To all African admirers of Putin the Great

If the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalates into a major world conflict, blame Kenya.

Days before President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine, the Kenyan ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, stood up at the emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to warm Russia to desist from attacking its neighbor.

He started by blaming the world’s instability on powerful countries that assault the United Nations Charter by pursuing objectives that run counter to international peace and security. In that line, Kimani must be referring to dozens and dozens of invasions of weaker countries by the US, Britain, France, Russia and other countries, sometimes with U.N. approval, sometimes, unilaterally.

“Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire,” Kimani said. “Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris, and Lisbon with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart. Today, across the border of every single African country, live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural, and linguistic bonds. At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later.”