NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 6 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday appointed Monica Kathina Juma as Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as well as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV).
She succeeds Ghada Fathi Waly of Egypt, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service to the Organization.
The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to John Brandolino, Director of the Division for Treaty Affairs at UNODC, who will continue to serve as Acting Executive Director of UNODC and Acting Director-General of UNOV until Juma assumes her position.
Currently serving as President William Ruto’s National Security Adviser and Secretary to Kenya’s National Security Council (since 2022), Guterres said ‘Juma is a strategic senior leader with a depth of expertise, experience and knowledge spanning public policy making, execution, and academia across critical areas of security, diplomacy and governance.’
Juma has held the role of Cabinet Secretary in Strategic Ministries of Kenya, namely the Ministry of Energy (2021-2022), Ministry of Defence (2020-2021) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2018-2020), and was Acting Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining (2022). She further served as Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2016-2018), Department of Interior, Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government (2014-2016), and Ministry of Defence (2013-2014).
She was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kenya to Ethiopia and Djibouti and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA) (2010-2013).
