Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Kenya James Kimonyo was on Wednesday elected chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to UN Habitat.

The elections to replace the departing members of the bureau for 2014-2015 biennium took place at the UN Habitat headquarters in Nairobi during the 59th regular meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives.

Kimonyo, who doubles as Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to UN Habitat, will chair the committee for the next two years.

High commissioners Maria Correa of Colombia, Tobias Glucksman of the US, and the Ambassador of Ukraine Yevhenii Tsymhalink were elected first, second and third chairpersons, respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Amb. Kimonyo expressed gratitude to his colleagues for entrusting him and Rwanda with the mandate.

"I accept this position with high expectation of your support and advice on how, together, we can facilitate UN Habitat to deliver its objectives,” he said.

"The new bureau assumes this rather complex but exciting responsibility at a very critical moment of preparation for the Habitat III and drawing linkages to Sustainable Development Goals. I pledge full commitment to this task and call upon all of you to make human settlement better and sustainable.”

The outgoing chair, Mlynar Michel, congratulated his successor.

"I wish the new chair success and I am sure that through him we can enjoy Rwanda’s best human settlements and urbanisation experiences,” Michel said.

The Committee of Permanent Representatives, among others, is responsible for the execution of the decisions of the governing council and monitoring of the implementation of the work programme of the UN Habitat.

The governing council is composed of 58 member states elected by the UN General Assembly.

The Committee of Permanent Representatives is composed of ambassadors or foreign envoys of member states accredited to Kenya and permanent representatives to UN-Habitat. editorial@newtimes.co.rw