Former Nairobi Securities Exchange chairman has lost his bid to become International Standards Organisation president to Canadian John Walter. This is the first time a candidate from a developing nation has contested.
Eddy Njoroge, who was nominated by the Kenya Bureau of Standards for the prestigious post, was endorsed by members of the African Organisation for Standardisation.
He narrowly missed the top seat in a tight contest garnering 52 votes against the winner's 53. All but one African member states of the organisation voted for Kenya. South Africa voted against Njoroge despite the stakes being high for African nations, as international standards determine access to global markets by defining the characteristics that products and services have to meet to qualify for export. Twenty three African nations are members of ISO. China's Zhang Xiaogang is the current ISO president.
Njoroge got major support from Arab-speaking countries, according to Kebs managing director Charles Ongwae, who participated in the voting exercise held in Beijing, China.
Prior to the vote, Ongwae said he was confident Njoroge would win. This is after Kenya's aggressive campaign spearheaded by high-level diplomatic officials led by Kenyan ambassador to China Michael Kinyanjui, and Kenya's Permanent Representative to UN Offices in Geneva, Stephen Karau.
"When the opportunity to field a candidate for this top post came knocking for Kenya, we looked hard and found Mr Njoroge, backed by his huge experience in the industry, as the best bet to head the global organisation," Kebs chairman Lucas Maitha said.
ISO was formed in 1947 as an independent, non-governmental international organisation bringing together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based and market-relevant international standards. Countries are represented through national standards bodies.
ISO has published more than 21,000 global standards and related documents, covering almost every industry, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare.
In his pitch for the job, Njoroge had promised to boost ISOs governance standards if elected into office, besides working with SMEs to boost their conformity to global standards.
