Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

2017 KENYA ELECTIONS

4 Heads of State already in the country for President Kenyatta’s inauguration

The four leaders were received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Monday night by Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amina Mohammed/CFM NEWS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 28 – Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Edgar Lungu Zambia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo of Somalia and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn are among foreign leaders who are already in the country for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s and Deputy President William Ruto’s inauguration.

The four leaders were received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Monday night by Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amina Mohammed.

More leaders are expected to arrive Tuesday morning including the Prime Minister of the State of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.

Thousands of Kenyans are already at the Safaricom Kasarani stadium with many in as early as 2.00am in the morning.

President Kenyatta and his deputy Ruto were cleared by the Supreme Court for swearing in on Monday last week when six judges dismissed petitions challenging the October 26 presidential election in a unanimous decision.

The disputed election season split the country along ethnic and regional lines, although political violence has not reached the scale of that which followed a 2007 poll when 1,100 were killed.

NASA leader Raila Odinga, denied the presidency for a fourth time this year, believes that he was cheated and the 72-year-old has refused to recognise the result.

He has promised to found a “third republic” — following independence from Britain in 1963 and a new constitution adopted in 2010 — as well as to continue a programme of protests and economic boycotts aimed at undermining Kenyatta’s “dictatorship”.

The current political crisis draws on a deep well of social, ethnic and geographic grievances in the country of around 48 million people.

In areas loyal to Odinga, there is a sense of having been ground down and discriminated against since independence.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The months of disruption and unrest, plus the holding of two separate elections, have badly affected the economy, hitting the poorest hardest while leaving the wealthy political elites relatively unharmed.

About The Author

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News