What Uhuru’s farewell rounds tell us about Kenya and Africa
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta delivers a speech during the memorial service for former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on April 29, 2022.
Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, is doing the farewell rounds. His term will end sometime after the August 9 elections.
With his departure, the formal government of his Jubilee party will end. Jubilee has been folded into the Azimio la Umoja coalition with former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement. His deputy William Ruto, who is running neck and neck with Raila for the presidential vote, went his separate way with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). And with that, a tradition established in Kenyan politics after 1997 held up; no political coalition has remained exactly the same through more than one election cycle.
