United Nations Radio

PRESENTER: With 2,000 people dying every day as a result of armed conflict, a consensus was finally reached this year at the General Assembly, to address the problem of unregulated arms trade. Inspired by Nobel Peace Laureates, including Desmond Tutu, the concept of an arms trade treaty is now gaining strong support. Mutuku Nguli, Executive Chief of the Peace and Development Network Trust or PeaceNet Kenya, is at the United Nations General Assembly this week to negotiate the strongest possible treaty so that arms do not end up in the hands of wrong people. Speaking to UN Radio's Jocelyne Sambira, he explains how this treaty can save lives.

NGULI: An arms trade treaty will be a strategic instrument in determining who manufactures, who they sell to, who they transfer to, and how the arms are used.

SAMBIRA: So what are you actually pushing for? How do you get this treaty to be adopted?

NGULI: Let me tell you, arms business is big business and it is making a thriving situation in some economies. That we cannot underscore. Armed groups in Africa and the other part of the world basically are illegally armed. How did they get arms? We need to manage this. Definitely we are also concerned about the human rights abuses but also subjecting states to strict responsibility of managing and controlling how these arms are acquired, used and managed. And this will be quite important for all of us.

SAMBIRA: So, do you think you can get a consensus on that if some of these governments are selling arms and are getting money from it?

NGULI: It may not be that everybody needs to agree but if there is a way we can get a consensus and maneuver around the objecting states and have a treaty, then a consensus can be built around those states who see the value and also look at expanding the opportunity for the greater good.

SAMBIRA: Lately, Africa has been plagued by many conflicts and during the presentation it came as a shock to see poor countries like Burundi have spent billions of money funding their war yet most of the people there live on two dollars a day - so where does this money come from?

NGULI: In my view, there are many benefits that can be accrued from a thriving conflict and especially in situations where there are interests obtaining to politics, economic gains, opportunities for investment, that could not itself be finding space in a normal state function.

SAMBIRA: Could you give us, either talking about Kenya or Africa in general, the impact the arms trade has had on the continent?

NGULI: The dimension of the Konyi conflict in Uganda has taken an international because he seems to be rotating between the DRC, Uganda, he is now in Central African Republic, he is sometimes in Southern Sudan and lately he is said to be moving towards Darfur. And along the way he leaves a trail of blood and death, devastation. These are human rights abuses that cannot be accepted. And if this man did not get access to weapons, access to arms, access to support from other corners of this Earth, basically Konyi would have been contained much longer. But be sure, someone is supporting him and that is because we do not have good regulation of how we transfer our ammunition, our arms and the support to such insurgent groups.

SAMBIRA: Mutuku Nguli, head of PeaceNet Kenya. I am Jocelyne Sambira for United Nations Radio.

Duration: 2'31"