Nairobi, March 19 -- A top New York think-tank has hired Kenya's outgoing Permanent Representative to the UN as its next boss.

Dr Martin Kimani will become the next Executive Director for the Center on International Cooperation (CIC), a non-profit research centre at the New York University (NYU). He will start his new duties on June 3 this year, according to a dispatch from the Centre.

It closes a chapter on a diplomat who has been largely respected within Kenya and abroad. President William RUTO nominated former Turkana County Speaker Erastus Lokaale as his replacement in New York. But he needs to be vetted by parliament first before formally reporting to duty, something that could take up to two months. Kimani will not formally leave ...