Museveni phone calls President-elect Ruto to congratulate him
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called President-elect William Ruto to congratulate him following his win in the presidential election.
Through a message on his Twitter account, President Museveni said that he had a phone conversation with Dr Ruto on Monday night, hours after he was declared the President-elect by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Wafula Chebukati.
“On behalf of all Ugandans, I congratulate Your Excellency William Ruto upon your election as the 5th President of the Republic of Kenya,” Museveni said.
President Museveni also reassured the President-elect of Uganda’s commitment to continue partnering with Kenya in advancing regional and continental agenda through the East African Community, African Union and other bilateral platforms.
“Our bilateral cooperation will score tremendous achievements and I look forward to working more closely with you. God bless Kenya. God bless East Africa,” President Museveni said.
President Museveni and Dr Ruto have appeared to forge a close friendship during President Uhuru Kenyatta current regime.
However, on one occasion Dr Ruto had his flight to Uganda delayed the Kenyan government. Dr Ruto and his team were left stranded at the Wilson Airport for hours.
Last year, Dr Ruto managed to attend another event where President Museveni officially laid the foundation stone for a vaccine manufacturing facility. It was the breaking ground of the construction of the Biological Drugs and mRNA vaccine under the Dei Group manufacturing facility.
During the event, Dr Ruto said the two countries were keen to build partnerships with other African countries to move the continent away from only packaging and labelling drugs to restructuring its market to focus more on upstream production.
On Monday, the Sebei community in Uganda, which is related to the Kalenjin in Kenya, went to the streets to celebrate Dr Ruto’s victory.
Dr Ruto was announced the winner in a tightly-contested race with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Dr Ruto was declared the winner having garnered 7, 176,141 votes, translating to 50.49 per cent of the votes cast. Mr Odinga came second with 6,942,930 votes which translated to 48.85 per cent of the votes cast.