Kenya has its highest ranking official in United Nations history. Monica Juma assumed office on 11 May 2026 as Director-General of the UN Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres to one of the most consequential roles in the multilateral system.
She holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General, the third highest position in the UN hierarchy, and takes charge of an organisation that leads the global response to drug trafficking, organised crime, corruption and terrorism.
“I am incredibly proud and honoured to be leading these two offices in Vienna at a critical time for multilateralism,” Juma said on assuming office. “I look forward to contributing my experience in the defence, security and diplomatic fields to the efforts of the UN in tackling some of today’s most pressing challenges to peace and security.”
I am deeply proud and honoured to start my tenure as Director-General/Executive Director of the UN Office at Vienna/@UNODC.
I look forward to leading the @UN’s work in addressing the challenges of drugs, organized crime, corruption and terrorism, for a safer and more just… pic.twitter.com/5W483HdX5r
— Monica Juma (@AmbMonicaJuma) May 12, 2026
A career built at the centre of power
Juma arrives in Vienna carrying a record that few candidates at this level can match. She served as Kenya’s first ever National Security Adviser to the President and Secretary to the National Security Council from 2022 to 2026, the most senior security role in the country. Before that, she held Cabinet Secretary positions across three of Kenya’s most sensitive ministries: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Energy, and also served as Acting Cabinet Secretary for Petroleum and Mining between 2018 and 2022.
Her diplomatic career runs equally deep. Between 2010 and 2013, she served as Kenya’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti and as Permanent Representative to the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Between 2013 and 2018, she served as Principal Secretary across three ministries: Foreign Affairs, Interior and Coordination of National Government, and Defence.
From Nairobi to Oxford to the UN
Alongside her government career, Juma built a parallel record in research and academia. She served as Executive Director of the Africa Institute of South Africa, taught as Adjunct Faculty at the African Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University in Washington DC, lectured in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pretoria and worked as Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at Safer Africa.
She holds a PhD in Politics and a Certificate in Refugee Studies from the University of Oxford, as well as a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Government and Public Administration from the University of Nairobi. She speaks English, Kiswahili and Kamba.
What the role demands
UNODC operates across more than 150 countries, running programmes that target drug trafficking networks, money laundering, human trafficking, cybercrime and corruption. The Vienna office also serves as the UN’s hub for international law and crime prevention. Juma steps into the role at a moment when organised crime has grown more transnational, more technologically sophisticated and more deeply entangled with political systems than at any point in the organisation’s history.
Her background spans exactly the terrain the job demands: security architecture, diplomatic negotiation, policy research and executive leadership across fragile and complex environments. Whether that combination translates into institutional change at UNODC is the question her tenure will answer.
