) and an MA and PhD in War Studies (King’s College London), with doctoral research on the ideology behind the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Ambassador Kimani is a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a recipient of Kenya’s Chief and Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear. In 2022, he was honored by the German Africa Foundation.