Kingi represents President Ruto in first official assignment outside Kenya
Amason Kingi, the newly elected Speaker of the Senate, has made his way to Angola and will represent President William Ruto in the swearing-in ceremony of President-Elect Joao Lourenco.
In a tweet, Kingi said, “Just arrived in Luanda, Angola, and was received by Foreign Affairs Minister Tete Antonio.”
His gamble to ditch Raila and join Ruto ahead of the 2022 polls paid off with the Senate Speaker seat having signed a memorandum of understanding with Azimio and then changed his mind about joining Kenya Kwanza.
The former Kilifi governor garnered 46 out of 66 votes and became the third speaker of the Senate after Ekwe Ethuro and Ken Lusaka.
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Angolans went to the ballot on August 24th with more than 14 million citizens casting their votes whilst choosing their President, representatives in the National Assembly and local deputies.
President-Elect Lourenco who was seeking reelection under the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party was declared the winner by the country’s electoral commission.
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced that Lourenco won with 51.17 per cent of the ballots against 43.95 per cent for the main challenger, Adalberto Costa Junior, the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
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The vote was the tightest in the Portuguese-speaking nation’s history.
UNITA earlier rejected provisional results with Costa Junior citing discrepancies between the commission’s count and the main opposition coalition’s tally.
The MPLA has traditionally wielded control over the electoral process as well as state media, and opposition and civic groups have in recent days raised fears of vote tampering.
Angola is one of Africa’s top oil-producing nations and among the richest nations on the continent.
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