LIVE: Netanyahu's decision to attend Kenyatta's inauguration 'raises eyebrows'
2017-11-28 08:58Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta is due to be sworn in for a second term, an inauguration delayed by two disputed polls and a series of sometimes deadly street protests. Follow the live updates.
Following are comments on the outlook for Kenya amid today's presidential inauguration, from Hasnain Malik, Head of Equity Research at the specialist frontier and emerging markets investment bank Exotix Capital:
"President Kenyatta’s administration has a full plate in terms of rebuilding political harmony in the face of ongoing Opposition grievances, supporting the economy through improved incentives for banks to lend via a repeal or dilution of the rate cap law, and marketing the forthcoming sovereign bond to foreign investors. In his favour, Kenyatta's party holds a Parliamentary majority and his election victory has sufficient international recognition.
"An additional challenge, as Kenyatta's Presidential term develops, will be managing the agenda of Jubilee ally and Vice President William Ruto, who will have an eye on cementing his own support base in advance of the next election cycle.
"Listed equities and the currency have weathered the prolonged election cycle with remarkable resilience. Investor expectations are running relatively high given the political and economic climate of recent months."
Because of security concerns, Netanyahu is not expected to take part in the main inauguration ceremony to be held at the 60 000-seat Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi.
Rather, after landing in the morning and being received in an official ceremony, Netanyahu is scheduled to take part in an event at the Presidential palace, where he will have a joint meeting with some 10 African leaders – including the presidents of Togo, Namibia and Botswana, the prime minister of Ethiopia and the vice president of Nigeria – followed by the bilateral discussions. He is scheduled to be on the ground for just a few hours and will fly back to Israel on Tuesday evening.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Netanyahu will meet with African leaders at Kenya inauguration.
The report quotes a senior diplomatic official as saying that Kenya is a close ally of Israel and the swearing-in of Kenyatta is a “good reason to go to Africa”.
Netanyahu’s decision to go to the ceremony has raised some eyebrows, since the August results were hotly contested by main opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who boycotted a Supreme Court mandated re-vote in October.
The entire election process has been marred by violence.
But the official said that Netanyahu’s visit is not only about the inauguration, but that bilateral meetings with other African heads of state have been set up, including with the presidents of Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
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, an ethnic Luo, there is a sense of having been ground down and discriminated against since independence, not least by Kenyatta's Kikuyu group, which has given Kenya three of its four presidents.
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.
Kenyatta's inauguration comes after Kenya's Supreme Court validated his victory in last month's rerun poll.
However, the swearing-in may not draw a line under the country's political crisis with Odinga vowing to fight on.
The electoral strife goes back to an August 8 poll that was annulled in September by the Supreme Court, citing "irregularities and illegalities".
The court ordered a rerun in October that was boycotted by the opposition, handing Kenyatta a landslide of 98% of votes cast from just 39% of the electorate.
The disputed election season has 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. - AFP
Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta is due to be sworn in for a second term on Tuesday, an inauguration delayed by two disputed polls and a series of sometimes deadly street protests.
At the same time, opposition leader Raila Odinga has promised to hold a "memorial rally" honouring the more than 50 people killed, mostly by police, in four months of political upheaval that has left the country deeply divided.
Around 13 mostly African heads of state are expected to attend the ceremony at a Nairobi stadium where Kenyatta, 56, will be sworn in for his second and final five-year term. - AFP
From AP
Thousands of supporters have gathered in Kenya's largest stadium for the swearing in of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The ceremony takes place amid heavy security in other parts of Nairobi following a call by the opposition for peaceful demonstrations in memory of dozens killed by police and militia protesting Kenyatta's re-election.
Police used tear gas to push back Kenyatta supporters after the Kasarani Stadium filled to its 60 000 capacity Tuesday.
Many supporters who had gathered at the stadium were ferried in from his countryside strongholds.
Police patrolled the Jacaranda grounds where the leading opposition group, the National Super Alliance, had called supporters to gather to remember nearly 100 people killed in post-election protests since August.
