The United Nations (UN) has clarified that it has no plans to relocate any of its agencies or thousands of staff to Nairobi.
Speaking during a media interview on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Dr. Stephen Jackson, dismissed reports suggesting a massive transfer of UN operations to Kenya.
Dr. Jackson explained that while some staff movements have been taking place gradually, they only involve hundreds of personnel from various specialized agencies, not complete relocations.
“I should record our deep gratitude to Kenyans and Kenya for making a home for multilateralism here. It has always been the global headquarters of what we call the UN Secretariat, and there are also two major agencies with their global headquarters here, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat.
What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is a slow but steady transfer of staff, capacity, and expertise from a number of specialized United Nations agencies to Kenya. But it is not correct to say that any agency right now has decided to move lock, stock, and barrel in its totality to Nairobi. That’s not happening,” he clarified.
UN Clarifies It Is Not Moving Entire Agencies or Thousands of Staff to Nairobi
At the same time, the UN official reiterated that only hundreds of UN staff are moving to Nairobi, not thousands as has been reported on social media.
“The third thing to say is that it’s not as big or as seismic right now as social media thinks it is. It is not thousands of people, it’s hundreds,” said Dr. Jackson.
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Dr. Jackson also clarified the issue of relocating the three UN agencies headquartered in New York, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN Women.
Dr Jackson Speaks on the Possibility of Relocating 3 Agencies to Nairobi
According to him, these agencies are only enhancing their capacity in Nairobi but have not decided to move their headquarters. However, he did not completely rule out the possibility of future relocations.
“Do I exclude that a decade from now, things might change, that there might be a bigger move? I don’t totally exclude it. What I think is happening, and I think it’s very interesting, is that the UN, for the first time in its 80 years of existence since the beginning of decolonization, is transforming from being largely an organization of the global north, and to some extent Latin America, to becoming more globally balanced,” he said.
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Talk of moving UN agencies to Nairobi, rather than away, has gained traction in 2025 as part of the UN reform agenda to decentralize operations from high-cost cities.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has been a vocal proponent of this plan, actively welcoming the expansion of the UN’s presence in Nairobi.
He argues that this positioning supports the UN’s multilateral diplomacy and advances key global and regional priorities.
“Kenya is working closely with the UN and is committed to making Nairobi a critical hub for UN operations, not only locally but also regionally and globally,” he stated.
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