UN General Assembly
1991

Several important lessons have emerged from the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, one of which is that those who ought to know better were complacent and, indeed, appear to have conspired to place deadly weapons, capable of mass destruction, into the hands of a nation in one of the most volatile regions of the world. For several years Kenya joined other delegations from developing countries in censuring certain developed nations which are also major arms manufacturers and exporters for their silence on questionable arms deals. Since such weapons were never intended for attacks on the suppliers, we had no illusions at all regarding their end use. The time has come for these merchants of weapons of mass destruction and death, be they Governments or private companies in Member States, to put aside greed, profit and naked exploitation, and join the United Nations in calling for a world-wide ban on all chemical weapons and the limitation of trade in arms or greater transparency in their transfers by keeping a register of arms sales.