His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta has joined other leaders at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka for the inauguration ceremony of Zambia’s President-elect Hakainde Hichilema.
The President, who is also the current Chairperson of the East African Community Heads of State Summit, is accompanied by Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.
Raila took to his Twitter account to announce his arrival at the Southern African country to witness the inauguration ceremony.
“It will be a great day for the people of Zambia and Africa as a whole to witness a seamless transfer of power as envisaged by democratic processes,” he tweeted.
Hichilema will be sworn in as the seventh president of Zambia today after getting more than 2.8 million votes to President Edgar Lungu’s 1.8 million votes, achieving one of the biggest electoral wins in the country’s history.
There were seven million registered voters.
Thousands of supporters flocked onto the streets of Lusaka, erupting into song and dance, cheering and waving party flags. The celebrations continued into the morning.
Hichilema, a businessman, contested the presidency for the sixth time, promised democratic reforms, investor-friendly economic policies, better debt management as well as “zero tolerance” to corruption.
Hichilema now faces the task of trying to revive Zambia’s economy which has been buoyed only slightly by more favourable copper prices.
